Randy Orton appeared for a special sit-down interview on this week’s episode of WWE’s The Bump.
During the discussion, “The Apex Predator” spoke about LA Knight’s rise to prominence in WWE during his absence from the company,
On what he makes of LA Knight’s rise to prominence: “Too early to tell, but I have high hopes. I would love to see him happy and able to do whatever his goals are, I’d love to see him fulfill those goals. As long as they don’t get in my way, I’m fine with him doing his thing. I’ve been so many guys come up, get hot, and then putter out. I’m not saying that’s him. As a matter of fact, he’s one of a kind. He’s got something different. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen the fans just take to somebody that they didn’t really know so quickly. You’ve seen it before with guys like Kofi Kingston. They knew who these guys were for ten years, and then all of a sudden, there was this massive surge and fan following. LA Knight kind of went from zero to hero, [snaps] like that. So that’s interesting. I’m curious to see how strong the crowd chants for him, how long that lasts, but even more so, how he chooses to evolve and keep those fans buying the t-shirts and chanting the catchphrases and everything like that. I think he has all the potential in the world to get that done.”
On how he wasn’t shocked to hear the big reactions for LA Knight when he returned because he followed the product in his absence: “I think as long as he stays humble and remembers that he doesn’t know it all, and that he still has a lot to learn, if he stays humble, I think he’s gonna keep doing this [mimes rising up]. But we all get in our own way sometimes, and hopefully that’s not the case with him. But I think he’s a good cat, he’s got a good head on his shoulders, he’s smart, and I know he’s here to be the man. So hopefully, he becomes the man.”
Check out the complete interview via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.
