Kevin Knight Says Wrestling Was His “Real-Life Anime” Growing Up

AEW’S Kevin Knight reflects on what led to his interest in professional wrestling.

Kevin Knight’s rise since joining All Elite Wrestling in March 2025 has been meteoric. The Jet recently captured the AEW TNT Championship at AEW Dynasty and has now opened up about what first drew him to professional wrestling.

In an interview with KATU News, Kevin Knight was asked what drew him to the wrestling industry, revealing that the sport felt like watching a real-life anime as he was growing up.

“I never grew up watching superhero movies and anime, stuff like that. So wrestling was my anime with real life characters, over the top storylines. Just seeing people just bring things to reality, I was just drawn to it from day one.”

-Kevin Knight

Kevin Knight made his professional wrestling debut in May 2019 before going on to join New Japan Pro-Wrestling as a Young Lion at the LA Dojo in July 2020. Now in All Elite Wrestling, the sky appears to be the limit for the rising star.

Last week’s episode of AEW Dynamite Spring BreakThru saw Kevin Knight successfully defend the AEW TNT Championship against Claudio Castagnoli in his first defence.

Following the bout, Kevin Knight revealed that, despite now holding the AEW TNT Championship, he also has his sights firmly set on capturing the AEW World Championship, currently held by Darby Allin.

For the latest updates on All Elite Wrestling and its roster, you can find more coverage here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on future plans for Kevin Knight as soon as we hear more.

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