WWE United States Champion LA Knight spoke with Mail Sport on a number of topics, including working with Roman Reigns.
Knight said, “That’s a hell of a spot to be in, and definitely not one I expected to be in at that point because you’re talking about maybe a year from the time LA Knight reared his face on SmackDown. It was probably October 2022 when I showed up in that iteration, and by the very beginning of November 2023, I was in the WWE Championship match in Saudi Arabia, headlining the event. That’s a pretty crazy jump, a pretty crazy climb in a very short amount of time. There were a lot of adjustments to be made. There were definitely some battling thoughts inside my head between, ‘Do I belong here?’ and, ‘Hell yeah, you belong here.’ It all happened so quickly that there was definitely an adjustment period.”
On his U.S. Championship win:
“But now, with the US Championship and walking into SummerSlam, you never know where that could lead. When you’re talking about the WWE Championship, World Heavyweight Championship, this and that, this is a hell of a stepping-off point. Picking up the US title, there’s not that question anymore of, “Ah, is this my spot? Do I belong here?’ For damn sure, I belong.”
On facing Reigns, Randy Orton, and AJ Styles at the 2024 Royal Rumble:
“I think that was probably one of the main times where I was just like, ‘Oh, hell yeah, I belong in the sense of, here’s the one sore thumb of the group, because you’ve got Roman who’s been there forever, Randy, who’s really been there forever, AJ, who’s been there forever. Then there’s this one outlier, new guy, this LA Knight, guy who is kind of the sore thumb of the group, and how’s he going to hold up with these guys? I think if you go back and you watch that match, man, I think I shot him like hell on that match. So in that regard, I think that there was no question at all my mind of, well, hell yeah. There is not any question beyond that, does this guy belong? Yeah, I think it’s pretty clear and obvious at that point.”
On what he learned from that match:
“I think if there’s anything that I learned in that, in that place, it was just learning that I’ve, I’ve kind of cemented my position. Here we go again. I’m the dog whisperer. I have to do the calming here. But anyway, yeah, I think I’ve submitted my position kind of as a made man, so to speak, even though I’m still looking over my shoulder to return.”
