LA KNIGHT

After leaving Impact in 2019, Ricker signed with the recently-rebooted NWA, and held the NWA World Tag Team Championship (with James Storm) once. He left the NWA in 2021 to re-sign with WWE.

Ricker’s Return to WWE

On February 14, 2021, it was announced that Ricker had re-signed with WWE. He made his debut as a heel at NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day. At the event, it was revealed his new ring name would be LA Knight. At TakeOver: Stand & Deliver, Knight participated in a Gauntlet Eliminator for a future NXT North American Championship match, but was defeated. In May, Knight aligned himself with Ted DiBiase and he defeated Cameron Grimes in a ladder match for the re-introduced Million Dollar Championship at TakeOver: In Your House.

Knight later turned on DiBiase, attacking him during the title ceremony, before being driven off by Grimes. At The Great American Bash, Knight then defeated Grimes and as per the stipulation of the rematch, Grimes became Knight’s personal butler. On the August 10 episode of NXT, Knight agreed to defend the championship against Grimes at NXT TakeOver 36. The condition was however that if Knight won, DiBiase would replace Grimes as Knight’s personal butler. At the event, Knight lost the title to Grimes following interference from DiBiase, ending his reign at 70 days.

LA Knight’s Various Feuds

In October, Knight began a feud with Grayson Waller. On the November 23rd episode of NXT, a double turn took place; Waller turned heel by berating the fans, and Knight turned face by displaying fighting spirit attitude. Before his match with Joe Gacy, Knight was attacked by Waller. At WarGames, Knight teamed with Johnny Gargano, Pete Dunne, and Tommaso Ciampa as Team Black & Gold. They lost to Team 2.0 (Bron Breakker, Carmelo Hayes, Grayson Waller, and Tony D’Angelo) in a WarGames match.

In March, Knight started a brief feud with Gunther when he took offense at Knight getting an NXT Championship match by calling out Dolph Ziggler. The next week, Knight confronted Gunther after his match with Duke Hudson. He challenged him to a match at NXT Stand & Deliver, which he lost. This turned out to be his final NXT appearance.

LA Knight Moves to Main Roster

Knight made his first main roster appearance on the January 24, 2022 episode of RAW. At this appearance, he participated in a backstage segment with The Dirty Dawgs (Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode). On the January 27 episode of Main Event, Knight defeated Cedric Alexander in his first match on the main roster.

In a dark segment before the April 15 episode of SmackDown, Knight appeared as a villainous manager by announcing his new stable, “Knight Model Management.” He became the manager of Mace and Mansoor. On the May 20th episode of SmackDown, he made his televised debut on the brand under the ring name Max Dupri, revealing his stable Maximum Male Models.

Dupri announced Mace and Mansoor, under the tweaked names “ma.çé” and “mån.sôör”, as Maximum Male Models. He was joined by his storyline sister, Maxxine Dupri (formerly known as Sofia Cromwell from NXT). Dupri ended his relationship with Maximum Male Models on the September 30th episode of SmackDown. The following week, he beat down Mace and Mansoor and reverted to his LA Knight persona.

After a brief feud with Ricochet, Knight became involved in a feud with Bray Wyatt that culminated in a Mountain Dew Pitch Black match at the Royal Rumble, which he lost. As part of the 2023 WWE Draft, Knight stayed on SmackDown.

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