February 3, 2025 • 18 mins
LA Knight is back, and he’s got a lot to say! YEAH! We’re diving into WWE’s groundbreaking partnership with TNA and what it means for the industry. Plus, LA Knight shares what he learned from stepping in the ring with Roman Reigns, his thoughts on celebrities like Logan Paul and Bad Bunny getting involved in wrestling, and so much more!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You'll play for all things.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
And exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers. Wound podcast.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Stop it.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Hey, what's up you guys? It is a battle.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Appreciate you checking out the Battleground Podcast today. Uh, if
you can do us a little favor and give us
a nice little review down there and give us five
stars as well, And if you haven't already done so,
if you're new to the show, follow us on Instagram.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
You can find us their Battleground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
We also filmed the interview as well, so you can
watch that on YouTube if you want to listen and
then go watch to see La Night's facial expressions expressions
when we asked these certain questions.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
You can find us on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Just search Battleground Podcast, hit subscribe and you can watch them.
Listen to these episodes every time we drop one. But
we just want to say thank you for being along
this journey with us here on the Battleground Podcast. Been
doing this thing since twenty eighteen, and we're excited for
some things that are gonna be happening in twenty twenty five.
That's all I'm gonna say. Just stick around because there's
(01:18):
some cool things happening. But without further ado, let's get
you into the interview with La Night, which, by the way,
we previously recorded this before the Royal Rumble.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
So I did ask him a royal rumble question.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
It's not the Royal rumble question that everybody wants to
know about what happened and somebody being mad, so before
you start writing about this and you know, online and whatnot.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
But anyways, here's our interview with La Night. What's up
you guys.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Welcome back into iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast.
It is Battle from Rock one O two right here
at Memphis and of course wrestling It's coming back. Ww
returns Friday Night SmackDown to the FedEx Forum February seventh,
live and broadcasting to the world.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
You're gonna be able to see all your favorite superstars.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Tickets starting at the Lolo price below twenty dollars you
could grab him at ticketmaster dot com. And one of
the favorite superstars that you're gonna be seeing is one
of our favorite superstars, a friend of the show.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Everybody gives it up for some mister La Nights.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Yeah, everybody's favorite here he is.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, and uh, look, man, I'm actually amazed at what
you just said, the lolo price of under twenty dollars
with as in demand as as the shows have been
and with how much we're selling out and whatnot. That
is one of the things that I do want to
applaud TKO. Not to sound like a big company, man,
but that is one thing that they've done is they've
made sure that it's still affordable for everybody, so everybody
(02:43):
can still come out to the shows, even if you know,
floor seats might increase in prices and things like that,
but we're making sure everybody can get in the game.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Absolutely, And got you gotta applaud WWE and TKO and
everybody because you watch everything with RAW on Netflix, with
NXT on CW, you've got smacked down on USA, like
the production and everybody has stepped their game up since
January first of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Oh yeah, I mean it's it's it's really become kind
of a whole different game even man. You talk about
those those like sweeping camera shots and things like that,
and just the different it's a presentation that almost feels
like you're coming back into like an NFL game or
something like that when you come back in from the
from the commercial break. So it's been cool, it's been different,
(03:31):
it's but it's still somehow the same, and it's it's
obviously hitting on a level that's keeping everybody involved intrigued.
And like I said, the Arenas field.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
And of course the one thing that's really cool that
I've noticed about the production, like you said, the sweeping
camera shots how it returns back from commercial break, also
adding drones flying in and out, Like I would be
worried that if I was a wrestler or something, that
one of those drones might hit me or fall in
the ring as I'm doing something.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Man, Well, I mean if it did, that would be
a hell of a spot there to do something with that.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
I'd just picked that thing up, stomp and throw whatever.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I probably get in trouble for that, but if it's
dropping in like that, I got no other choice. At
the same time, I'd be thinking if I was a
fan sit out there, I'd be like this, didn't think
they or not coming down on me. But I mean
just that the shots they're getting even with that, it's
just it's crazy. It's really cool. Look, I think they've
been doing that more on Row than they have on SmackDown,
but still just just I mean, and in that Into
(04:31):
It Dome. If you saw that first episode on Netflix
with all the lights and everything, each seat has like
its own little LEDs and stuff, So I mean, it
was just a wild visual.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Absolutely, And of course right now we are on the
road to WrestleMania, but of course we got to get
to the Royal Rumble first, and this Friday Night SmackDown
at the FedEx Forum on February seventh will be the
first SmackDown after the Royal Rumble. Now, a lot of
people now have started to call their shots and they're
saying that they're going to put that name in the
hat for the Royal Rumble. Is that part of L. A.
