LA Knight hasn’t forgotten what WWE fans in Saudi Arabia did for him in May.
Although The Megastar (as he’s nicknamed) wasn’t even on the bill to compete at Night of Champions, an extraordinary scene emerged as fans passionately chanted his name while interrupting chief content officer Triple H during a press conference ahead of the event.
“The craziest part was, I'm sitting in the hotel, and all of a sudden I'm getting all these tags and notifications on Instagram and Twitter,” Knight tells The National.
“‘They're chanting his name at the press conference, and he's not even on the show.' And there's Triple H at the podium doing a press conference, and all the people here in Saudi Arabia are chanting my name.”
Now, five months later, Knight – real name Shaun Ricker – finally got his chance in the spotlight as he took on Undisputed WWE Universal champion Roman Reigns in an anticipated main event match at Crown Jewel in Riyadh last week. Although it ended in a losing effort, Knight was still appreciative of the opportunity.
Speaking ahead of the event, Knight says: “That's pretty wild. To go from that about five or six months ago to now being in the main event for the WWE Championship at the very next show here in Saudi Arabia.
“Some might say that's too much, too quick. But if you look at the way that things are moving, and the way things were happening, it might be just right.”
Knight’s rise to stardom has been swift but unsurprising. He began his wrestling career two decades ago, starting on the independent circuit in 2003. After working with smaller promotions, he was signed to a development deal with the WWE in 2013 but was released a year later.
After wrestling for other promotions, Knight returned to the WWE in 2021 as part of NXT where he won the Million Dollar Championship. However, once he was bumped up to the main roster, he was rebranded as a smug and villainous talent agent named Max Dupri, who led a stable of wrestlers called Maximum Male Models. But after 10 months, he left the group – and character – behind, returning instead as LA Knight.
Although Knight says his previous role wasn’t right for him, it did offer a bigger audience to showcase his promotional skills and charisma, helping win fans over in the process. While there is no doubt that he is on the right path these days, could he still have found similar success as Max Dupri?
“I’m not really good with hypotheticals,” he says. “Would I have made it work to some degree? Sure. Would it have been like this? I don't know. At the same time, was I completely miscast? Yeah, totally. That was not for me. But again, could I make it work? Sure.”
One reason Knight believes he’s become popular with fans so quickly is because of the authenticity he provides while in character.
“If you look at the trajectory of everything coming out of that, I have no business being where I am right now. I have absolutely no business having any credibility coming out of that,” he says. “The difference is you go from something like that – that was so absurd – to now me just being able to be me and going out and doing my thing. And somehow one way or another, it’s connected.”
Knight says he still remembers when things began to shift as live audiences became more responsive towards him. He recalls a moment in March when he walked out to the ring and there was a different reaction than what he was expecting. As the weeks went on, the cheers just continued to grow. While some people may have thought his popularity was just a fleeting fad, Knight says he is the real deal.
“You're talking about now, seven months of that, a lot of people might be like: ‘Oh, maybe it's just a flash in the pan’. Flash in the pan doesn't stay this consistent that long,” he says. “So at this point, I think we're beyond that marker. And at this point is just kind of like, all right, cool. This is what it is. How do we keep it fresh? How to keep moving forward? And at this point, it's just me doing my thing.”
Of course, with rising stardom inevitably comes criticism. Some wrestling fans compare Knight's character to former WWE wrestling greats such as The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin – which is not the worst list to be on.
However, Knight isn’t fazed, saying while he has been influenced by the greats, it's something that has always been the case with wrestlers throughout history, citing how Dusty Rhodes inspired Hulk Hogan and “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers did the same for Ric Flair.
“Now would you say they were complete rip-offs? I wouldn't,” he says. “I would say they took elements of those personalities and plugged them into themselves. Fair enough.
“But anyway, with that being the case for me, say what you want, I don’t care. People always want something to compare. And people always want something to say: ‘Oh, he reminds me of this guy. Cool.'
“Well, at some point down the line, somebody's going look at somebody else and say: ‘Oh man, that guy reminds me of LA Knight. He's just trying to be LA Knight.' But that happens all the time.”
Despite his rising popularity, Knight remains grateful to those who helped him get where he is today, including the fans in Jeddah who chanted his name. He also knows that the road ahead – and keeping up the hype – won't be easy.
“For me to come from people chanting my name at a show that I wasn't even on to now headlining the damn thing – it's a pretty wild story to consider, and everybody gets to come along and have that ride with me,” he says.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Results
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,600m; Winner: RB Kings Bay, Abdul Aziz Al Balushi (jockey), Helal Al Alawi (trainer)
7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: AF Ensito, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash
8pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m; Winner: AF Sourouh, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
8.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m; Winner: Baaher, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel
9pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Mootahady, Antonio Fresu, Eric Lemartinel
9.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Dubai Canal, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar
10pm: Al Ain Cup – Prestige (PA) Dh100,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Harrab, Bernardo Pinheiro, Majed Al Jahouri
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
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CREW
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START-UPS%20IN%20BATCH%204%20OF%20SANABIL%20500'S%20ACCELERATOR%20PROGRAMME
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Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
What it means to be a conservationist
Who is Enric Sala?
Enric Sala is an expert on marine conservation and is currently the National Geographic Society's Explorer-in-Residence. His love of the sea started with his childhood in Spain, inspired by the example of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau. He has been a university professor of Oceanography in the US, as well as working at the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Bio-Economy. He has dedicated his life to protecting life in the oceans. Enric describes himself as a flexitarian who only eats meat occasionally.
What is biodiversity?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, all life on earth – including in its forests and oceans – forms a “rich tapestry of interconnecting and interdependent forces”. Biodiversity on earth today is the product of four billion years of evolution and consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The term ‘biodiversity’ is relatively new, popularised since the 1980s and coinciding with an understanding of the growing threats to the natural world including habitat loss, pollution and climate change. The loss of biodiversity itself is dangerous because it contributes to clean, consistent water flows, food security, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The natural world can be an ally in combating global climate change but to do so it must be protected. Nations are working to achieve this, including setting targets to be reached by 2020 for the protection of the natural state of 17 per cent of the land and 10 per cent of the oceans. However, these are well short of what is needed, according to experts, with half the land needed to be in a natural state to help avert disaster.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The biog
Name: Abeer Al Bah
Born: 1972
Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992
Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old
Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
The Disaster Artist
Director: James Franco
Starring: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogan
Four stars
