Before there was LA Knight, at least on the main roster, there was Max Dupri, the brother of future Alpha Academy member Maxxine, and the manager of the Maximum Male Models, a faction that may or may not still exist in WWE.

The character was more creepy than charismatic, his catchphrases were more about “juices” than “takin' to ya,” and worst of all, he didn't wrestle, which is a shame, because, after 21 years in the business, the man born Shaun Ricker is very good at that aspect of the pro wrestling business too.

Sitting down for an interview with Daily Mail ahead of Money in the Bank, LA Knight was asked why he switched gimmicks when he landed on the main roster and why it didn't work out the way WWE wanted it to.

“Oh, boy! Hahaha. I’m killing it in NXT. It’s crazy, like, just the reactions, the way I had turned from big-time heel in the summertime to big-time babyface by the winter. It’s not piped in and it’s not prefabbed reactions. It was organic, real stuff happening. I come up for a dark match, I get the attention of the right people, ‘hey, who is this guy?' but then the age thing comes up – [whispers] ‘oh no, he’s 40, danger’. But I’m not the average 40-year-old. I haven’t gone through the ringer. I haven’t had a bunch of surgeries or injuries, knock on that wood. I’ve lived a good, youthful life in a certain sense, and I’ve taken care of myself in a way I would say most don’t,” LA Knight said.

“And also, I look a certain way where obviously I’ve got somebody’s attention. But that number came up, and it was like, “well, ok, maybe we make him a manager.” So some things happened there. It was not my cup of tea, and definitely, I don’t think it was for me. But somehow, there I was. Some things happened that we don’t need to go into, and then eventually, LA Knight was back.”

Asked how he was able to return to the character he spent 20 years on the Indies crafting, Knight noted that he pushed for the change for a while, and, in the end, Paul “Triple H” Levesque agreed.

“Yeah, I was kinda pushing for it but didn’t know if it was really a possibility at that point because we just established this thing to this larger audience. The NXT audience is what it is, just under a million or whatever, and now you’re looking at over two million for Smackdown. So there’s a bunch of people who had never even seen LA Knight before and they’d only seen this other thing. So now, can we just change gears? So now, I think it’s a testament to his trust and a testament to my abilities to be able to turn that corner in such short order and have people not even barely remember there was another.”

Fortunately, the decision to give LA Knight his gimmick back was clearly the right one, as he's now arguably the most over performer in the promotion versus how much effort creative puts into his push. If Triple H can give him a legit storyline, fans had better watch out, as LA Knight is an overnight success story 20 years in the making.

The timing is right for LA Knight in WWE.

Elsewhere in his interview with Daily Mail, LA Knight was asked if now is the perfect time to unleash his character on The Fed after spending the better part of two decades building himself up on the indies. In the opinion of the “Megastar,” the answer is yes, as he feels he's got everything fans could want in a top guy.

“Yeah, probably, because I don’t think the WWE fans have seen anybody like me ever or at least in a very long time. But I would say ‘ever’ because of my package because a lot of people like to make comparisons with this guy, that guy, whatever, but at the same time, no matter who you compare me to, I’m nothing close in a lot of ways, and I’m well above and beyond because if you look at just my physical package – don’t get excited! – along with the personality that goes along with it, it’s something that has never been seen before,” Knight said.

“So I think in that way, you’re looking at a big personality. I’m not out there doing my little gymnastic routines like you see some guys do. It’s something that obviously people have gravitated towards, and it’s something that I knew I had to offer for a long time, and I guess to just know that I was right all along gives me a little bit of confirmation that this 20 years wasn’t all wasted because for years and years I was broke as h*ll, and for years and years I had family and friends tell me: ‘you gotta get a real job' You don’t understand, I’ve got something to do here, I’ve got something to make happen, and after all this time, at long last here we are here.”

Fortunately for LA Knight, he didn't let his bank account balance and requests to “get a real job” dissuade him from pursuing his passion, and he's now an uber-fan favorite in the biggest professional wrestling promotion in the world. After years of working as Eli Drake on the indies, talking about his “Shoes of  a Championship” in NWA and Impact, he's finally found a perfect opportunity to shine, yeah!