Kevin Knight Says He Got Close to Giving Up On Wrestling In 2021 & 2022

Kevin Knight is a star in AEW now, but he says there were times early on that he was close to calling it quits. The former AEW TNT Champion spoke with Hot 100.9 for a new interview promoting tonight’s AEW Dynamite and Collision.

During the interview, Knight was asked if there were timed before he hit it big that he considered walking away. He pointed to his time in the NJPW dojo as a time that was difficult for him mentally, and talked about why he kept at it. You can see highlights below:

On If He Ever Got Close to Hanging It Up:

“100%. I remember those nights man, in the dojo during the pandemic where it seems like there’s no end goal. Like, ‘What are we training for? We in here doing 500 squats for what, Shibata? We can’t go to Japan anyway. So like, what’s the point?’ There was definitely a few times during that time period where I was like, I didn’t see the end goal. One, because I didn’t grow up watching New Japan wrestling. So, I didn’t know like what a young lion turns into and the excursion, and all this, that or whatever. And the pandemic put on top of that was like such a damper, you know? So, there was a few times like in 2022, 2021 where I was like, ‘Man, I’m about to call it quits.”

On What Kept Him Going:

“But what really kept me going was like, honestly I can’t do the regular IT — I got a degree in IT before I got into wrestling. So I know what it’s like to clock in every day, drive an hour to work, get a 30-minute lunch break, and do the same thing all over and over again. So I was like, ‘I can go through this little rough period. It’s better to me than having a mundane lifestyle.’ I just need something to live for. So wrestling just always gave me something to look forward to.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Hot 100.9 with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.