(05:05):
Knight's plan to announce soon he'll be in the Royal Rumble?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I'm man, where have you been? I already announced it.
Somebody ain't listening. Yeah, Look, I kind of snuck it
in a few weeks ago when I when I talked
about getting my shot against Shinske a couple of weeks ago,
I had said, look, first I'm gonna go ahead and
reclaim my title, and then I'm gonna go on and
win the Royal Rumble.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
So just a little we'll.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Sneak in and apparently it's snuck right by you, but yeah,
it's gonna be happening.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
I'm gonna be in there.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I'm one of the confirmed entrants, and so me and
twenty nine other guys are gonna go at it for
the shot at WrestleMania.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Well, we wish you nothing but the best four of
which we.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Hope that at the end we're gonna see La Night
pointing to the WrestleMania sign once the rumble is over
in Indianapolis. And you know, a really cool thing here
recently the big announcement WWE and TNA and nonounce the
multi year partnership allowing talent exchanges between you know, WW
and TNA. Given your history with TNA impact, how do
(06:09):
you feel about this collaboration and what opportunities do you
see arising from it.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
I feel like it's a few years too late.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
These things should have happened when I was there, But now,
you know, it's unprecedented, you know, I mean, I know
ww's had you know, partnerships with you know, all Japan,
ECW and stuff like that, but this is so different
in a way because TNA, although it was a very
distant second place for a long time back in like
(06:38):
the twenty tens and whatnot, it was still like the
only real competition for a long time. And so now
take one of those companies and to partner up. It's
like such forbidden fruit in a sense. So it's pretty
crazy to see. And then also just the idea that like,
now some of their people can come up and showing
up show up on our TV, so our people can
(06:58):
show up on our TV on their TV. It's clearly
only mutually beneficial because then everybody wants to know what
are the possibility is gonna be?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yeah, absolutely, And you know it's been fun to watch
because you know, growing up in wrestling, I know, WWE
kind of stayed in their own little sandbox. But now
they're inviting everybody to their sandbox. Like, like you said,
it's a good thing for wrestling because it's putting more
eyes on the product itself.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Sure, And I mean, look, there are some people who
you know, maybe there's plenty of people that I run
into a lot of times who say, man, you know
you're one of the guys who got me back in
to watching again. And I'm sure that there are some
people who also fell off from watching for years and years,
but maybe they gravitated toward a TNA or something like that,
(07:47):
and now it can maybe be another entry way for
them to get back in where it's like I just
I got turned off for whatever reason to WW at
this point in time, I've watched TNA, I like them,
and now maybe it's like, oh, I'm gonna give them
a look again. And one hundred percent is going to
go back the other way as well, where it's people
who didn't even weren't even anaware of TNA or hadn't
seen it in a long time.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Now it's oh, hey, let me check that out. So
just again, it's that same.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Idea of cross promotion just bringing all kinds of possibilities
that nobody thought before.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, absolutely for sure, And of course we've got La
Night on with us.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Friday Night SmackDown returns to the FedEx Forum.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Mentioned that Friday Night SmackDown is going to be the
FedEx Forum on February seventh.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
The tickets are still available.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Ticketmaster dot com, go get them. So I want to
kind of go back to this because hey, we're we're
vibing here. Man, We're getting it going and and uh,
you know, I want to go back real quick. Twenty
twenty three Crown Jewel you face Roman Reigns for the
underspet a Universal WW Championship. Reflecting on that match, Uh,
(08:51):
what did you take away from that and how has
it influenced your approach to future title opportunities.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Well, the one thing I can take away from that
is if you notice I had Roman's shoulders pinned to
the map, true is he got his foot on the rope,
not by his own but by you know, looking at
Jimmy Uso coming out there and putting it on.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
So in that sense, you've got to be ready for anything.
