WWE's Money In The Bank Premium Live Event offered up a night full of big surprises, though many who tuned in with their Peacock Premium subscription were let down by one aspect of the show. L.A. Knight entered the men's ladder match as a heavy fan favorite to win the briefcase, which would have awarded him a contract to a title match of his choosing at any time, but he fell short to Judgment Day's Damian Priest. Now, pro wrestling legend Kevin Nash is making rounds on the internet with his latest comments about the superstar ripping off Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and I think he's overreacting.
Kevin Nash dedicated a segment on the latest episode of his podcast Kliq This to L.A. Knight, and he didn't exatly have kind things to say. Nash wanted his listeners to know that he doesn't at all understand the hype behind the rising SmackDown superstar and that all he's seen from the up-and-coming athlete, whose real name is Shaun Ricker, is someone whose gimmick and mic approach are perhaps a bit too close to The Rock's. In Nash's words:
Am I the only one who sees like an absolute ripoff of The Rock? To the point that when he cut a fucking promo on Logan Paul or whatever the fuck his name is, the only thing he didn't do was turn the mother fucker sideways! Jesus Christ. Does everybody have amnesia? There's nothing original–' Oh man, his promos,' his promos, 'FINALLY, L.A. KNIGHT HAS COME BACK AS A WHITE GUY.'
The WWE Hall of Famer went on to criticize LA Knight's roster photo on the company website, claiming he attempted the infamous eyebrow used by The Rock and many others. He also joked about Knight having texted him with the idea for his new gimmick being "The Scorpion King," an obvious nod at one of Dwayne Johnson's first roles in Hollywood. Overall, I found Nash's ranting segment bizarre, and I kind of think he's gone a bit overboard with his reactions to the whole situation in general.
If L.A. Knight was borrowing from The Rock's persona, which is arguable, he's hardly the first superstar to make a name for himself doing so. One could definitely make the argument greats like Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan borrowed heavily from the persona of the late wrestling superstar Billy Graham on their rise to the top, and that plenty of superstars emulated Flair and Hogan over the past four decades. Even Kevin Nash himself comes from a long line of imposing tall wrestlers whose main gimmick was being intimidating muscle to back up other talents. (Nobody's calling out Nash's Oz as being a ripoff, though, because of course not.)
Let's not forget that when Kevin Nash left the WWE with Scott Hall, the organization replaced their characters with other wrestlers. The new "Diesel," Glenn Jacobs, would later go on to wrestling infamy as Kane after the initial gimmick failed. It's enough that I do wonder if that incident factored into Nash's current distaste for wrestlers borrowing other superstars' elements and working them into their acts.
Another possible explanation is that Kevin Nash's rant is tied to guilt from his own past treatment of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. By his own admission, Nash said he was a "dick" to Rock back in 2002, and publicly apologized to him for it decades later. Perhaps Nash feels as though he's doing The Rock a solid by speaking out about L.A. Knight before The Rock may feel compelled to. Not that Johnson needs any former colleagues looking out for him.
What I find the most bizarre about Kevin Nash's rant is that he admitted during the segment that he's never met or talked to L.A. Knight, so I don't really understand what he's doing here if the bashing is entirely random and unwarranted. It's not like Nash is in any condition to step in the ring and have some sort of in-ring heat with him, and I don't think Knight would even want to entertain the idea after this podcast. I'll be curious to see whether or not Knight addresses these comments during his next TV appearance, or if he'll just continue to captivate the crowd with his charisma and hilarious promo work that may or may not resemble those of other wrestlers.
L.A. Knight is a staple on SmackDown, which airs on Fox on Fridays at 8:00 p.m. ET. With Money In The Bank out of the way, we're on the road to Summerslam, and now will be a great time to watch and see what matches are set up for one of the biggest upcoming WWE events of the year.
