WWE: LA Knight on Origin of Max Dupri, Ricochet on Vince McMahon’s Creative Involvement, Edge

LA Knight Comments on Origin of Max Durpi Character & WWE’s Original Main Roster Plans for Him

The Daily Mail held a recent interview with LA Knight. One of the topics discussed included LA Knight revealed that the origin of his Max Durpi character was WWE officials not wanting him to wrestle on the main roster and only work as a manager due to concerns over his age.

“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.

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.

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.”

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Ricochet Comments on Vince McMahon’s Level of Involvement with WWE’s Creative

SPORF held a recent interview with Ricochet. One of the topics discussed included Ricochet’s thoughts on WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon’s current involvement with WWE’s creative process.

“Vince is still involved and Vince is still talked to. He’s still someone that everyone looks to, especially with creative. So he’s got his fingers in everything too. I think Triple H and everybody in creative is just trying to do the best they can in bringing out the best in who they have. They’re trying to work to everyone’s strengths. I think that’s something that Triple H has always done. They want to grow the brand as much as possible. Whether it’s Raw or SmackDown or NXT. They’re trying to highlight the strengths of everybody. I think it’s been great so far. Everybody sees the popularity of the brand now, so they just want to expand it as much as possible. I think what they’ve been doing recently with everybody has been great. Everybody’s been going out there and giving it their all.”

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Edge Comments on 25th Anniversary of His WWE Debut

Edge recently reflected on Twitter about Thursday being the 25th anniversary of his official debut in WWE.

“25 years ago today was my first match as Edge on television. Millions of miles, millions of faces, amazing experiences, lots of injuries, accomplishments that didn’t even exist when I started, but way more laughs than anything else. Having a second chance to do this has filled me with gratitude. I’ve had an opportunity to get in the ring with a whole new generation of amazing talent and introduce Edge to a whole new generation of fans. That alone makes it a win. I’ve been able to make a living doing the only job I ever dreamed of. I know how rare that is. Thanks for watching Edge all these years.”

25 years ago today was my first match as Edge on television. Millions of miles, millions of faces, amazing experiences, lots of injuries, accomplishments that didn’t even exist when I started, but way more laughs than anything else. Having a second chance to do this has filled me… pic.twitter.com/aXqNNK5MoA

— Adam (Edge) Copeland (@EdgeRatedR) June 22, 2023