LA Knight Says He Thought Max Dupri Character Was a Rib When He Was First Told

LA Knight believed his short-lived character of Max Dupri was a rib on him when he was first told about it. Knight debuted on the WWE main roster as Dupri, a manager who was starting his own modeling agency. The character didn’t last long and he eventually returned to the LA Knight character he played in NXT, and he told ESPN in a recent interview that he thought it was a joke at first.

“I thought they were ribbing me, I’m like, ‘What?,'” he recalled about first being told about the character. “They were like, ‘Yeah, you used to be a model, but now you have an agency. And I’m like, ‘F**k is this?'”

He continued, “It took a left turn of silliness, and I was just like, ‘this is not at all what we had talked about or discussed.’ And I don’t know whether that was on the wrestlers or what, but then I’m just like, I’m trying to keep it in a serious vein so we can move up the card. I mean, there’s a certain point where you get pigeonholed into just comedy and you’re stuck. You hit the ceiling pretty quick. I don’t want to be stuck there. … If it’s all comedy from start to finish, God, you’re dead.”

Knight is competing for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in a Fatal Four-Way match at the Royal Rumble on Saturday.