Kevin Knight finally got his heel turn. Turns out, it might not have been the heel turn he wanted.
While talking about Knight’s alliance with Don Callis on Fightful’s The Hump, Sean Ross Sapp revealed he’d heard Knight wasn’t sold on the way AEW rushed into the split with Mike Bailey.
“Based on what I heard, it didn’t seem like he was keen on how the turn happened.”
Instead, Sapp said Knight wanted fans to actually get invested in the partnership before everything blew up. The idea wasn’t to throw the team away after a couple of big moments. It was to let Kevin Knight and Speedball Mike Bailey build something first… and then tear it all apart.
“There was definitely a different vision. I had heard he wanted the Speedball team to accomplish something first.”
Instead, AEW hit the gas. Knight betrayed Darby Allin after Double or Nothing. Days later, he tried to justify himself on Dynamite, only for Mike Bailey to walk out and confront him. Bailey offered him a chance to rethink everything. Knight answered by smashing Bailey in the face with a microphone.
A week later, Don Callis revealed Knight was the newest member of the Don Callis Family, officially completing his transformation into one of AEW’s newest villains.
Now, the man who wanted to spend more time building that story is headed into one of the biggest matches of his career against Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship at AEW Redemption.
Whether Knight ultimately got on board with AEW’s direction or not, this update suggests the original vision behind the Speedball partnership may have been very different from what fans ended up seeing on television.
Do you think AEW pulled the trigger on Kevin Knight’s heel turn too quickly, or did the company make the right call? Let us know in the comments below.
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