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The Long Storied Career of Thomas Knight Is Finally Over

Posted: Aug 26th 2016 By: CMBurnham

He is something of a legend in the circles of Oklahoma pro wrestling.

He as been called many things. Royalty. A Vampire. A Chick Manet.

He as successfully served as both a referee and a wrestler.

But now, it is all over for Thomas Knight.

From his humble beginnings at the end of WCCW in 1989, Thomas Knight learned the trade of pro wrestling, along with his twin brother Jeff Knight. Both together as the New York Express and separately, Thomas has been a reliable fixture on the Oklahoma Indy scene for the past 10 years.

Most of that time has been spent as a referee all over the state, but periodically, Thomas would get the itch to put back on the tights and step back into the ring to compete. And, to be honest, it was rarely a successful venture. More often than not, Thomas found himself staring at the lights by the time his match was over.

A couple of years ago, Thomas and Jeff, fresh off successful appearances in North Carolina, made their way back to Oklahoma and entered ComPro. This was beginning of a magical time for Thomas as finally, everything seemed to fall into place. The New York Express won the ComPro Tag Team titles in front of a packed crowd on December 6, 2014, defeating the Swamp Men and Spanish Wolf for the then-vacant belts. It seemed that finally, Thomas and Jeff were going to get the respect they felt they deserved.

But things started to fall apart almost as soon as they were put together. A parting of the ways between the brothers left Thomas with no partner to defend the titles with and even with the help of the Swamp Men in a 3-on-2 Handicap Match, he lost those titles to Spanish Mayhem on January 24th, 2015. But shortly after that, Knight found camaraderie among the membership of La Famiglia, beside Wade Argento, Luke Grayson and Patient Zero. Pairing himself with Grayson, La Famiglia was able to bring the ComPro Tag Team Titles into their hands when they defeated Seth Angel and Adrian Dell June 25, 2015. Almost 3 months of domination of those tag team belts was the result, but all good things eventually come to an end. And that end came on October 17, 2015 when Terry Montana & Mighty Mouse took the belts away from La Famiglia. Once again, Knight found himself without his regular partner to defend the titles as Patient Zero had been kicked out of the group by that point and had taken partial revenge by putting Luke Grayson in a body bag and carrying him out of the arena the week before this title match. This forced Knight to team with Wade Argento and while they may have been stablemates, they were not regular tag team partners. And with the added presence in that match of Spanish Wolf and The Wrecking Crew, there seemed little hope for Thomas to walk away still a champion.

From that time forward, Knight has never seen gold again. But as he approached 50-years old, he knew there was one thing he wanted to do before leaving the sport he loved: Win a Heavyweight Title. And when he was able to gain a DQ victory over The Canadian Red Devil, who was the #1 contender tho the ComPro Title, this opened a door for him. Thanks to some heavy politicking by ComPro Oklahoma X Division Champion Nathan Estrada, Knight was granted a title shot at Richie Adams on August 12th. Knight was even able to have all of La Famila at ringside with him. And it appeared at first that the numbers game was going to work in his favour as Mr. Chale hopped up on the ring apron towards the end of the match, which drew the attention of Adams. Knight charged in towards Adams, but Adams seemingly had eyes in the back of his head and side-stepped, which caused Knight to collide with Chale. Adams then rolled Knight up for the victory.

Thins were not over yet, though as La Famila all entered the ring and began to attack the champion after the match. This brought The Canadian Red Devil out to make the save. CRD and Adams immediately had words with each other, which did nothing but please La Familia. They waited patiently until the verbal banter was over and then Estrada stepped forward and challenged Adams on behalf of Knight to a rematch. Double or Nothing. And to show everyone that he was serious about this, he announced that the career of Thomas Knight would be on the line as well!

This was not something that Estrada seemed to have consulted Knight about prior to doing it and the look on the face of Knight revealed that it may have been an unwelcome surprise. But it also seemed to motivate Knight as reports indicated that he was in the gym preparing for this match harder than any other match he ever had. He knew this was it. He either walked out of ComPro the champion or he walked out forever.

Last Friday, Knight stepped into the ring, followed afterwards by Adams. The intensity in the atmosphere was incredible. Fans knew this was a match for the ages. Adams immediately went to work with chain wrestling and Knight had difficulty keeping up. But when Knight started using the distraction of the La Famila members at ringside, things looked like they would turn around. Then, the shocking moment as Knight executed a Pedigree in the middle of the ring and rolled Adams over. The referee counted 1....2....and somehow before the 3 count, Adams shot a shoulder up! There was still life in the champion. Sensing his opportunity, Knight positioned Adams for a second Pedigree, but Adams reversed it and locked Knight into a submission hold.

Knight fought. He fought with every ounce of breath in his body. He fought with all the heart a former champion could muster.

But in the end, Knight had no choice but to tap out.

After the match, La Familia entered the ring and Nathan Estrada took the microphone to address their stablemate. Nathan said that Thomas had a long career and had been in La Familia since the beginning. And then Nathan revealed his true intentions as he said that Thomas had never been good enough for La Familia. All the members of the group began to attack the broken, defenceless now ex-wrestler and only the help of Gavin Dixon prevented unknown levels of damage from happening.

But with that act, Thomas Knight is now off the active roster for ComPro. And while the stories will continue to circulate and the tales will continue to be told, Thomas will have to simply be content to bask in the glory of a career that was, perhaps, full of maybes. Of could-have-beens. And to know that he was almost a champion.

Those are the stories that careers are made of.