Interactions between professional wrestlers and traditional media have a history of not going well when it comes to joking around about the nature of the business. As WWE stars Grayson Waller and LA Knight were in Australia to promote the upcoming Elimination Chamber premium live event in Perth, one morning show found that out the hard way.
During the interview on the Seven Network, Sunrise host Natalie Barr asked Knight to perform his finishing move, the BFT, on the show’s floor manager for a laugh. Knight cooly played it off while saying that if he did the maneuver, it wouldn’t go well for the crew member, and passed it off to Waller.
The floor manager then got up and pretended to shadow box Waller. At that moment, the native Australian went off on the program.
“I don’t think you understand, if I come over there right now we’re going to have the police here because I’m not going to give you some punch. I’m going to punch you straight in the jaw,” Waller said.
Waller then ranted about feeling disrespected by the stunt and by the other host Matt Shirvington, who then sheepishly hid behind the couch momentarily.
Knight’s calm, bemused look while all this went down made it all the better.
Waller plays a cocky heel on WWE TV and with the nature of professional wrestling, it’s impossible to tell if he was legitimately fired up, or just stepping into character for a moment. After all, he did have a little laugh as the segment concluded. The beauty of the art of professional wrestling is that maybe we’re not supposed to be able to tell if it was real or a genius act of trying to protect kayfabe in the modern day.
Regardless, that stage manager should be thankful he didn’t go down in the history books of other television personalities who angered pro wrestlers like John Stossel and Richard Belzer. Stossel was famously slapped in the face by “Dr. D,” David Schultz when filing a 20/20 report while Belzer passed out when put in a headlock by Hulk Hogan when hosting his late night show. At least there won’t be any lawsuits this time.
