In recent months, WWE fans have seen the rise of LA Knight, a charismatic standout who debuted on NXT as a cocky heel only to arrive on the main roster as the modeling agent Max Dupri. In 2022, however, Dupri reverted to his LA Knight gimmick and has been gradually winning crowds over thanks to his superior promo skills.
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That said, before LA Knight even made it to the main roster, he enjoyed a 20-year career. Let's take a look at what Knight was up to in the wrestling game before signing to WWE in 2021, which includes not only indie work but also a run in Impact Wrestling.
Born Shaun Ricker in Maryland, LA Knight got his start training in Cincinnati's Heartland Wrestling Association, which at one time was a WWE developmental territory.
Initially debuting under the ring name Deuce in 2003, he ended up changing his moniker to Dick Rick and stuck around with the promotion all the way to 2009. During this run, the future LA Knight's opponents included such names as Nigel McGuinness, Sami Callihan, and Jon Moxley, who also trained with HWA and was even Knight's roommate at one point.
During his time working with the Heartland Wrestling Association, LA Knight ended up getting a couple of tryout matches with WWE. The first of these was actually televised, as Knight (as Dick Rick) and his aforementioned roommate Jon Moxley were taken out by The Big Show in a handicap match on a May 2006 episode of Heat.
Over two years later, Knight returned to a WWE ring in late 2008, teaming up with the already-established Snitsky in a losing effort against Cryme Tyme in a dark match before ECW on Sci Fi.
In 2009, LA Knight left the Midwest for the West Coast, where he quickly became a regular in the National Wrestling Alliance-affiliated Mach One Pro Wrestling in Anaheim, California. Working under his real name, Shaun Ricker formed a tag team with Brian Cage called Natural Selection and took on many of the SoCal mainstays at the time including Willie Mack, Brandon Cutler, Scorpio Sky, and the RockNES Monsters.
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Eventually, he moved further north from Anaheim to his future namesake. In the newly formed NWA promotion Championship Wrestling From Hollywood, Shaun Ricker held a number of championships and got a shot at the big belt when he took on Adam Pearce for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
Fans may be surprised to find out that LA Knight has something major in common with The Undertaker, Kane, and Rick Rude. During his time in SoCal, Shaun Ricker had a legendary manager in Percy Pringle III, better known to WWE fans as Paul Bearer.
Originally managing Natural Selection as part of his Pringle Dynasty stable, Pringle also managed Ricker when he split up with Brian Cage, going as far as setting up an entire tournament called the PP3 Cup just to get his client a title shot.
After coming up short in a Loser Leaves CWFH match against Scorpio Sky, Shaun Ricker signed to WWE for the first time in his career in 2013 as NXT's Full Sail era was in full swing.
Debuting under the ring name Slate Randall as part of the first Performance Center class, the newcomer started off not unlike most developmental talent, losing matches to established NXT talents of the day like CJ Parker, Mojo Rawley, and Baron Corbin. After about 15 months, however, Slate Randall was released from WWE In August 2014 without ever having a televised match.
By the spring of 2015, Shaun Ricker found a new home in Impact Wrestling, where he got a new ring name, Eli Drake. He initially debuted as part of Drew Galloway's babyface faction The Rising to feud with MVP's Beat Down Clan alongside Micah (a.k.a. Tanga Loa), but the group came to an end when BDC beat The Rising in a match where the losing team had to break up.
From there, Drake turned heel on Galloway, interfering in a title match and subsequently feuding with his former teammate.
While reaching a wider audience than before in Impact, Eli Drake soon developed a reputation as a great talker, with his catchphrases like "That's not an insult, that's just a fact of life" and tagging every sentence with YEAH carrying on to this day. Like many of the strong promos in wrestling, Drake ended up getting his very own talk show in the Impact Zone.
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Titled The Fact of Life, Drake had his own faux late-night talk show set, not to mention a "Dummy Button" atop his desk that he'd hit to spam an annoying sound bite of himself shouting "DUMMY, YEAH."
With promo skills and solid in-ring abilities, it was inevitable that Eli Drake would start earning championships in Impact. In addition to the King of the Mountain Championship - formerly the Legends Title and the TV Title - and a short Tag Title run with Scott Steiner, Drake also reached the actual mountain top of the promotion.
In August 2017, Eli Drake won a 20-man gauntlet match to capture the vacant Impact World Title, which he held for 146 days before dropping it to Austin Aries.
After departing Impact in 2019, Eli Drake found himself in the National Wrestling Alliance, which had been recently purchased by Smashing Pumpkins frontman and would-be Impact owner Billy Corgan. Continuing to work under the Eli Drake name, Drake was a regular on NWA Powerrr, where he formed a tag team with fellow Impact alum James Storm.
At the January 2020 pay-per-view Hard Times, Drake and Storm dethroned The Rock 'n' Roll Express to capture the NWA World Tag Team Championship, which they held for 291 days, after which Drake was released from the company.
Eli Drake's departure from Impact was in 2019 - coincidentally, the same year that All Elite Wrestling started up. Some fans had assumed/hoped Drake would end up signing with the new promotion, but this was more than just a pipe dream.
AEW and Eli Drake were actually in talks to the point where Drake had an entrance theme in place and a contract to sign. However, Eli Drake never became All Elite, instead opting to sign with WWE, where he debuted in February 2021 as LA Knight.