LA Knight addresses crowd reaction concerns in recent interview

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ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 27: LA Knight enters the ring during RAW at Honda Center on October 27, 2025 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/WWE via Getty Images) For pretty much the entirety of his second stint at WWE, LA Knight has been at the center of debates about whether WWE listens to its fans and, if so, how those reactions influence creative. That’s certainly been true since Knight fell short in his efforts to win the World Heavyweight title last summer, which seemed to cement his place in the company’s upper mid-card. In a sit-down interview with Chris Van Vliet released today (June 4), Knight addressed those reactions. The two-time United States champion didn’t exactly say what WWE does with that audience feedback, but did offer a theory as to why he’s not getting quite the pop he was last year: “I think there were a lot of people leaning on the idea that that [the huge reactions he was getting last year] was going to be a fad. There were a lot of people leaning on the idea that was going to be a flavor of the month, that that was going to be a passing thing. “Here we are in 2026. I walked in the ring last night — now you could argue, yeah, maybe the reactions aren’t quite as big as they were at that time. I’m going to tell you why that is in a second. But if you noticed last night, I still circle around, I get the thing, and I stand there and they still chant the name. “Now you could say that’s programming, you could say that’s passion, you could say it’s whatever it is. Bottom line is — it’s still there. However, the reason it’s not as big as it was is because right now I’m just kind of a man without a country so to speak. I’m not really doing, I don’t have a set trajectory at this moment. If you look at last year, last summer when I started all of a sudden, me and Seth [Rollins] were going at it for the title and it’s me and The Vision, there it was renewed again. “So it’s a matter of just making sure that I’ve got direction, I’ve got somewhere to go and I’ve got somewhere that people care about, something that people can sink their teeth into, that then takes it up from an 8 up to a 10 and beyond. And so I think that’s really just the key to the whole thing. And it’s kind of crazy that it’s kept on this long when I don’t think a lot of people were counting on that being the case.” Regardless, Knight says it’s gratifying to have a solid spot in WWE after his years of bouncing around TNA, NWA, and the independents. He says WWE gives him free rein in his promos (outside of occasional reminders about branding), and his schedule is full even if we don’t see him on our screens every week. Though Knight was part of a WrestleMania 42 match with Logan Paul and IShowSpeed, his biggest angle of the year may have been when he and Cody Rhodes shockingly eliminated Brock Lesnar from the Royal Rumble match in Saudi Arabia a couple months before. Fan footage later appeared to show Lesnar audibling for his elimination… Brock Lesnar heard Jey Uso's music then told Cody Rhodes and LA Knight to eliminate him. pic.twitter.com/QiuQiqcjgj — Promo Joe (@PromoJoeYT) February 23, 2026 The 43-year-old Knight wouldn’t say much, other than… “I did [eliminate Lesnar from the Rumble]. I’ll tell that story someday, but it feels too new and fresh to me. But I’ll just say things went differently than they were supposed to.“ Check out LA Knight’s entire conversation with CVV below, and weigh in on these quotes in the comments below that!