LA Knight just revealed his casual dining Mount Rushmore, and it has nothing to do with the food. The WWE Superstar ranked the four restaurants where he used to wait tables, and the stories include multiple firings and a stretch of payday loans.
Knight stopped by TMZ’s Inside the Ring, where the hosts closed the interview with a question about his favorite chain restaurants. They had done their homework and knew about his early gig at Ruby Tuesday, but Knight flipped the question and said he’d name the four places he actually worked.
When the hosts asked if he still enjoys the food, Knight admitted he rarely eats out at all: “I almost never, if I’m honest, I almost never eat out.” His main experience with the menu came from leftovers that never made it to a customer.
“I enjoy their food when something would die on the line, and then it was just like, ‘Oh, this person didn’t want their food,’ and it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll munch on that.’”
Ruby Tuesday made the list first, followed by TGI Fridays. After he was let go from Fridays, Knight landed at Applebee’s, where he apparently became a revolving-door employee.
Uh, yeah, plenty of times. Okay. Uh, so I mean, you mentioned I’m going to have to say Ruby Tuesday. My next one was TGI Fridays. And after I got fired from there, I think I worked at Applebee’s probably three or four separate times. I think at least two of those times I got fired.”
One host joked that it must take a lot to get fired from Applebee’s, but LA Knight said the reasons were never dramatic.
“I never got fired for anything crazy. It was usually like I was late too many times or something like that.”
The fourth spot is where the story got rough. Knight worked at the Cheesecake Factory in Brentwood, California, which has since closed, and he did not hold back about the experience, as he said: “Worst serving job of my life.”
A host assumed the tips at a pricey chain like that must have been great, but Knight said the money never materialized. He even had to turn to payday loans to cover his bills. The problem, he explained, was how heavily the restaurant staffed its floor.
“I think that was probably the one job that I had where I had to take out payday loans, like… a little too regularly to pay my rent. They didn’t want any of us having any more than three tables at a time. And if you’re not the closer there, you’re maybe leaving with 30, 40 bucks.”
Today Knight is main eventing WWE shows and selling out arenas, a long way from sneaking leftover plates off the line and scraping together rent money. His restaurant résumé is a good reminder that even the biggest stars in wrestling had to grind through some rough early jobs first.
Tell us about the worst job you ever had in the comments, and let us know what stories you’d like to see more of.
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