Killer Kross Discusses Vince McMahon Coming Up With His Gladiator Helmet, Reveals McMahon Later Denied Coming Up With it

Speaking to WWE Hall of Famer D-Von Dudley on his YouTube channel, former WWE Superstar Killer Kross (aka Karrion Kross) discussed his infamous gladiator helmet that he used for his run on the main WWE roster. Kross revealed that the helmet was Vince McMahon’s idea. However, when members of the creative team later attempted to talk to McMahon about it, McMahon denied knowing anything about helmet, stating he’s never seen Kross in it. Below are some highlights:

Killer Kross on the Story Behind His Weird Gladiatorial Mask for His Main Roster Run

“This is a funny story. So, when I was still in NXT and I was the champion, somebody who’s no longer with the company that a lot of people were not fond of, uh, sends me sends me an email. We were talking about him earlier. He sends me an email and he’s like, ‘Hey, you know, we got this idea.’ sAnd I think his name was Jim Laryngitis or something like that. So anyway, he said he sends me this uh email and you know there’s the picture of the mask and they want me to keep the gladiator garb initially which I came up with because when we were at NXT it felt like the Thunderdome like from Mad Max. We had the plastic glass. They were like powerbombing head first into the glass and it felt like life and death and at the time I was watching the show Spartacus and I thought this is gear that nobody’s wearing. You know, it feels sort of gladatorial. Well, wrestling’s always felt gladiatorial, but then they wanted to put like like sexual S&M, weird scraps on it with the mask. And I asked him, I go, ‘What’s the purpose of this?’ And he’s like, ‘Well, we can make Halloween costumes out of it, and you know, you get a percentage of that.’ I go, ‘Oh, well, more money. I mean, if you want to run with this, this is an idea you’re giving me. Clearly, you want to make a successful, you know, monetization out of this.'”

On Vince McMahon Explaining the Look

“I asked I said where, I said, ‘Where did this come from?’ ‘It’s all Vince’s idea.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ So, I go to him and I say, ‘Tell me everything you want me to bring to life out of this.’ And he’s like, the way he did it, he was like, ‘I just want you to go out there and I just want you to ****ing kill these guys.’ … This stuff he’s giving me is not really telling me anything about the character. He’s like telling me what he wants me to do to people in the ring. Okay, fair enough. What is this? And you know, he kept saying, ‘The gladiator of misery. You’re going to you’re going to make, you know, you’re going to conduct misery on these people. You’re going to torture them. And I was like, okay.”

On How Vince McMahon Later Denied It Was His Idea

“And here’s the best part. So, I don’t think they’re going to mind. I’m not going to name drop you guys. I love you. The writing team, the writing team were like, ‘We need to get you out of this ****. We don’t know what this is. We’re familiar with what you did on NXT. We need to get you back to that. That’ll work.’ And I know who it is, but go ahead. all great guys and I always feel bad for them because they in in the sheets and people online because they don’t understand how it works. They always get all of the heat. What is creative done? It’s not them. They get marching orders and they have to make sense of it. It’s not creative. They were all wonderful to work with. But they were like, ‘We need to get you out of this shit.’ So, they were like, ‘We’re going to talk to some producers and maybe suggest that you just kind of like not wear the helmet and then you walk out of the ring where you’re holding it and then eventually you just don’t have it anymore.’ And I go, ‘Great. Sounds good.’

“So then they come back to me and they’re like, ‘So we’re not making this up. There’s a few people that can confirm this. So you don’t think we’re making this up?’ I go, ‘What? What happened?’ They said, ‘Well, they brought it up to him. They brought it up to Vince in the meeting. He’s like, they’re like, ‘So what do you think? Do you think Kross really needs to even be wearing the helmet anymore?’ Because he’s not hitting people with it. They brought up logical questions to try to get try to get away from it. Try to get him to admit that it makes no sense. People aren’t getting it. And he’s just like, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen Cross wear a mask or a helmet before.'”

“And they were like, ‘What do you mean? You asked, this is what you wanted.’ He was like, ‘No, no, I’ve never seen him wear one before.’ And they were just like, what the ****?! They were so confused. They were like, maybe he’s joking. So then they asked him again after the meeting, ‘Hey, can we lose the mask?’ And he goes, ‘I’ve never seen it before. Yeah, we don’t want him wearing the mask. They can’t see his goddamn face. He’s a very emotive guy. He’s got good facial expressions. Why would he wear a ****ng mask?’ And then shortly after that, we were gone. So, it was very, very weird. Like, and there’s even more to that story, but people aren’t even ready to hear that yet. Trust me. One day. one day when it all comes out as it’s coming out– [D-Von says, ‘When you write your book]. Second Book.”

Killer Kross and Scarlett parted ways with WWE last year. Kross is currently the reigning MLW World Heavyweight Champion.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit D-Von Dudley, with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.