LA Knight Wins United States Championship

Knight has had a long journey in pro wrestling, but SummerSlam now ranks as one of his career highlights

CLEVELAND, OHIO – LA Knight is the new United States Champion.

He did it by defeating Logan Paul, who is his complete opposite in professional wrestling. Knight–who is 41-year-old Shaun Ricker–is a 21-year veteran of the craft. For the vast majority of his career, he was overlooked by WWE.

U! S! CHAMP!
YEAH!#SummerSlam pic.twitter.com/xmLEedW0PQ

— WWE (@WWE) August 4, 2024

Paul, however, is an altogether different story. This was only the eleventh singles matches of his career, and he was vaulted to success in WWE as a result of his popularity outside of it. Fittingly, Paul was accompanied to the ring by Machine Gun Kelly–whose brass knuckles did not help Paul win the match. And a bigger picture here was at play, as Knight, who has made a life out of this career, overcame Paul.

Huge Superplex from La Knight! #SummerSlam pic.twitter.com/SSO6tK3UtF

— Diego Loveridge (@diego_loveridge) August 4, 2024

The two had a competitive, physical match, with the highlight a top rope superplex from Knight. Back-to-back title changes indicates that the world title is not changing hands in the main event, which means Cody Rhodes will exit SummerSlam as WWE Champion.

This was the right call. It starts Knight’s first title run on the main roster, and there is still potential that it propels him into the world title picture, which was the original purpose of the U.S. title.