You got to kind of have eyes in the back
of your head.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
But at the same time, it's just a matter of
rising to the occasion, which I think I did. But
at the same time, there's still an ability to turn
it up and even improve from there. So for me,
it's it's just a matter of Look, a lot of
people have seen the different matches I've had throughout the
(09:40):
time that I've been here, and I've gotten a.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Little bit more and a little bit more and a
little bit more.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
As it's gone along to showcase my talents and what
I can do out there. So with that being the case,
I think there's gonna be a right place, in the
right time to do that again and this time come
out on top.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Absolutely, and we were expecting to see that in his
stream books. When it comes to WWE in undisputed champions
it's undeniable.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
See, that's the thing is, for a long time, everybody's
want to deny it, whether it's the company themselves or
whether it's anybody else. If people wanted to deny this
for a long time, but you just can't. And that's
why I made this whole damn thing happen. And that's
why that was able to happen.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
A year ago.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
And let me be honest, it was the wrong outcome,
it was the wrong way to do things, but it
doesn't matter to me. The bottom line is, Look, I'm
still moving forward. Whether it's US Championship, World Championship, WW championship,
it's gonna happen because you can't stop.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Yeah, absolutely for sure.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And you know the one cool thing you're seeing now
with WWE, if you look at the past, when celebrities
would come in, they would just kind of be there,
they wouldn't actually wrestle, they would take like a spot
here there. But you see somebody like a Logan Paul
who you have history with, somebody like a Bad Bunny,
very notable names in the industry, How do you view
their involvement?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Excuse me, how do you.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
View the involvement of celebrities in WWE and how does
it impact the wrestling?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It really depends you got I think personally, you got
to be a little choosy with who's going to come
in and get that physical involvement, just because of the
fact that not everybody's got an athletic bone in their body,
and if you go run any wrestling school in any
given day, you'll see a whole lot of that.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
You got to wonder, why do you think you could
do this, Why are you doing this? Why are you
even setting foot in a ring? You have not a
single athletic bone in your body.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Not everybody can do this, And so that's my one
qualm with having too many celebrities do this is that
it gives people the idea that anybody can do this,
and not anybody can do this.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Very few people can do this and do it well.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I will give credit to Logan Paul. He's a hell
of an athlete. He can do a whole lot of
crazy things that I wouldn't even dare do. But at
the same time, he's able to find that aptitude and
put it together. Who you mentioned bad Bunny, a guy
who Look, if it's something that you've always been into
your entire life, there's a chance. But the bottom line
(11:59):
is you still have to be able to have that aptitude.
You have to be able to have the physicality, the athleticism.
And if you have that, sure, I say, anybody, go
ahead and do it, but you gotta be realistic with yourself.
Those two guys, at least you could say realistically they
did it. They pulled it off, and they did it right.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Absolutely, And it just goes to show that they put
in the time and effort to learn the craft and
not just come in there.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
And I use this as an example.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
You go back to WrestleMania when Snooky wrestled and it
was just like a brief second and then that was
at the end.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yeah, and that's one of the great examples. And no
offense to my sweet Snookie out there. It never met
her my life, but look, That's another example of like,
I understand the idea, I understand the reasoning we're doing
cross promotion, but some people just don't belong in a ring.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
If I'm honest.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yeah, and even with a bad bunny, and even with
the logan pole as great as they did, they still
have a long.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
Way to go.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, and you could tell that they put in the work,
that they're not just there to collect the paycheck or
be that celebrity influence or that jumps in. I mean
you look at them doing what they did at the
pay per.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Views and everything, So I gotta say that, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Now you know, I know that you spend some time
back in the NWA, and I just want to take
a quick second. I know recently we lost a friend
of ours, Jacks Dane.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I know you spent some time there with him in
nw A.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Do you have any cool moments or stories that you
and Jack Dayne had during your time.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Not necessarily, I think actually at the time that I
was there, he wasn't there as much as actively. He
was kind of in and out, But I mean I
had interacted with him. I think it impact a few
times and an NWA a few times. I don't have
any particular stories, just to all around just cool lass dude,
just a good guy. Actually, if I'm honest, I think
(13:45):
he's the one who hooked me up with a boot
guy because I really liked his boots at the time
and I was just like, man, who makes those?
