LA Knight has become one of WWE’s top stars in 2023. But when he arrived on the main roster, he was presented as Max Dupri, the manager of Maximum Male Models. The group’s run on the main roster stalled before Knight was repackaged and Mace and Mansoor were ultimately released.
Speaking on Café De René with Rene Dupree, Mace and Mansoor were asked whether they had heat with LA Knight. They made it clear that was not the case.
Mace: “No. Honestly, if anybody else was in that position, especially him, he has been doing this LA Knight, but it’s really just a variation of what he’s been doing schtick, that’s what got him to the dance. For him to even have put up with having to be our manager, knowing how big he could have been in his own, as soon as that opportunity comes up, I would have slapped him in the face if he didn’t take that opportunity [laughs].”
Mansoor: “I didn’t expect anything else. To be fair to LA, when it came time to finally debut the act on TV, Vince was riding his ass.”
Mace: “The real tea is that he was almost gone based on I guess his performance, or how Vince felt about his performance in that role. We would come back from these segment-long fashion shows, and we’d get to the back, and Vince would be like, ‘Boys, that was great. You looked amazing.’ Then he’d come up, and he’d be like, ‘That was awful. Did you know your line?’ He would just rail into him every time. He would walk away, and we’d have to calm him down because he was seconds from just exploring. It was brutal for him.”
Mace: LA Knight Was The Wrong Casting For Max Dupri
Mansoor went on to describe how, from what he understood, Dupri was supposed to be soft-spoken and fragile, which was the complete opposite of Knight. He and Mace both stated that Knight was the wrong casting for the role.
Mansoor: “From what I understand, Max Dupri was supposed to be a soft-spoken, sensitive fragile little wuss. But the problem is, LA is this buff, f*cking jacked dude, body guy, confident, charismatic.”
Mace: “Completely wrong casting.”
Mansoor: “I think it was just a miscast. For some reason, because of that miscast, the heat was getting put on LA, which was totally unfair.”
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