Karrion Kross Says His WrestleMania Recap Interview Upset WWE Higher-Ups Including Triple H

– During an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show earlier today, former WWE Superstar Karrion Kross discussed his viral interview that took place with Sam Roberts and Megan Morant on the WrestleMania Recap show following WrestleMania 41. During the interview with Sam Roberts, Kross cut an improvised interview segment that was a work but was cut to make it look like a shoot and feel real. According to Kross, the interview upset some WWE higher-ups, including Triple H, because no one clued them in at the time that the segment was a work. Below are some highlights:

On WWE realizing his character was getting over: “There were times throughout this that there were creative things I think we could’ve done to really nurture it. Give people essentially what they’re looking for out of it. I can’t really necessarily place a time where I was like, ‘Uh oh.’ But everyone was aware the crowd was really enjoying it. Live, online, when to pull the trigger on really, directly — I don’t know, bringing attention to it. Syncing it with something creatively, I don’t know when they would’ve wanted to have done that.”

On why he revealed his WrestleMania Recap interview with Sam Roberts was a work in his documentary: “So, I kept that protected because I was under the impression at the time from things I was told that AJ and I might be working a little bit, and there was some options as to different things we can do. So, you do want to let everyone behind the curtain while they’re still watching the movie. Imagine watching Terminator 2, and in the middle of the movie, we’re going to take a little intermission and this is CGI, and they’ve got a robot on the strings. I didn’t want to do that. So I kept it protected like I would with anything so people can remain immersed in the programming.”

On how the Sam Roberts WrestleMania Recap interview came together: “[A WWE producer asks Kross] ‘Do you want to do the Sam Roberts podcast tomorrow?’ I said, ‘Sure, I’d love to.’ And I asked him, ‘What do you want?’ He goes, ‘Gimme that guy. That was pretty entertaining.’ I go, ‘OK. Premise wise, what are you looking for?’ He goes, ‘We want it to feel real.’ In terms of viewership and engagement, things go better when they feel real. That’s nothing new under the sun. The more real everything feels, the better it performs. Like theater. So I go, ‘Ok.’ At one point, they just had Dana White on one of the programs that he was overseeing or something, and he was using the F-word quite a bit. At the time, I thought I had a green light. I asked, ‘I’m allowed to say the F-word? I won’t say it 40 times, but I can use it impactfully.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, we want this to feel real. Make this feel real’ So I go, ‘Okay.’ So, the next day, we go to Sam Roberts, and just to clarify with him, I said, ‘Alright, well, here’s the story arc with Kross.’ Here’s the story with Kross. One match on Raw this year, you lost. He’s not on WrestleMania in his hometown. He shows up to WrestleMania, AJ doesn’t cheat. In fact, AJ punches him out. What is the state of the character, Kross? Kross is not in a good mood. He would be irate. I’ve got an improvisational moment. I wasn’t on WrestleMania. Why are people watching this? They got central nervous system fatigue watching one of the greatest shows on Earth, WrestleMania. You know, people are probably burned out. They got to take a minute. I got to do something captivating, something good. Here’s my moment. I wasn’t on the show. But if you’re going to give me a little bit of time, let people see me.”

On making sure to let everyone know the interview was a work: “So, I sit down. I said what I said. I walked out of the shot. They turned the camera off. Walked back into the room, ‘Thank you very much, everbyody,’ shook everybody’s hands. Everyone was cool with it. They said, ‘Holy cow.’ They said another word we’re gonna say, but yeah, everyone was really blown away. And I let everybody know, let’s make sure this is somewhat protected from the audience, but let everyone know internally that this is a work because not every department is in lock step communication with one another. So, I told everybody that. Sure enough, not everybody knew that it was a work.”

Karrion Kross on the WrestleMania Recap interview upsetting WWE higher-ups: “I don’t want to speak on behalf of them, but this is what I will say about it. A lot of everything that you see goes through the creative process. It goes through a team. I was under the impression that I was doing something improvisational and it was okay. But like I said, sometimes the communication is not in lock step with each other. So no one told them that this was a work. No one said I shook everybody’s hands. I gave Megan [Morant] a hug before I left. So, they’re under the impression, like a week goes by, that I flipped out.”

On no one explaining to Triple H that the interview was a work: “So like, one day I waited for Hunter outside a production meeting. Once it was actually brought to my attention that he was not okay with it, and I explained everything to him. No one told him anything. So, as far as I know, at that point, we were good, but everyone was under the impression, a lot of people thought I just lost my mind. I was just trying to do my job. My job that day was to make people believe, like any other day, and yeah.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit The Ariel Helwani Show with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.