Speaker 4 (13:53):
And he gave me the hookup, told me who?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
And so I think if I end up using the
same guy, it might be his guy that's making.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Those boots that everybody raves about.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Oh nice, you know again, Friday Night SmackDown is happening.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
So FedEx for him. Tickets still available. You make sure
you go out and get him. Where can you get him?
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Ticket? Massive dot Com?
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Everybody, Yeah, go get him, Go get him.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Now.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
I've got a couple more question before we wrap this up.
One really cool moment that we saw when Lily and.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Garcia announce you to the ring when she did the
La Night Yeah, what was that?
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Like?
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I mean, obviously having Lily and Garcia announce you the ring,
but then adding the yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
I had no idea it even happened.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I didn't even notice until somebody tagged me on Instagram
and then I saw it. But this funny there's backstory
to this so I went and did a dark match.
Sometimes they have like the dark main events for you know,
opposing they bringing SmackDown people to come do Raw, they'll
bring raw people to come to SmackDown. So I went
to to do the dark made event at Raw maybe
(14:59):
a month and a half something like that, Togo, and
it was one of the first weeks that Lilian had
been back, and so she announced me as I'm coming
down to the ring, and I had no intentions of
cutting a promo or anything. I was just gonna go in,
do my match, and go back. And when she announced me,
she was like, you know from Los Angeles, California, weighing
in at two hundred and forty pounds La Night.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
And I was like, hold on.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I cracked my phone and I put over Lilian and
I was like, look, she's amazing.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
She's a legend.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Everybody give her a hand. I said, but Lilian, I said,
you got to do me one favor. I said, all
you said was La Night. I said, no, no, you
can't do that. I said, whatever town we were in,
I was like, tell him how to say the name,
or tell him who's game this is, or whatever it was.
And the whole crowd then told her La Night Yeah.
And so at that point, then once I won the match,
(15:51):
then she said, el A Night.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
That was that.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
I came out did another dark match the next week
again ell A, and I kind of gave her a
point and went out and did my thing. Okay, cool.
Now I don't know what happened. I don't know if
she just got caught up in the moment. She was
just feeling it extra extra that night because she went
all the way.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
With La Night. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
So then I h when I saw that on h
on Instagram, I will immediately sent that over to her
and I was like, did you mean.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
To do this? And she was like, oh my god, No,
I didn't even know I did it. I just I
just came out naturally. So she was just feeling she
was feeling that undeniable Kavorka of La Night. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, it's awesome because like my seven year old big
wrestling fan.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Hell, we'll just walk around and uh.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
We'll be sitting in the house and he'll just walk
up to me and I said, hey, dad, and he
just does this and I already know what he's doing,
and it's it's it's a cool thing to you know,
have this relationship with my son of watching wrestling like
me and my dad, and like I told him that
we were interviewing him to do today and.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
He was like, who are you interviewing today?
Speaker 2 (16:59):
And I said and he said yeah, and then he
just goes to his room.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Love it.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Okay, last question before we let you go.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
We always like to have a little fun at the
end of these interviews. You've got a mic in your hand,
You're face to face with one legend from the past.
Who is it and what is the one thing La
Knight would say to them to create an unforgettable moment.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
M I'm not sure I can share that with you
because this might happen at some point. I don't want
to show my cards. I don't want to show my hand.
