Despite its business relationship with WWE, ESPN remains committed to its mission to serve sports fans, a mission that includes being transparent, even about pro wrestling. That means calling out cold streaks just as it would for any athlete or team.
Case in point: LA Knight.
After a lukewarm review of Wrestlepalooza — WWE’s first premium live event on ESPN’s new streaming service — ESPN kept its fair and balanced tone in a Raw recap, where writer Arda Ocal highlighted “The Megastar’s” ongoing slump
after a loss to Jey Uso. Ocal wrote:
“LA Knight may never get a win again. Not on Raw, where Jey Uso got his revenge on Knight, who may have been biased toward The Vision in their tag team match against The Usos at Wrestlepalooza. With the spear and pin by Jey at Raw, LA Knight hasn’t won a televised singles match in almost two months. It feels like a victory would do him some good right about now.”
Knight’s last singles win came against Seth Rollins in July at Saturday Night’s Main Event, after Rollins appeared to suffer a knee injury. But a few weeks later, Rollins dropped the crutches and the act, cashing in his Money in the Bank contract to capture the World Title from CM Punk at SummerSlam.
Since then, Knight has gone 1–9 overall, including 0–4 in singles matches — a dismal stretch for one of WWE’s top fan favorites. His last win came via disqualification on the Aug. 11 episode of Raw, teaming with CM Punk against The Vision’s Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed.
Long before his losses began piling up, our own Cain A. Knight suggested in early August that Knight might have hit his peak in WWE, writing:
“It appears that LA has reached his ceiling in WWE, which puts him in a pretty good spot overall, but one that will likely never take him to a world championship.”
While he remains one of WWE’s most popular stars, Knight’s booking has been puzzling. After winning the United States Title twice, both reigns were treated as afterthoughts. His victory over Rollins looked more like a creative scramble to exit the match than a dominant performance.
Worse, his losses have been clean and emphatic — falling to Uso, Breakker, and Reed.
Still, all hope isn’t lost.
After all, this is WWE — the company that once booked Mark Henry in a romance storyline with a nearly 80-year-old Mae Young that infamously ended with the birth of a hand. Years later, Henry rebounded to become a world champion, headliner, and WWE Hall of Famer.
At 42, time isn’t on Knight’s side. But if he can maintain his connection with fans, there’s still a path forward. A strong showing at next year’s Money in the Bank — and a surprise cash-in — could give him the world title moment his supporters have been waiting for.
It wouldn’t be the traditional path for a babyface champion. However, with the right story, against the right heel, it could still deliver the kind of satisfying payoff that lifts Knight from also-ran to world champion in the blink of an eye.
