WWE Almost Fired Popular Superstar Last Summer

Since taking over as WWE Chief Creative Officer in Summer 2022, Paul “Triple H” Levesque has helped provide direction for many floundering talents. This was especially true for LA Knight. The former Impact World Champion was brought back to WWE in early 2021 and reported to NXT, where he notably feuded with Cameron Grimes and WWE Hall of Famer Ted DiBiase. Once crowds came back, Knight’s popularity skyrocketed and he quickly became one of the hottest stars on the developmental brand. This led to WWE calling him up to the main roster but infamously repackaging him as Max Dupri, the leader of the Maximum Male Models.

Knight worked as Dupri throughout the subsequent months, exclusively performing as a manager. Reports had emerged that Knight had backstage heat around July 2022 and that he was going to be removed from the Maximum Male Models stable. As he told Chris Van Vliet on Insight, this was not in an effort to bring back LA Knight, at least initially.

“Let me just go ahead and say this: I’m pretty sure I was fired, and it just hadn’t officially happened yet,” Knight said. “Without getting into too many details, some things happened. I don’t remember what it was, but some things happened. And then I had gotten a FaceTime. ‘Hey, you know, we want to keep you around. We want to do this, this, that whatever.’ Okay, cool. Good.”

It’s unclear how WWE’s regime shift last summer affected Knight’s status change, but it is worth noting that reports of his backstage heat and aforementioned MMM removal came within a week of Vince McMahon announcing his retirement.

“Somehow I had been saved from being thrown off the cliff. At least this is my interpretation of it,” Knight continued. “Maybe I’m incorrect, I don’t know. And so eventually, just things kind of worked out.”

LA Knight competes in the titular ladder match at WWE Money in the Bank this Saturday, July 1st. The full premium live event card can be seen below…

WWE Money in the Bank 2023 Card

• World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor
• Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa vs. The Usos
• WWE Intercontinental Championship: Gunther vs. Matt Riddle
• Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Ricochet vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. LA Knight vs. Santos Escobar vs. Butch vs. Damian Priest vs. Logan Paul
• Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Becky Lynch vs. Zelina Vega vs. Zoey Stark vs. Bayley vs. Iyo Sky vs. Trish Stratus
• Cody Rhodes vs. Dominik Mysterio
• WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship: Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler vs. Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez