Serious or not, Kevin Nash’s comments about LA Knight are wrong

Big Diesel took a wrong turn with his recent take.

Scoping Cageside Seats for news, it should come as no surprise that the headline about Kevin Nash calling LA Knight a ripoff of The Rock caught my eye.

As a contributor and reader of this site, it would be easy to dismiss this story by saying, “It doesn’t matter what Kevin Nash thinks.”

Instead, I’m sitting here going, “What?”

For those who missed it or need a refresher, here is what Nash, aka Big Daddy Cool Diesel, had to say about WWE’s fast-rising star.

“Am I the only one that sees an absolute ripoff of The Rock? To the point where he cut the promo on fucking Logan Paul or whatever the fuck his name is, he said, ‘Yeah, stick it’ — the only thing he didn’t do was turn the motherfucker sideways. Jesus Christ. What, does everybody have amnesia? There’s nothing original. ‘Oh, man, his promo.’ His fucking promos. ’Finally, LA Knight has come back as a white guy.’ Fucking uncle.”

Before I dissect Nash’s comments, I must ask, can anyone not see the blatant similarities between Knight, Steve Austin, and The Rock? If someone asked me to describe LA Knight, I’d say, “If Stone Cold had a baby with The Rock, it would be LA Knight.”

Now whether being a ripoff is a bad thing is something I’ll get to in a minute. But I don’t understand the intention here, especially when one remembers how Nash spent almost his entire career surrounded by such exquisite knockoffs of Billy Graham, Ric Flair, Harley Race, The Crow, and Scarface Tony Montana.

While creating an authentic character is most favorable, taking inspiration from others isn’t the worst thing a wrestler can do, especially when it leads to something as good or better.

Thanks to Nature Boy Buddy Rogers, we got Nature Boy Ric Flair. Because of Pampero Firpo, Randy Savage’s “Oh yeah” continues to ring through the minds of old-school wrestling fans. Even the man Nash claims Knight is stealing from, The Rock, lifted one of his famous catchphrases, roody poo, from Iceman King Parsons.

Whatever similar mannerisms Knight exhibits, he has enough of his spin on it that his act is both a proper homage and a refreshing new take. Because his promo delivery is outrageous in an era of bland orators who mostly play it safe, it draws more attention to him and his cadence. Otherwise, if this were the 1980s, he’d be just another wrestler tossing out some variation of, “But the bottom line is this.”

Ultimately, the fans will help decide Knight’s fate.

In the ‘80s, wrestling had a third Nature Boy, Buddy Landel. Though he was a great speaker and a solid performer, crowds gave him the thumbs down because his twist on the Nature Boy gimmick made him look like the Great Value version of Ric Flair.

In WWE, fans first rejected Ax and Smash — Demolition — because they were deemed Road Warrior-wannabes, copycats of Hawk and Animal. But with time and a killer entrance track, Demolition was seen for what they were: a pair of devastating brutes who had exciting outings that just happened to share some similarities to The Road Warriors.

Getting back to Nash now, it’s hard to tell how serious he is. Maybe Knight’s presentation does rub Nash the wrong way.

Or maybe old Diesel is just talking out of his gas tank.

Regardless, Nash’s take was an unnecessary blast on a guy who is so entertaining that he’s the only wrestler to come out of a program with push-killer Bray Wyatt more over than he was when it started.

That alone makes Knight original.