LA Knight Turned Down WWE Contract Three Times, Shares Why

Speaking with Alex McCarthy, LA Knight revealed in an interview with The Daily Mail that he actually turned down WWE contracts three times while he was Impact Wrestling. The former Eli Drake explained that money was the major factor that led to him turning down the company, and also explained why he eventually changed his mind. He shared,

“I won’t get super long-winded on this, but I was originally going to come back in 2016. I was in talks to come back in 2016 but the company that I was at [IMPACT] was offering me a very, very nice raise and WWE at the time was offering me an entry-level “this is what we’re gonna do”. I get it, so I say, you know, I gotta stay and take this money right now.

“The next year, we come back and talk again, it’s the same offer but I have a programmed raise where I was. So, I stayed because I’ve never seen this money before. Finally, I’m making money. So, I figure year three, we’ll talk again – they give me the same offer, and I’m like, “god, guys, come on, you can’t give a little something extra?!” I said I couldn’t do it, but I kicked myself for not doing it at that point because I realized that where I was, I had already reached the ceiling as far as money was concerned. What they were offering me was way less and it would have been a downgrade, but I knew my ceiling was much greater in WWE. But it was just that I had been broke for so long that I needed to take that money at that point in time.

“For three years in a row, we talked. It didn’t work out, 2019, we were just kind of like ships passing in the night. We never really got in touch. In 2020, I thought with the pandemic there was no way, everything is shut down, my career is probably over, so I’m just gonna make whatever little bit of money I can with these smaller companies. At some point, it was, “well, let’s make one more run for it.” I got in touch with Triple H and his team, and we put things together and finally made it happen.”

Read also: LA Knight Reveals Origins Of ‘Max Dupri’ Gimmick, How & Why It Was Dropped

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