After taking incredible offense to LA Knight being backstage on RAW to take pictures as the new SummerSlam Slim Jim Battle Royal winner, The Miz decided to hold court over an impromptu edition of Miz TV to address the lack of respect he believes he feels from the new crop of WWE Superstars who don't even shake his hand when they enter the locker room.
“Am I missing something?” The Miz asked the audience in Minnesota. “Is something going over my head? What happened to showing industry leaders, myself, the proper respect? I come here to Monday Night RAW, my show, to find a guy you all of a sudden absolutely love in LA Knight taking priority over me. Me. I am a veteran, I am a locker room leader, and when I first came to WWE a very long time ago, I was taught respect. When you come into that locker room, you introduce yourself, you shake the hands of the Superstars who paved the way to allow you to step into this ring. But LA Knight not only threw me over the top rope in the battle royal from behind, he did not introduce himself to me; he did not shake my hand. I am so sick of the lack of respect from the so-called crop of new talent that we have.”
After being evoked by name on multiple occasions, the “Megastar” made his way out from the back and got into it on the mic with one of the most confident talkers on the main roster.
“Let me talk to ya. I thought we got a great introduction in the battle royal at SummerSlam, but if that didn't work for ya, allow me to introduce myself, with everybody saying L-A-Knight, yeah!” LA Knight said.
“No. You don't deserve to shake my hand,” The Miz responded. “You don't think I've seen Superstars like you come in here? Come in to WWE trying to ride my coattails? See the way I see it, it's like this; you take away from The Miz. What do you take away from me, you take away my success, my money, you strip away my hot wife, you strip away every bit of charisma that I have, and what do you get? LA Knight. You are a flash in the pan, you are a flavor of the month. Now don't get me wrong, all of these people here love you right now, and they'll probably love you for the next nine months. They'll buy your tee shirts because they think you're it but do you know what I think? I think you're just an Attitude Era fanboy playing cosplay in my ring.”
Jeez, now that is one heck of a way to make an introduction to a WWE Superstar. How would LA Knight respond? Well, by seemingly turning babyface and letting fans in on what he was up to during the 20 years he wrestled on the indies.
Did the roof just blow off @TargetCenterMN? YEAH!
Because @RealLAKnight is here!#WWERaw pic.twitter.com/nhWOb0KMuY— WWE (@WWE) August 8, 2023
LA Knight finally reveals his winding road to the WWE Universe.
Despite being taken to task as an “Attitude Era Cosplayer,” a critique folks like Kevin Nash have been throwing his way for months, LA Knight tried to take the high road once more.
“Okay, so no handshake. Let me be honest; I don't have a problem with you, but trust me when I say you do not want to make this personal.”
“Personal?” The Miz responded. “You wanna talk personal? I take my career very personal. I've taken it personal for 20 years. I've taken it personal when they said that I'd be fired in three months. I've taken it personal when I was kicked out of the locker room. I still take it personal to this day, even though I have main-evented WrestleMania. I'm a two-time Grand Slam Champion. I have made myself indestructible to anyone in that locker room, anything they give me out here for 20 years. What have you done for the past 20 years?”
With an opening clearly in place, LA Knight finally got a chance to discuss his past and let non-comically online fans in on his path to the WWE.
“So personal it is. What have I been doing for the last 20 years? You know what I've been doing? I've been making myself a dangerous man. What does that mean? I'll tell ya what that means, I've been clawing, scratching, doing everything I could do on the outside looking in while this placed bets on all of the wrong horses, you being one of them. Meanwhile, this thoroughbred is running on the outside on a parallel path, albeit a little more rocky, just waiting for the right opening,” LA Knight said.
“And here you are with a 20-year head start, and do you wanna know why you have a 20-year head start? You got that 20-year head start because you're safe. You know what that mean? They knew they could smack you around, they knew you could kick you out of the locker room, and what did you do? You took it. The line on me has always been, ‘We're not ready for you yet.' Do you know why? Because I'm a dangerous man! They knew that if I came un here, you wanna smack me around? You wanna kick me out of the locker room? Nah nah! Papa don't take no mess! I'm not to be messed with; that's the difference between me and you. But with all of that said, still you became every single champion you could here, and you did it many times over, and good on ya. I haven't been there yet. But here I am on the climb, and your career's in the d*mn toilet. But I'll tell you what, if you want to make this personal now that you have, I don't mind making you a stepping stone… don't get hot, I don't mean your little stepping stones down there. I'm talking about me, walking over you, to the main event where I belong.”
Welp, there you go, folks, it finally happened; LA Knight was given a chance to address his past in a meaningful way, garnered sympathy as the kind of DIY dark horse America just loves to see success, and in the end, turned babyface in the process. Exceptional stuff.
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