LA Knight got some invaluable insight from Paul Bearer during their time working together.
Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, LA Knight was asked about working with Percival Pringle III, better known to wrestling fans as Paul Bearer. The pair worked together in NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood prior to Knight joining TNA Wrestling as Eli Drake and he spoke very highly of the time they spent together.
“Three years that guy led me to the ring, and I love him. He was so good to me. Any time I ever had to ask him anything, it wasn’t even like he was willing to give it. It was beyond that. It was like he was so grateful to have an outlet to give any kind of advice or insight or anything like that. He thanked me profusely for asking, which to me shows an enormous sign of his character. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2013. He and I had his last televised show that he had at all. That was in California, but still, you’re talking big television market in LA, for Championship Wrestling in Hollywood, so that was pretty cool, to be a part of that. Unfortunately, like I said, shortly after that he did pass away. He was, even in that moment,” Knight pointed out, “gracious enough to call his assistant and just be like, ‘Hey, man, could you please leave this stuff for him,’ for me, and he left me some things in his name. So that was an amazing thing as well, the fact that he was thinking of me all the way out like that.”
Van Vliet asked if there was something that Bearer taught him that he now carries with him. Knight said there’s not just one thing, but he loved Bearer’s sense of humor and presence.
“I don’t know if I can really pinpoint one thing. There’s a certain aura in the way he carries himself and all that stuff. But at the same time, when you’re in the back with him and he’s just talking trash to people in the most playful, goofy way and whatnot, or somebody’s trying to do a promo over here into the camera, he’s behind the camera pulling his ass out and stuff like that, just ragging people and messing with people. He was the best,” Knight said. “But you get to a point where it’s like alright, now I’ve got to rise to the level where I look like I belong with this guy. Because this is the manager of legends. I mean if you look at, obviously The Undertaker, but you [look at] the Percy Pringle dynasty, Steve Austin, Rick Rude, a bunch of those guys. It’s like alright, I gotta be up to this level, if not beyond that, to be standing next to this guy. So I think if nothing else, it was just that his presence elevated me, or it made me elevate myself.”
Read More: LA Knight: This Character Is The Culmination Of All My Life’s Work
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