In an interview on his official YouTube channel that spanned over an hour, former WWE star Karrion Kross spoke at length about his contract negotiations with the company, the rising popularity of his character as well as other topics. Below are some highlights:
Contract Negotiations With WWE
"I expressed interest to renegotiate in early January with WWE. I think it’s crazy, preposterous that anyone would think that I wouldn’t want to be here or like go somewhere else. It’s frustrating because you express your interest to say and be here and do things. I’m not going to beg, I’ve already been clear."
"Many months have gone by and we never had a single conversation about it until recently, and I don’t even feel like the conversation I’ve had recently was like an actual serious one. The conversation made me really angry because I just didn’t feel like it was a real conversation; there really wasn’t anything that was discussed of real substance. Actually, it didn’t make me angry and it didn’t make me upset, it just profoundly disappointed me because I think about this business probably differently than the person I was speaking to because of the nature of what I do."
On WWE not getting behind his popularity
"I remember in the beginning people were saying 'hey, I wouldn’t take it seriously, it’s not going to last or hey, let’s see if it’s for real when you go out there tonight or if it’s still there when we’re in a different city or a different state.' Then when it was still there and it got louder and louder and louder every week, that went away and it was kinda like 'Well, we’re not really ready to fully embrace that.' I was being told by certain people, 'Don’t acknowledge it' which felt really wrong because having a connection with the audience, especially one that is like this, this doesn’t just come around for everybody. It wasn’t something that was constructed or thought of. This happened organically through a series of events and I wouldn’t even say it’s something that happened recently this year. This is something that is happening because of what has happened over the last three years. I don’t feel like we are all collectively going in the direction that the audience would like us to go in. And that part doesn’t feel good."
"You can’t ignore the crowd in this business. You can try. It’s not going to be good in the end. You don’t want to make your audience feel they aren’t a part of this. You can’t tell them they are part of this and they are the universe and they are so heavily involved in every aspect of it and then on a whim tell them certain subsections don’t matter, we can’t do that. That pisses people off and turns people away."
On being held back
"It’s probably the hardest part of the gig when you know you can give more, and they tell you, ‘Hey, don’t home run that. Hit that to the outfield and run to second and make sure you stop on second.' "You’re on the court playing basketball. They tell you to pass the ball, but you’ve got a three point shot right there. We’re all on the same team. You shoot, you get the three points. They’re mad at you. Why are they mad at you?"