But weren't on the streets. Is there There may be
an interaction with somebody at some point.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
I don't want to spoil them.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Just watch Friday Night SmackDown Live from the FedEx for
Febuary seven.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Every single week and if you're in that Memphis area,
and even if you're not, get a plane, take a bus, train,
drive yourself, get there, get your tickets.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
And be there to see this man. Who la night yeah,
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You'll play for all things.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
And exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers. Wound podcast.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Stop it.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Hey, what's up you guys? It is a battle.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Appreciate you checking out the Battleground Podcast today. Uh, if
you can do us a little favor and give us
a nice little review down there and give us five
stars as well, And if you haven't already done so,
if you're new to the show, follow us on Instagram.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
You can find us their Battleground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
We also filmed the interview as well, so you can
watch that on YouTube if you want to listen and
then go watch to see La Night's facial expressions expressions
when we asked these certain questions.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
You can find us on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Just search Battleground Podcast, hit subscribe and you can watch them.
Listen to these episodes every time we drop one. But
we just want to say thank you for being along
this journey with us here on the Battleground Podcast. Been
doing this thing since twenty eighteen, and we're excited for
some things that are gonna be happening in twenty twenty five.
That's all I'm gonna say. Just stick around because there's
(01:18):
some cool things happening. But without further ado, let's get
you into the interview with La Night, which, by the way,
we previously recorded this before the Royal Rumble.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
So I did ask him a royal rumble question.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
It's not the Royal rumble question that everybody wants to
know about what happened and somebody being mad, so before
you start writing about this and you know, online and whatnot.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
But anyways, here's our interview with La Night. What's up
you guys.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Welcome back into iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast.
It is Battle from Rock one O two right here
at Memphis and of course wrestling It's coming back. Ww
returns Friday Night SmackDown to the FedEx Forum February seventh,
live and broadcasting to the world.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
You're gonna be able to see all your favorite superstars.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Tickets starting at the Lolo price below twenty dollars you
could grab him at ticketmaster dot com. And one of
the favorite superstars that you're gonna be seeing is one
of our favorite superstars, a friend of the show.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Everybody gives it up for some mister La Nights.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Yeah, everybody's favorite here he is.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, and uh, look, man, I'm actually amazed at what
you just said, the lolo price of under twenty dollars
with as in demand as as the shows have been
and with how much we're selling out and whatnot. That
is one of the things that I do want to
applaud TKO. Not to sound like a big company, man,
but that is one thing that they've done is they've
made sure that it's still affordable for everybody, so everybody
(02:43):
can still come out to the shows, even if you know,
floor seats might increase in prices and things like that,
but we're making sure everybody can get in the game.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Absolutely, And got you gotta applaud WWE and TKO and
everybody because you watch everything with RAW on Netflix, with
NXT on CW, you've got smacked down on USA, like
the production and everybody has stepped their game up since
January first of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Oh yeah, I mean it's it's it's really become kind
of a whole different game even man. You talk about
those those like sweeping camera shots and things like that,
and just the different it's a presentation that almost feels
like you're coming back into like an NFL game or
something like that when you come back in from the
from the commercial break. So it's been cool, it's been different,
(03:31):
it's but it's still somehow the same, and it's it's
obviously hitting on a level that's keeping everybody involved intrigued.
And like I said, the Arenas field.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
And of course the one thing that's really cool that
I've noticed about the production, like you said, the sweeping
camera shots how it returns back from commercial break, also
adding drones flying in and out, Like I would be
worried that if I was a wrestler or something, that
one of those drones might hit me or fall in
the ring as I'm doing something.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Man, Well, I mean if it did, that would be
a hell of a spot there to do something with that.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
I'd just picked that thing up, stomp and throw whatever.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I probably get in trouble for that, but if it's
dropping in like that, I got no other choice. At
the same time, I'd be thinking if I was a
fan sit out there, I'd be like this, didn't think
they or not coming down on me. But I mean
just that the shots they're getting even with that, it's
just it's crazy. It's really cool. Look, I think they've
been doing that more on Row than they have on SmackDown,
but still just just I mean, and in that Into
(04:31):
It Dome. If you saw that first episode on Netflix
with all the lights and everything, each seat has like
its own little LEDs and stuff, So I mean, it
was just a wild visual.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Absolutely, And of course right now we are on the
road to WrestleMania, but of course we got to get
to the Royal Rumble first, and this Friday Night SmackDown
at the FedEx Forum on February seventh will be the
first SmackDown after the Royal Rumble. Now, a lot of
people now have started to call their shots and they're
saying that they're going to put that name in the
hat for the Royal Rumble. Is that part of L. A.
