Booker T Weighs In On Whether LA Knight Is A Rip-Off Of Steve Austin Or The Rock
LA Knight has become one of the most popular stars on WWE's main roster in recent months, though some people have been critical of his act. While he is often compared to The Rock and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in a positive way, some have disparaged the "WWE SmackDown" star for pulling too much from the wrestling legends. The most notable of these critics is Kevin Nash, who tore into Knight on a recent episode of his podcast.
However, not all WCW legends feel this way about Knight. For "NXT" commentator Booker T, while he deemed some of Nash's criticisms valid, he ultimately disagrees with them. Booker T spoke about Nash's harsh comments on this week's episode of "The Hall of Fame" podcast alongside Brad Gilmore. "You can look at it in a couple of different ways I guess. You could say, 'Well he's ripped a lot of Stone Cold Steve Austin off,' [or], 'he's got a lot of The Rock's cadence,'" Booker admitted before adding, "I can see that, but I don't look at that as [him] being a rip-off."
Booker then discussed his personal views of adopting things from other wrestlers to grow and stand out as a performer, noting that he did that during his career, as well. "I definitely took a lot of things from a lot of different wrestlers and kind of like meshed it into everything that I did and I called it my own," the WWE Hall of Famer admitted. Booker T added, "I think that's just what wrestlers do, especially the good ones!"
The "NXT" commentator went on to recall other historical gimmicks and styles that were recreated throughout the generations, noting that both Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan drew influences from their predecessors. "I don't look at it as a bad thing," Booker concluded.