Karrion Kross Comments On Getting Cheered By Fans, Being Told Not to Acknowledge It

Karrion Kross spoke a bit in part two of his The Killer documentary about the groundswell of fan support around him and how WWE reacted to it. Kross began to get cheered over 2025 more and more, and in the documentary he recalled how people in WWE said they weren’t ready to “fully embrace” the fans supporting him. You can see some highlights below:

On getting cheered by fans: “I remember in the beginning some people were saying, ‘Hey, I wouldn’t take it seriously. It’s not going to last’ or ‘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 state.’ When it was still there and it got louder and louder every week, that went away and it was, ‘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 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 from something that happened this year. This is something that is happening because of what has happened over the last three years. We’re getting to a tipping point and it can be stated that it started because I punched through something and everyone saw what was on the other side of that. I don’t feel like we are all collectively going in direction that the audience would like us to go in. That part doesn’t feel good,

On WWE telling him to make sure to get booed at Night of Champions against Sami Zayn: “At Night of Champions, I kept having these reoccurring conversations with the team. They said, ‘The key tonight is to make sure the crowd’s reaction stays right for the story.’ And I told them, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll do my job as the bad guy.’ And they were so worried the crowd was going to boo when I lost.”

On his reaction to the matter: “First of all, that’s a crazy scenario that I don’t think would ever happen. There’s no reason why that would happen. But that being a concern, I just thought that was that was bizarre and I just tried to reassure everybody like, ‘Hey, I’m a professional. I’m going to do bad guy stuff. I will do as much bad guy stuff as I as like I’m allowed to do. If you let me be a really bad guy, I’ll go be that bad guy. But if you handcuff me, I can only be as bad as you’re going to let me. But I don’t think anyone should be concerned about this.’ And it was brought up to me multiple times during the day. And I just thought, ‘Everybody’s got to relax. Like, we’re going to have a good show.’

“I feel like everyone was so like uptight and wound up over like these scenarios that they were coming up with in their heads. And I was like the most relaxed person. Everyone’s like, ‘This is the big one. This is the big one. Are you ready? Don’t let the pressure get to you.’ It was like, ‘The pressure is not getting to me… That was just so frustrating. I couldn’t believe that that was the ultimate concern of the day and and in the end it didn’t happen. There was a little bit of cheering back and forth for the both of us, but they were happy, live, when he when he won. Is that really our our ultimate concern? Like, come on.”

On WWE going in ways opposite to what the fans are calling for: “I try to see everything from all sides. It’s really easy to see everything from just your side and to non-maliciously make selfish statements in defense of how you feel about something, whether it’s actually accurate to the truth or not… so I try to be delicate while also being honest. I get questions like this all the time and I’m not really sure how to go about it, because I don’t want anybody to feel slighted. Because I don’t think it’s malicious, but sometimes I’m really lost and very confused on why we’re not leaning into things that make sense. We’re not leaning into things that clearly are working that are beneficial for all parties. And I’m not in control of those decisions. The only thing I can be in control of is doing the best I can with what I’m given. And 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. Do not run home.’

“And then one day — one day you don’t hit the home run, but you hit it far enough so you know you can run past second and you do run home. 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. We’re trying to win the game. You shoot, you get the three points. They’re mad at you? Why? Why are they mad at you? Why are they mad about the extra three points? They wanted the other guy to shoot it. Like, what’s going on here?

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Karrion Kross’ YouTube channel with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.