Scrapped Plans For LA Knight To Win A World Title Revealed

While LA Knight is a former IMPACT World Champion, the then-Eli Drake almost became a world champion in another promotion.

Speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Billy Corgan revealed LA Knight was being groomed to defeat Nick Aldis for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship before he was granted his release from the National Wrestling Alliance to make his return to WWE. 

"When I was in the booking office of then-TNA, I was certainly one of his biggest fans. I pushed hard to get him more time. [He's] one of the great promos of all time, and that's not to take away anything from his wrestling. He is a main-event level ability in the ring, but we all know that if you can walk and talk, you hit that other echelon. It's great to see him hitting that now. He was being set up to be NWA Heavyweight Champion, and that's right around I think the time the pandemic hit. He was under an NWA contract, and it got to the point where it was like, I can't remember what it was, but me and him always did good business, no heat there," Corgan said.

"But it was obvious that he needed to go pursue other opportunities, and where I was standing at the time was just gonna hold him back. There was something there, but it was clearly understood that obviously it was built around Aldis for a while, but once Aldis was gonna drop the title, it was gonna clearly go to him. So it's a shame that it never happened because we would have had a lot of fun. Always great to work with him. I've always gotten on with him, and I'm very happy for him. He deserves every bit of success that's come his way because he's fought and clawed his way to get there."

Eli Drake signed with the NWA in the summer of 2019 and he remained a part of the promotion until early 2021. Drake would capture the NWA World Tag Team Titles during his time with the company with James Storm, eventually dropping the belts to Aron Stevens and JR Kratos. 

Knight returned to WWE in February 2021. He is currently a part of the Friday Night SmackDown roster and he is one of the most popular talents on WWE TV. 

H/T to Fightful