LA Knight was a popular character in WWE NXT but debuted on the main roster under a different name.
Max Dupri was the manager of Maxiumum Male Models. He recruited Mansoor and Mace to the group and they would often pose on the entrance ramp as if it were a runway. Following Vince McMahon’s resignation and Triple H assuming creative responsibility for the company, Max started to hint that Maximum Male Models wasn’t for him. He attacked Mansoor last week and it led to a singles match on this past Friday’s SmackDown.
LA Knight wrestled his first match on the main roster this week against Mansoor and picked up the pinfall victory after connecting with the BFT. After the match, LA Knight immediately insulted the crowd to turn heel. He warned the locker room that SmackDown was his game now.
Paul London On LA Knight & WWE Name Changes
Speaking on the Cafe de Rene podcast, former WWE Superstar Paul London discussed LA Knight and WWE’s name changes. Before his time in WWE, LA Knight wrestled in Impact as Eli Drake and captured the Impact Championship.
I think he’s extremely talented. He’s a great personality, great on the microphone. He doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel.
He doesn’t try to do anything crazy that is beyond his persona or beyond his limits.
I’m not saying he’s limited by any means. I mean, he’s a physical specimen. He looks great, and he works, I really enjoy his work.
I haven’t seen anything, since he’s been in WWE, I haven’t seen anything of that. I know that they’ve flipped his name around a couple of times.
Paul London then discussed WWE changing the names of wrestlers and noted how most of the names are not very believable.
I mean, these names. It is something you would have thought that they would have improved on over the years.
I’m under the belief that the writers would watch the CW Network or read the teen magazines or something and just mishmash these names together or something.
Because these names are not good. They’re not very believable. I guess they eventually saturate into the mind and stick for whatever reason.
I think they realize that. They’re like ‘well Max Dupri, let’s just go back to LA Knight, let’s go back to him sounding like a shoe brand’.
Please credit Cafe de Rene and give a H/T to SEScoops for the transcription if you use any quotes from this article.