Kevin Knight became a free agent in early 2025 when his contract with NJPW expired.
Knight would eventually sign with AEW at the end of March, but had interest from WWE. PWInsider reported Knight had a tryout with WWE.
Speaking to Adrian Hernandez of Unlikely, Knight was asked about his WWE tryout.
"I wouldn't say disrespectful. I understand how the business works. WWE is a machine and sometimes there may be a bubble and they may not know exactly what's out there. I didn't take it as disrespect, if anything, I took it as a challenge just to show what I'm about. If they didn't know me before, they definitely do now or they did when I walked through those doors. I'm going to make a statement anywhere I go. That was a great experience as well. I'm glad I got to do that. I got to meet a lot of people in that company and it was great just being able to work with people so closely that you see on TV every week and see on the PLEs. For me, it was a great learning experience. I didn't take any slight to it. I understand how the business works. If anything, it was a networking opportunity and exhausting all of my options. I feel like I only grew from that, seeing how they work, what they're looking for, and seeing the environment that's there. It's so different than me coming from the LA Dojo where there are only four of us in a class with Shibata and our teacher can't speak English. TNA and AEW don't have a training facility, per se, so to see how they do it, it was a cool way to see how different they do things. It was a positive experience for me overall," he said.
Knight was announced as being All Elite following his match on AEW Collision against Jay White.
Elsewhere during the interview, Knight revealed he also signed a deal with NJPW. You can find his full comments here.
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