Hundreds of people packed University Plaza to see LA Knight receive the key to the city of Hagerstown, Maryland, on Saturday.
Shawn Ricker spent the first 20 years of his life living in Hagerstown. At the age of 20, Ricker left Western Maryland and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to chase his dreams in the squared circle.
In proving that dreams do come true, Ricker is now one of professional wrestling’s biggest names and is known all over the globe as WWE Superstar, LA Knight.
Hagerstown’s mayor and city council decided to honor LA Knight while he was home visiting his family for the holidays.
As the ceremony started, the chants of “welcome home” drowned out the music as LA Knight walked on stage. Knight admitted the road to stardom was not always easy.
“I slept in my car at times. I couldn’t always pay my rent. I lived in the worst places,” he said. “Now I’ve gotten myself to a level where I can help people around me.”
Mayor Tekesha Martinez said that LA Knight being from Hagerstown, means a lot to the kids of Western Maryland.
“Whenever kids go on a video game, they can choose LA Knight and it says he’s from Hagerstown, that’s incredible, especially being a North Hagerstown High School graduate,” he said.
A lot of children at the ceremony were inspired that a hometown guy still remembered where he came from after making it big.
“LA Knight gave a really great speech and represented everyone from Hagerstown,” said 11-year-old Eli Schindler.
Martinez pointed out that LA Knight’s family still lives in Hagerstown, and his brother is a member of the fire department.
During Ricker’s speech, he talked about what hometown means to him, and what lessons can be learned from his journey to the top of the WWE.
“For me, Hagerstown is a place that has a small town kinda blue collar feel but with a big city kinda dream,” he said. “If you take nothing else from today, I just want you to take that little inspiration and know, anything you want to be, anything you want to do, you can do it.”
