What do Johnny Cash and LA Knight have in common? Well, besides enjoying blue jeans, the duo have been everywhere, man.
From television commercials to social media videos, extra spots in WWE workout videos, and even some less-than-rewatchable moments like wrestling as El Hijo del Trump down in Mexico, the “Megastar” did a lot to pay the bills before he landed in NXT a few years back, all of which helped to make him a “dangerous man” that Paul “Triple H” Levesque and company could no longer ignore by 2021.
Finally discussing his varied entertainment career in a babyface re-aligning appearance on After The Bell with Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick, LA Knight admitted that, after a failed move to LA, he wasn't too picky about which gigs he took to make ends meet.
“A lot of those commercials were when I lived in Cincinnati. The Aldi commercial, for instance, was one of the first things I ever did in acting business, and it was in Cincinnati, Ohio. I was living there at the time, I had just tried to move to LA. I was there for about four months, and everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. I had to retreat, went back to Ohio. I'm from Maryland, but I started wrestling in Ohio, and by that point my friends had scattered across the country so there was no point in going back to Maryland. I went back to Ohio where I had a wrestling base and some friends. When I got back there, I'm back to working a restaurant job, telephone sales job. I'm like, ‘God, I have to do anything,' back when you had the yellow pages. I went through that, and I was looking for talent agents. There happened to be a couple in the area. I called up a couple of different places. Finally, a guy picked up, I sent pictures over, ‘What are you doing later today?' ‘Nothing' ‘Can you come over and read a couple of lines?' I came over, went and read the line, and they sent it in. I ended up getting a featured role in a regional casino commercial where I was a masseuse, and I was doing the choppy hands-on a lady. That was a quick $800 to do that,” LA Knight said via Fightful.
“A few months later, the Aldi thing happened. A lot of that stuff happening in Ohio, the Animal Planet thing was in Ohio. The Animal Planet thing didn't pay a lot, but what it did pay, it got me across the country because I had then gone back to Maryland for a little bit, and once that check cleared, I think I had $50 in my pocket, enough to get my gas to Dayton, Ohio where I picked up my check. I picked up my check for $800 or whatever it was and then drove to LA. Little did I know, my car was going to die 80 miles outside of LA in the middle of the California desert. It's a long story that I won't get into, but I ended up going back to Vegas and borrowed money, and things happened, and I got to LA, but I had no money. I slept on my friend's floor for four months in LA. It was a crazy time. When I got there, I got the jewelry exchange thing, and then it was dry for a long time. I didn't get roles for a long time. LA is very competitive, and it was tough to get stuff. I was in background roles.”
Fortunately for LA Knight, he did get a legitimate role once he arrived in his namesake city, landing a named part on Brooklyn 99. However, the role wasn't the life-changing opportunity he initially hoped for, as he didn't exactly get to showcase his chops in a meaty role that would make Roman Reigns – aka wrestling's Marlon Brando, per Paul Heyman – blush.
LA Knight reflects on his time in Brooklyn 99… if you want to call it that.
Discussing his “big break” on Brooklyn 99, LA Knight noted that no one said he sounded like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, but that's only because he didn't get to say anything on camera. Fortunately, all of his hard work paid off, however, as in the end, he landed more wrestling opportunities and now is one of the hottest performers in wrestling today.
“Shortly after I got released the first time, back to LA, that's where I got the role in Brooklyn 99. They gave me a trailer and a name for my character. I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be a meaty role, my name is Mario, I'm getting married,' then I just stood there. I don't know why they named the character, they didn't mention my name, I didn't say anything,” LA Knight said.
“A lot of the little goofy things, some of the stuff was just for YouTube. That was a friend of mine and I, just an attempt to not go back to normal work. What if we start this YouTube channel and do comedy sketches. We got two or thing off the ground. He lived in Boston, I lived in LA, there was no way to practically get us together to get that stuff done. A lot of that was done for free and out of our own pocket on shoestring budgets trying to get stuff done. It went nowhere. Thankfully, different wrestling companies started offering me more money after my first run with WWE.”
Goodness, could you imagine how different the WWE Universe would be if LA Knight's Mario became a breakout character in the 99-verse a la Urcle in Family Matters? Fortunately, fans don't have to do anything but imagine that unfortunate world, as LA Knight strapped a rocket to his back, and ain't nobody slowing him down, yeah!
Follow Us
Subscribe