(05:05):
Knight's plan to announce soon he'll be in the Royal Rumble?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I'm man, where have you been? I already announced it.
Somebody ain't listening. Yeah, Look, I kind of snuck it
in a few weeks ago when I when I talked
about getting my shot against Shinske a couple of weeks ago,
I had said, look, first I'm gonna go ahead and
reclaim my title, and then I'm gonna go on and
win the Royal Rumble.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
So just a little we'll.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Sneak in and apparently it's snuck right by you, but yeah,
it's gonna be happening.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
I'm gonna be in there.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I'm one of the confirmed entrants, and so me and
twenty nine other guys are gonna go at it for
the shot at WrestleMania.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Well, we wish you nothing but the best four of
which we.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Hope that at the end we're gonna see La Night
pointing to the WrestleMania sign once the rumble is over
in Indianapolis. And you know, a really cool thing here
recently the big announcement WWE and TNA and nonounce the
multi year partnership allowing talent exchanges between you know, WW
and TNA. Given your history with TNA impact, how do
(06:09):
you feel about this collaboration and what opportunities do you
see arising from it.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
I feel like it's a few years too late.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
These things should have happened when I was there, But now,
you know, it's unprecedented, you know, I mean, I know
ww's had you know, partnerships with you know, all Japan,
ECW and stuff like that, but this is so different
in a way because TNA, although it was a very
distant second place for a long time back in like
(06:38):
the twenty tens and whatnot, it was still like the
only real competition for a long time. And so now
take one of those companies and to partner up. It's
like such forbidden fruit in a sense. So it's pretty
crazy to see. And then also just the idea that like,
now some of their people can come up and showing
up show up on our TV, so our people can
(06:58):
show up on our TV on their TV. It's clearly
only mutually beneficial because then everybody wants to know what
are the possibility is gonna be?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yeah, absolutely, And you know it's been fun to watch
because you know, growing up in wrestling, I know, WWE
kind of stayed in their own little sandbox. But now
they're inviting everybody to their sandbox. Like, like you said,
it's a good thing for wrestling because it's putting more
eyes on the product itself.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Sure, And I mean, look, there are some people who
you know, maybe there's plenty of people that I run
into a lot of times who say, man, you know
you're one of the guys who got me back in
to watching again. And I'm sure that there are some
people who also fell off from watching for years and years,
but maybe they gravitated toward a TNA or something like that,
(07:47):
and now it can maybe be another entry way for
them to get back in where it's like I just
I got turned off for whatever reason to WW at
this point in time, I've watched TNA, I like them,
and now maybe it's like, oh, I'm gonna give them
a look again. And one hundred percent is going to
go back the other way as well, where it's people
who didn't even weren't even anaware of TNA or hadn't
seen it in a long time.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Now it's oh, hey, let me check that out. So
just again, it's that same.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Idea of cross promotion just bringing all kinds of possibilities
that nobody thought before.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, absolutely for sure, And of course we've got La
Night on with us.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Friday Night SmackDown returns to the FedEx Forum.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Mentioned that Friday Night SmackDown is going to be the
FedEx Forum on February seventh.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
The tickets are still available.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Ticketmaster dot com, go get them. So I want to
kind of go back to this because hey, we're we're
vibing here. Man, We're getting it going and and uh,
you know, I want to go back real quick. Twenty
twenty three Crown Jewel you face Roman Reigns for the
underspet a Universal WW Championship. Reflecting on that match, Uh,
(08:51):
what did you take away from that and how has
it influenced your approach to future title opportunities.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Well, the one thing I can take away from that
is if you notice I had Roman's shoulders pinned to
the map, true is he got his foot on the rope,
not by his own but by you know, looking at
Jimmy Uso coming out there and putting it on.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
So in that sense, you've got to be ready for anything.
