Patience is a Virtue when it comes to LA Knight

Perspective and patience are concepts that need to be rediscovered within the wrestling fanbase. Now, I understand that in the years of late-stage Vince McMahon booking, patience was hard to come by because a lot of things were never given the time, space, or quality writing to succeed. Those practices conditioned fans to give up on wrestlers with the same quickness that Vince did. What I’ve noticed now is that when fans get attached to someone, nothing short of them immediately winning the world title feels satisfying. I understand that’s probably a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s annoying to constantly see fans whining about how someone is treated when the truth is that it’s fine and WWE is trying to do what we criticized them for not doing for years and that’s long-term storytelling.

Which brings me to LA Knight. I love LA Knight just like a lot of other fans right now. He has caught fire with the fanbase and he’s one of the most over acts in the company. That doesn’t mean he’s getting buried because he doesn’t have a United States title match against Austin Theory at Summerslam. A year ago, he was Max Dupri, and he was a modeling agent managing a male model tag team. Once Triple H took over creative, he slowly started to transform back into LA Knight and once he finally ditched the modeling gig, he started feuding with Bray Wyatt that got Knight over with the fans when he was supposed to be the heel getting Wyatt’s new gimmick over. While I agree that not using him at WrestleMania sucked, he’s starting to gain real momentum that will likely lead to something good for him soon.

He’s turned babyface in recent weeks and is poised for a push after Summerslam. A lot of fans wanted him to win Money in the Bank last month, and while I rooted for him to win too, it makes sense for the current storylines for Damien Priest to hold the briefcase right now. I believe there is a strong chance that Finn Balor wins the World Heavyweight title which will put him in Priest’s crosshairs, adding a new layer to the Judgment Day’s story which could lead to Priest cashing in on Balor and feuding with him for the title. We criticized WWE for years about the lack of long-term booking. Now Triple H is giving us long-term booking and fans are criticizing booking that doesn’t give instant gratification. People were so mad about Cody losing at WrestleMania and now look, everything’s fine. Cody has lost NO momentum and the Bloodline story is still red hot.

Which brings me to perspective. In 1996, Stone Cold Steve Austin won the King of the Ring tournament and the Austin 3:16 speech launched him into superstardom. He didn’t win the WWE title until WrestleMania 14 TWO YEARS LATER. They had a plan and they stuck to it. They booked it well. Austin feuded with the Hart family for a whole year, moved on to Shawn Michaels at Mania, and got his crowning victory that led to him becoming arguably the biggest star in the history of wrestling. It’s perfectly fine that LA Knight isn’t in the absolute top spot right now. Triple H knows that he has a star with him and the way he’s getting booked on Smackdown reflects that. That doesn’t mean they just rip up all their other plans and give everything to LA Knight right away.

Even in AEW, Kenny Omega didn’t get the world title immediately and it turned out to be all part of the plan. He won the title, and his heel belt collector gimmick is still the best world title reign in AEW’s short history. Unless something goes horribly wrong, I trust Triple H and the other backstage powers in WWE with LA Knight’s career. I get it, they have a very spotty track record with this. That was then, this is now. Not everyone can immediately win the world title and main event WrestleMania. It’ll be fine.