There is new speculation that LA Knight will return to WWE storylines.
Maximum Male Models’ ma.çé and mn.sôör were defeated by The New Day on Friday’s SmackDown. After the match, Max Dupri snapped and slammed ma.çé, mn.sôör, and Maxxine Dupri for posing for photos instead of focusing on the game. Max then stormed away on his own.
Since Friday night’s episode, “LA Knight” has been a trending topic on social media. This angle followed several recent teasers, including two from this month – a post-show segment on September 9 saw Max tell his crew that they must “go through the day to get to the night,” before concluding his statement with Knight’s catchphrase “yeah.” Then, on last week’s episode of SmackDown in Anaheim, Max mentioned how close they were to “LA,” or Los Angeles. He then paused as the crowd responded with a pop.
Since WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H took over creative, there has been much speculation about WWE dropping the Dupri character in favor of a return to the Knight character, and it now appears that we may see that change sooner rather than later.
Max was originally signed to a WWE developmental contract that ran from mid-2013 to August 1, 2014. Following a successful run with Impact Wrestling and a stint with the NWA, he was re-signed by WWE in February 2021. Max was a heel in WWE NXT as LA Knight before becoming a babyface during a feud with Grayson Waller in the fall of 2021. A main roster call-up had been rumored, but when Knight was called up to SmackDown in April of this year, he was nixed, and that was the start of the Maximum Male Models storyline, which has received significant negative feedback since then. Because of how hot Knight was at the time of his call-up, many people were perplexed by the switch from Knight to Dupri.
If WWE does turn Max back into LA, it will be interesting to see what happens to the former Mace, Mansoor, and Sofia Cromwell. The Maximum Male Models storyline was reportedly a pet project of former WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon earlier this year.
The following is video from this week’s SmackDown match and post-match segment:
