In professional wrestling, some Superstars rise above the rest. Some Superstars have what it takes to get themselves over without a push, some Superstars can connect with an audience without having their storyline shoved down the audience's throat, and some can do it all without a championship belt around their waist, a classic sign that this person is being pushed by creative.

In roughly a year since he made his debut on the WWE main roster, LA Knight has masterfully cleared those first two hurdles with ease, but what about the third? Would fans be disappointed if he doesn't get a title? And would other fans – or even the same fans – be disappointed if he does get a title, turning the organic appeal of the “Megastar” into something manufactured in such a way that Shaun Ricker, the man behind the “Yeah!” may not be in love with?

Fortunately, Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick asked LA Knight this very question on their, does he think he needs a title to be successful in WWE, on their After The Bell podcast and the “Megastar” let it be known that, in his opinion, a title reign feels like a logical destination at some point in the future.

“At this point, I don't know. There are so many different ways to go with it, but I do think, you can't let this stagnate. Whatever happens, it needs to be an upward and onward trajectory. Whether that's championships or whatever it is, for sure, you can't just let this sit. That's something on me, that's something on everybody, to where it has to stay. You can't just rely and rest on your laurels of ‘it's just going to be here. All I have to do is go out there, and it's just going to be there.' There has to be an evolution. There has to be something that continues to progress.”

After watching LA Knight get more and more over with each passing month in 2023, it's clear the momentum is there for the “Megastar” to cash in on a major moment. But will fans stay with him should that ultimately happen? Fortunately, Knight has a take on that too, a very pro-LA Knight take, as if that should come as no surprise.

LA Knight doesn't think fans will turn on him as a champion.

Asked the second half of the question on the proverbial table, LA Knight noted that, in his opinion, fans won't turn on him should he be elevated even higher in the WWE pecking order, because he got where he is over an extended period of organic growth.

“No, and I'll tell you why. I've had that comparison made where ‘it's like this person that got popular, it's like that person.' I don't want to take anything away from them, but I don't think the comparison fits. Everyone they make those comparisons to, they had runs. They had runs as a champion. Maybe they got to be Intercontinental Champion or US Champion, but I've been on the SmackDown roster for nine or ten months, and I don't mean to say this with any arrogance or whatever, but let's face facts, I don't think there has been anybody, ever, that has had in nine or ten months this kind of reaction, with honestly not a lot to do. This hasn't been manufactured, this hasn't been the machine, this is a straight up groundswell in a short amount of time. It was never told to the audience ‘this is the guy.' With that being the case, I don't think you can make the comparisons to the other people,” LA Knight said.

“Do I think that reaching the pinnacle, as far as being the champion would be a hindrance? Not at all. When I look at the fact that, I still haven't wrestled…I made it to WWE, the biggest company in the world, ‘oh, you finally made it.' No, I haven't. You have to keep going. There is always something to push at. Whether it's new contenders, fighting from underneath even if you're the champion. That comes from different creative outlets, just finding ways to make it fresh, keep it fresh, keep me fresh, keep everything around fresh.

“Being that hungry SOB that I am where I'm never satisfied. Sometimes, that's a flaw of mine, but it's a virtue of mine that I'm never satisfied. Even if you put the championship on me. Okay, I've gotten that, but I don't want to be a champion, I want to take it to a level where I'm looked at as maybe one of the best ever. Now, I have even more work to do to get that done.”

Will LA Knight get where he wants to be in the WWE Universe? Only time will tell, but after spending 20 years building toward this moment, he isn't going to change any time soon, whether he's a champion or not.

“The thing that made me, the thing that carried me is the talking, the trash talking, the personality, the swagger. All that stuff,” LA Knight concluded. “I don't think the other people they've made comparisons to had that same thing going for them. A lot of it was ‘this guy is the underdog.' If you take the underdog and give them the thing, they are no longer the underdog, so they have nothing to cheer for. If the thing they're cheering for with me is the trash-talking, stomping romping guy, and you give him the championship, nothing has changed. I'm still that same trash-talking guy, now I'm just continuing it while holding the championship. Where they've gotten to blow their wad, in a certain way, with the underdog, you don't get the same opportunity with me. Now it's just me continuing it, but I have hurdles to jump, speed bumps, walls to break through.”