You got to kind of have eyes in the back
of your head.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
But at the same time, it's just a matter of
rising to the occasion, which I think I did. But
at the same time, there's still an ability to turn
it up and even improve from there. So for me,
it's it's just a matter of Look, a lot of
people have seen the different matches I've had throughout the
(09:40):
time that I've been here, and I've gotten a.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Little bit more and a little bit more and a
little bit more.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
As it's gone along to showcase my talents and what
I can do out there. So with that being the case,
I think there's gonna be a right place, in the
right time to do that again and this time come
out on top.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Absolutely, and we were expecting to see that in his
stream books. When it comes to WWE in undisputed champions
it's undeniable.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
See, that's the thing is, for a long time, everybody's
want to deny it, whether it's the company themselves or
whether it's anybody else. If people wanted to deny this
for a long time, but you just can't. And that's
why I made this whole damn thing happen. And that's
why that was able to happen.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
A year ago.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
And let me be honest, it was the wrong outcome,
it was the wrong way to do things, but it
doesn't matter to me. The bottom line is, Look, I'm
still moving forward. Whether it's US Championship, World Championship, WW championship,
it's gonna happen because you can't stop.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Yeah, absolutely for sure.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And you know the one cool thing you're seeing now
with WWE, if you look at the past, when celebrities
would come in, they would just kind of be there,
they wouldn't actually wrestle, they would take like a spot
here there. But you see somebody like a Logan Paul
who you have history with, somebody like a Bad Bunny,
very notable names in the industry, How do you view
their involvement?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Excuse me, how do you.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
View the involvement of celebrities in WWE and how does
it impact the wrestling?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It really depends you got I think personally, you got
to be a little choosy with who's going to come
in and get that physical involvement, just because of the
fact that not everybody's got an athletic bone in their body,
and if you go run any wrestling school in any
given day, you'll see a whole lot of that.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
You got to wonder, why do you think you could
do this, Why are you doing this? Why are you
even setting foot in a ring? You have not a
single athletic bone in your body.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Not everybody can do this, And so that's my one
qualm with having too many celebrities do this is that
it gives people the idea that anybody can do this,
and not anybody can do this.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Very few people can do this and do it well.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I will give credit to Logan Paul. He's a hell
of an athlete. He can do a whole lot of
crazy things that I wouldn't even dare do. But at
the same time, he's able to find that aptitude and
put it together. Who you mentioned bad Bunny, a guy
who Look, if it's something that you've always been into
your entire life, there's a chance. But the bottom line
(11:59):
is you still have to be able to have that aptitude.
You have to be able to have the physicality, the athleticism.
And if you have that, sure, I say, anybody, go
ahead and do it, but you gotta be realistic with yourself.
Those two guys, at least you could say realistically they
did it. They pulled it off, and they did it right.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Absolutely, And it just goes to show that they put
in the time and effort to learn the craft and
not just come in there.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
And I use this as an example.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
You go back to WrestleMania when Snooky wrestled and it
was just like a brief second and then that was
at the end.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yeah, and that's one of the great examples. And no
offense to my sweet Snookie out there. It never met
her my life, but look, That's another example of like,
I understand the idea, I understand the reasoning we're doing
cross promotion, but some people just don't belong in a ring.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
If I'm honest.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yeah, and even with a bad bunny, and even with
the logan pole as great as they did, they still
have a long.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
Way to go.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, and you could tell that they put in the work,
that they're not just there to collect the paycheck or
be that celebrity influence or that jumps in. I mean
you look at them doing what they did at the
pay per.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Views and everything, So I gotta say that, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Now you know, I know that you spend some time
back in the NWA, and I just want to take
a quick second. I know recently we lost a friend
of ours, Jacks Dane.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I know you spent some time there with him in
nw A.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Do you have any cool moments or stories that you
and Jack Dayne had during your time.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Not necessarily, I think actually at the time that I
was there, he wasn't there as much as actively. He
was kind of in and out, But I mean I
had interacted with him. I think it impact a few
times and an NWA a few times. I don't have
any particular stories, just to all around just cool lass dude,
just a good guy. Actually, if I'm honest, I think
(13:45):
he's the one who hooked me up with a boot
guy because I really liked his boots at the time
and I was just like, man, who makes those?
