Billy Corgan said that he was a huge fan of LA Knight and wanted to give him a push during his time with TNA/Impact Wrestling.

“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. 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,” said Corgan. “By the way, that was when he was, you know, seven, eight years younger than he is now.” 

He said that a complaint TNA management had with LA Knight — who went by the Eli Drake ring name in TNA — was his size.

“I think one thing that I think people would point to, from a booking point of view — again this was not my perspective, I heard it in the office there — was size,” Corgan explained. He believes, though, that Knight has the charisma, promo, and in-ring ability to be a star. 

He argued that WWE has traditionally been reluctant to immediately push stars that the crowd has gotten behind and usually does it at a slow pace. Knight did have one reign as world champion in Impact, which came in 2017.