As crazy as it may sound, WWE is rapidly approaching two years since LA Knight debuted on the WWE main roster. That's right, it wasn't until January 24th, 2022, when, after clearly outgrowing his spot in NXT, Knight was elevated to the main roster to finally take a shot at Superstardom.

Only here's the thing: he didn't debut on RAW as LA Knight but instead as Max Dupri, a Vince McMahon creation that rapidly fell out of favor with everyone, including the man portraying the character himself.

After growing increasingly frustrated with his role in the Maximum Male Models, the man formerly known as Max Dupri decided to break away from being a manager and return to the character that got him incredibly over in NXT that September, which, in turn, was an extension of the Eli Drake character he mastered on the indies for Impact and NWA. Gone were the weird looks, weirder promos, and even weirder runway segment that never got over with the crowd, and in their place came the Timberland boots, the leather vests, and the litany of catchphrases, many of which he has fully reincorporated into his gimmick save “Dummy!”

Discussing how he was able to go from Dupri back to LA Knight on the main roster with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, the man born Shaun Ricker noted that it wasn't his decision and that if Vince McMahon remained in charge of creative, he'd likely have been fired right now instead of one of the hottest performers in the entire promotion.

“Well, the problem is you look around the wrestling landscape. And I even think to my past, and I’m like, ‘Man, I had so much freedom to kind of be me and do my thing. And now I’m doing whatever this stupid model thing is. I don’t know who this is or what this is, but all right. I got a nice raise out of it. So at least I try and make this thing work.' And so I’m sitting there, and I’m trying to do it. And all praise to Mace and Mansoor because, I mean, I even heard them kind of sharing the stories about how Vince was just, it was really weird. Because I was told not to talk like I did, nothing. Don’t say any of the things you said [before], don’t talk the way you did. And I’m like, ‘Okay, I mean, what brought me to the dance is getting completely stripped from me, but alright.' I mean, at the same time, I kind of looked at it as a challenge,” LA Knight told Chris Van Vliet via Wrestling Headlines.

“I’m frustrated by it, but I’m also kind of like, ‘Okay, well, let’s see how we can do this.' And then he and I kind of felt like we were butting heads, but it was just like, he had a vision for this thing that puts such a microscope on it. I didn’t know what the h*ll it was, but I was trying to figure it out, it just was not going well. And I was very unhappy. I’m sure he probably was. Then, at some point, it was just like, all of a sudden, I’m not on TV, and I’m like, ‘Well, I’m pretty sure I’m fired. Pretty sure this whole ride is over.' And at that point, I’m kind of looking at other options and what I can do and where I can go to just keep my whole thing rolling. And, lo and behold, circumstances prevailed that kind of put me in the right spot where I could at least come back in a wrestling capacity and do my thing. And again, like I said, I don’t think there were great expectations thrust upon me, it was just, ‘Hey, here’s a guy who can handle himself. He’s a professional. He knows how to do his thing in the ring. And we can work with some guys; he can have some good programs.' Well, surprise, surprise on your eyes, because things just got a little crazy after that.”

Would it have been interesting to see how Max Dupri shook out on the main roster? Sure, it's beyond perplexing to imagine what Mr. McMahon had cooked up for the act, but then again, if he had stuck around, it's hard to imagine LA Knight would still be employed by WWE, so the short-term payoff likely wouldn't have been worth the fallout.

Mansoor reveals the darkest day of LA Knight's time as Max Dupri.

How bad did things get for LA Knight under his Max Dupri character? Well, as Mansoor noted last year in a livestream following his release from WWE alongside Mace, the faction genuinely thought the debut of Maxxine Durpi was going to end up being none other than “Max in a wig.”

“Maxxine Dupri was a character that existed before the person playing it right now started playing it,” Mansoor said on his live stream via Fightful. “Maxxine Dupri, as a concept, was created that day. Knight saw that and was like, ‘That's it, guys.' You know what's funny. Maxxine Dupri's character gets created on Twitter and says, ‘I'm Max's sister, and I'm running the Maximum Male Model website.' We're all looking at that like, ‘Okay.' A week after that, they tease the debut of Maxxine Dupri. ‘Maxxine Drupe will come out with the Maximum Male Models.' I swear to God, when I heard that, I looked at LA, we looked at each other at the same time, ‘It's going to be you in a dress, isn't it?' He's like, ‘It's going to be me in a dress.'”

“I 100% thought it was,” Mace added. “We didn't know what they had planned. We thought, ‘It's gotta be Max in a dress.'”

“Poor LA,” Mansoor said. “He was really trying, and for whatever reason, they were harping on this Max Dupri thing. We thought it was a way to punish him. Obviously, didn't happen, it was not the case, just something we were thinking about. Are we allowed to say who it was almost going to be?”

Would it have been funny to see LA Knight come out in a dress Santina Marella-style on SmackDown? Sure, but it also would have effectively ended his career once and for all, which, for even the most callused fans of professional wrestling, likely isn't worth it.