Speaker 4 (13:53):
And he gave me the hookup, told me who?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
And so I think if I end up using the
same guy, it might be his guy that's making.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Those boots that everybody raves about.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Oh nice, you know again, Friday Night SmackDown is happening.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
So FedEx for him. Tickets still available. You make sure
you go out and get him. Where can you get him?
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Ticket? Massive dot Com?
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Everybody, Yeah, go get him, Go get him.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Now.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
I've got a couple more question before we wrap this up.
One really cool moment that we saw when Lily and.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Garcia announce you to the ring when she did the
La Night Yeah, what was that?
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Like?
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I mean, obviously having Lily and Garcia announce you the ring,
but then adding the yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
I had no idea it even happened.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I didn't even notice until somebody tagged me on Instagram
and then I saw it. But this funny there's backstory
to this so I went and did a dark match.
Sometimes they have like the dark main events for you know,
opposing they bringing SmackDown people to come do Raw, they'll
bring raw people to come to SmackDown. So I went
to to do the dark made event at Raw maybe
(14:59):
a month and a half something like that, Togo, and
it was one of the first weeks that Lilian had
been back, and so she announced me as I'm coming
down to the ring, and I had no intentions of
cutting a promo or anything. I was just gonna go in,
do my match, and go back. And when she announced me,
she was like, you know from Los Angeles, California, weighing
in at two hundred and forty pounds La Night.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
And I was like, hold on.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I cracked my phone and I put over Lilian and
I was like, look, she's amazing.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
She's a legend.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Everybody give her a hand. I said, but Lilian, I said,
you got to do me one favor. I said, all
you said was La Night. I said, no, no, you
can't do that. I said, whatever town we were in,
I was like, tell him how to say the name,
or tell him who's game this is, or whatever it was.
And the whole crowd then told her La Night Yeah.
And so at that point, then once I won the match,
(15:51):
then she said, el A Night.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
That was that.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
I came out did another dark match the next week
again ell A, and I kind of gave her a
point and went out and did my thing. Okay, cool.
Now I don't know what happened. I don't know if
she just got caught up in the moment. She was
just feeling it extra extra that night because she went
all the way.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
With La Night. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
So then I h when I saw that on h
on Instagram, I will immediately sent that over to her
and I was like, did you mean.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
To do this? And she was like, oh my god, No,
I didn't even know I did it. I just I
just came out naturally. So she was just feeling she
was feeling that undeniable Kavorka of La Night. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, it's awesome because like my seven year old big
wrestling fan.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Hell, we'll just walk around and uh.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
We'll be sitting in the house and he'll just walk
up to me and I said, hey, dad, and he
just does this and I already know what he's doing,
and it's it's it's a cool thing to you know,
have this relationship with my son of watching wrestling like
me and my dad, and like I told him that
we were interviewing him to do today and.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
He was like, who are you interviewing today?
Speaker 2 (16:59):
And I said and he said yeah, and then he
just goes to his room.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Love it.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Okay, last question before we let you go.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
We always like to have a little fun at the
end of these interviews. You've got a mic in your hand,
You're face to face with one legend from the past.
Who is it and what is the one thing La
Knight would say to them to create an unforgettable moment.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
M I'm not sure I can share that with you
because this might happen at some point. I don't want
to show my cards. I don't want to show my hand.
But weren't on the streets. Is there There may be
an interaction with somebody at some point.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
I don't want to spoil them.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Just watch Friday Night SmackDown Live from the FedEx for
Febuary seven.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Every single week and if you're in that Memphis area,
and even if you're not, get a plane, take a bus, train,
drive yourself, get there, get your tickets.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
And be there to see this man. Who la night yeah,
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