LA Knight took the hard road to WWE stardom.

Initially signing with the promotion in 2013 after a decade on the indies working for promotions like NWA and Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, Knight was let go in 2014 and had to rebuild his value in TNA, Impact, NWA, and beyond under the Eli Drake moniker. Re-signing with WWE at the tender age of 38 and assigned to developmental to hone his craft, Knight put his Eli Drake-isms to good use on the black and gold brand, leading to some of the most memorable moments in the brand's history and promos that will live on forever on YouTube and “Best Of” compilations.

Finally elevated to the main roster for the first time in his career, Knight had to suffer through a curious run as Max Dupri that now looks incredibly short-sighted before being allowed to work as LA Knight, even if he didn't get a legitimate push to help him get over… until now, when, almost a year after his SmackDown debut, LA Knight is heading to Money in the Bank as an official participant in the show's namesake Ladder match.

Discussing his long road to the top of the card in an appearance on The Bump, Knight credited himself for getting over on his own and finally getting to enjoy the benefits he's worked for.

“Because finally, finally, the WWE is gonna give me what I want,” LA Knight said. “Why? Because I had to go out and make it happen. Look, I didn’t ask for anybody, talk about being a fan-favorite, I didn’t go out there and say, ‘Hey, please cheer for me. Hey, please like me.’ As a matter of fact, if they don’t cheer for me, if they don’t like me, doesn’t make a d**n bit of difference to me. At the end of the day, I’m gonna go to Money in the Bank, I’m gonna climb that ladder, I’m gonna pull the case down, and then any single one of those titles that I want is coming my way, whether it’s Gunther, whether it’s Austin Theory, whether it’s Seth Rollins or whether it’s Roman Reigns himself, any single one of them are in the crosshairs at this point. So what you got to think about is man, look, I didn’t get shoved down anybody’s throat. I wasn’t anybody’s guy. I came in, and I did my thing, and the whole world, whether you take me to Saudi Arabia, whether you take me to London, whether you take me to Puerto Rico, you can take me to Mobile, Alabama, and every single place is gonna make a whole lot of noise for LA Knight. You know why that is? Because they can see that I stand head and shoulders above everybody walking.”

Will LA Knight bring down the briefcase at Money in the Bank? Only time will tell, but based on his words, it's really hard to bet against the “Megastar” in the biggest match of his career.

LA Knight describes his “life-changing” moment on SmackDown.

Turning his attention to the nuts and bolts of actually qualifying for Money in the Bank in a match against Montez Ford on SmackDown, LA Knight noted that the win was life-changing, as it allowed him to take the shot he's been chasing for his entire career.

“Well you know, the one buzzword everybody likes to use now is life-changing,” Knight noted. “And I’ll tell you what, it is going to be life-changing because for a good long time, I couldn’t get what was coming to me, but now, I’m going to take what’s been coming to me for a good long time, it’s been a while long overdue. So yeah, did I feel the buzz going in there? Did I feel the buzz in that whole building, rumbling the whole time we were in there one way or the other? H*ll yeah I did, here’s how it’s going to go down: it's going to change my trajectory, it’s going to send me straight into London to the O2 Arena. It’s on.”

After 20 years in the professional wrestling trenches, LA Knight finally has a chance to showcase his hard work, main event a Premium Live Event, and see if he gets to be the 26th man to hold the Money in the Bank open contract. If he fails, at least he got the opportunity, but if he succeeds, well, the rest of the WWE Universe has better watch out, as whose game is it? It's LA Knight's game. Yeah!