Shawn Michaels Fought For LA Knight When WWE Considered Firing Him

Highlights

• LA Knight's transition from heel to beloved babyface in WWE has made him one of the most over stars right now, with fans going crazy for him.
• Shawn Michaels, Knight's former boss in NXT, recognized his potential as a fan favorite and pushed for him to be given the opportunity to shine on the main roster.
• Without Michaels' support and belief in LA Knight, we may have missed out on his current success and the enjoyment he brings to the WWE Universe.

LA Knight might be the most over star in WWE right now, with crowds going crazy every single time his music hits. He's a beloved babyface now, however, not just recently, but all the way back in NXT, he worked as a heel. Still, even though it was his job to get booed, he oozed that cool charisma that was destined to make him a fan favorite.

His former boss in NXT, Shawn Michaels, recently talked to Busted Open Radio about Knight's time in NXT. "He was great for us. I don't want to divulge more than I probably should I guess, but he's a guy, he's one of those guys that thinks about it a lot and it gives a lot of thought. He seems so calm and reserved and cool on the surface, but he's the guy when you talk to him in private, he's very passionate about this and he wants to know everything. 'Is this going okay? Is that going okay?’

"I can remember when he started, we could see that, 'They like you. We're going to start moving you in that direction', and of course, he was very worried because, 'I haven't had a good heel run yet.' I was trying to explain to him, 'Buddy, they like you. I don't think that's a good idea for us to go ahead and fight that. Let's just go ahead and roll with it. One's as good as the other and if you sort of get over as a babyface, heck, when you turn, it'll be that much more heat.' I am not surprised by it."

RELATED: What Is The Identity Of WWE NXT Under Shawn Michaels' Leadership?

Shawn Michaels Pushed WWE To Keep LA Knight On The Roster

LA Knight's struggles to make it as a wrestler are well known. At the age of 40, he's just now making it on the biggest stage. He wrestled on the independents, along with IMPACT Wrestling and NWA for decades. He went viral weeks ago with all the weird and hilarious commercials he's done over the years in an effort to get himself noticed. On the WWE main roster he had to deal with those who said he was too old and wanted him to be a manager named Max Dupri.

It didn't look like he was going to make it in WWE, even going back to the beginning of his WWE run in NXT, but one of his loudest supporters was Shawn Michaels. "He's somebody that when he was here [in NXT], I will say this. I enjoyed him. I liked him. He's a grown man. I thought he was going to be a perfect fit for the main roster. There were times when we were having difficulty down here when it wasn't always maybe my call on some things, that I had to go to bat for some people and really had to make sure that, you know, I impressed on them, like, 'My goodness, you don't want to sleep on these people. You don't want to lose these people. Let's keep them around. Trust me on this' I'm very thankful that they did because again, LA Knight is a guy that is enjoying that right now, and again, I think the WWE Universe is enjoying LA Knight right now. He's somebody that I think's got a great future. I'm excited for him and I'm happy for him.” (h/t Cultaholic)

Thankfully, HBK spoke out on what he saw in LA Knight. If he hadn't, there's a good chance we wouldn't be chanting "YEAH!" with the megastar every Friday night on SmackDown.