If there's one topic that wrestling fans have thoroughly enjoyed debating over the past month or so, it's whether or not LA Knight is a “ripoff” of Attitude Era legends like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and whether or not that has any effect on his status as WWE's fastest-rising “Megastar” on SmackDown.

Though Kevin Nash, the man who kicked this conversation off in the first place, has since apologized for putting the “Megastar” on blast seemingly out of the blue on his podcast Kliq This, noting that he doesn't watch SmackDown very often and is glad to see his good pal Paul “Triple H” Levesque have a very over superstar on his roster, that hasn't stopped pretty much every other former wrestling star from weighing in on the subject, with Booker T coming to the defense of the 41-year-old former Million Dollar Champion.

But what does Shawn Michaels, one of “Big Daddy Cool Diesel's” former Kliq mates, think about his friend's comments, let alone about LA Knight in general? Well, Riju Dasgupta of WrestleBinge asked that very question and got a pretty interesting answer from the “Heart Break Kid.”

“No, except that Kevin Nash has always given his opinion on stuff,” Shawn Michaels said via Fightful. “Dare I say, so does Sportskeeda and every other website out there [laughs]. You guys got opinions on lots of people, every wrestling fan does. You’re absolutely allowed to have them, as Kevin’s allowed to have his. We can all agree or respectfully disagree. So I don’t know that LA Knight has any problem with what Kevin Nash says, or anybody else. I know him as somebody that we very much enjoyed working with here in NXT. Nobody’s happier to see him thriving and doing well on the main roster more than I am. We here at NXT are very proud of all the men and women that got brought up in the draft. Obviously very excited about that. It speaks well of NXT, and it speaks well of what the Performance Center has done for the WWE.”

HBK then went on to discuss the value of the WWE Performance Center, with “Mr. WrestleMania” noting just how successful the developmental system has been to WWE's success over the last decade.

“It was a great concept 10 years ago, when Hunter first came up with it. It’s something that he should be very proud of as it continues to be a feeder system for the main roster, and not just for the main roster, but also the wrestling world in general. So many important people, whether they be with the WWE or on other brands out there, quite a few of them have been through the NXT system. So I think that speaks a lot about what we’ve accomplished here,” Michaels said.

Though LA Knight isn't really a product of the performance center, as pretty much all of his signature catchphrases, from how he says L-A-Knight, to “Yeah!,” to, “Nah Nah” and even the one major mannerism he hasn't brought over to WWE, “Dummy,” were developed under the moniker Eli Drake over his near-two decades on the indies, in the end, it's hard to argue that the former NXT standout hasn't become one of the most over stars on SmackDown. Even if he borrowed from some of the all-time greats over the years, a suggestion even he has no problem admitting, in the end, LA Knight has built himself up the hard way and has earned incredible respect from performers like HBK as a result.

Ace Steel sees nothing wrong with the LA Knight character.

Weighing in on LA Knight's gimmick and how it may or may not be similar to some from the past, everyone's favorite former AEW backstage producer Ace Steel believes there's nothing wrong with the “Megastar's” gimmick, as folks have been borrowing from the past since professional wrestling began.

“Yeah, so what, big f**king deal, are they calling him out on it? Who's calling him out on it, someone that just has an opinion about it? I mean, the crowds [are] biting on what it is. He's successful; it might be a revamp of whatever, but is there really anything that [is] super original and pro [wrestling], like things get recycled all the time?” Ace Steel noted via Fightful.

“It's not like he f**king popped out of wrestling school yesterday and started doing this gimmick. He's been doing it [for] a long f**king time. That's all I gotta say.”

Steel is correct; Knight has been using his current gimmick for a very long time, and it wasn't a problem until he was afforded the biggest stage in wrestling to showcase his abilities, even if the initial detractor admitted firsthand that he wasn't super familiar with the product. Whether you like it or not, it's clear LA Knight isn't going any time soon.