Kemo
07-12-2022, 06:36 PM
In an interview with Steve Fall for NBC Sports Boston, former WWE star Killer Kross, who wrestled as Karrion Kross for the promotion, opened up about an infamous segment between himself and Adam Cole that took place in June 2021.
The segment was set up to have Adam Cole, who is now in AEW, run down and tear apart Killer Kross in a worked shoot-style promo. Cole would later repeat statements similar on other WWE programming. At the time, Kross was the undefeated NXT Champion, but he didn’t even address Cole’s comments.
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According to Kross, the whole segment was scripted by WWE and was intended to help get Cole where he needed to be for their upcoming matchup.
The former two-time NXT Champion said (Edited for clarity):
“No. In his [Adam Cole’s} defense, because I’ve been asked this a lot, that was scripted. He was told to say that. It wasn’t him having a meltdown to be a d*ck. It wasn’t like that at all. He was told to say that.
This has become a very popular discussion amongst fans and stuff like that because our job is to make that stuff, it’s the intention. We’re told by producers and writers, ‘We want this to feel as real as possible so this is the direction we can go in.’ But, very much like you said, and a lot of people have said to me afterward, it seemed really counterproductive to have a fourth wall promo where only one guy was breaking the fourth wall. It’s like, it’s just one of those weird, weird days.
Some matches are constructed for one guy to get over, and that’s just the way it is. Then, sometimes, some promos are constructed for one guy to get over. At the time, I was told that they felt like he needed that, and I was not one to really fight anybody on that. I’ve always been very easy to deal with and get along with.
They put me on a course to just absolutely ruin everybody. So, the way I saw it at the time was like, ‘He’s gonna be doing the job for me at the end of the month on the pay-per-view. Everyone else has exchanged equity, their own equity, in putting me over for a year and a half. I think I can handle the promo where this is going to be happening.’
Functionally, as an investment, the construction of that promo did not make any sense at all. I thought it was weird that they wanted to go in that direction because– I’ve even said this previously before, it’s their money to get people to believe and invest in this type of thing. This is the time and energy they’re putting into character presentation and they kind of shot in the head, which I thought was just so unusual. It was very weird.
Like, even Adam [Cole] was asking like, he’s like, ‘Are you okay with me saying all this to you?’ Yeah, of course, dude. He’s always been very cool. It was odd, and then there was like follow-up stuff the weeks after too. They kept writing the character into this place where they didn’t want me to rebuttal.
And I, prior to that promo and interview, I’d always have some flexibility to kind of like, ‘Here’s the endgame of the promo, you can say whatever you want. Whatever you think your character would say on the way there to get us from point A to B.’ They didn’t want that. And then after that, I kept getting chopped off in promos later on. They were just kind of, in a manner, putting me under in the promos, which I thought was weird. But also, in all fairness man, it’s not advantageous of the talent that’s going under to have me run them over for four weeks in promos and then for them to get killed clean on the match.
But, to your point, I think that there’s so many– in a universe full of fiction, an unlimited amount of possibilities, there are many different ways to make talents look strong and get over. I’ve always thought, me personally, it’s why I haven’t really practiced it, tearing a talent down and not letting them get anything back, and hoping they’re gonna keep their momentum and their equity in the eyes of the audience when they go over in the match is not the best way to do things. But again, I’m just a wrestler.”
Kross went on to speak about the reaction online and how it’s influenced his career.
He said, “Yeah, it is unfortunate. It’s a weird twilight zone type of thing. I wanted to, until that angle was totally dead and gone, I wanted to protect the legitimacy of that [promo] even though it was kind of working against me. Like I even told Adam, when I see him at media events, ‘Don’t f*cking talk to anybody. Sorry. Like, don’t tell anybody.’ I’m not gonna tell anybody either. My friends are asking me about it. Only the people that I trust, I’ll let them know that it’s a work because the conflict and the heat is what’s going to create the interest in seeing the match.
It got very toxic, very negative, and very weird. That’s social media for you. Some people want to drum things up and make them. They want to put them in another context then they actually really are in. So, you just do the best you can with what you have.”
The segment was set up to have Adam Cole, who is now in AEW, run down and tear apart Killer Kross in a worked shoot-style promo. Cole would later repeat statements similar on other WWE programming. At the time, Kross was the undefeated NXT Champion, but he didn’t even address Cole’s comments.
fBaI2fntvzI
According to Kross, the whole segment was scripted by WWE and was intended to help get Cole where he needed to be for their upcoming matchup.
The former two-time NXT Champion said (Edited for clarity):
“No. In his [Adam Cole’s} defense, because I’ve been asked this a lot, that was scripted. He was told to say that. It wasn’t him having a meltdown to be a d*ck. It wasn’t like that at all. He was told to say that.
This has become a very popular discussion amongst fans and stuff like that because our job is to make that stuff, it’s the intention. We’re told by producers and writers, ‘We want this to feel as real as possible so this is the direction we can go in.’ But, very much like you said, and a lot of people have said to me afterward, it seemed really counterproductive to have a fourth wall promo where only one guy was breaking the fourth wall. It’s like, it’s just one of those weird, weird days.
Some matches are constructed for one guy to get over, and that’s just the way it is. Then, sometimes, some promos are constructed for one guy to get over. At the time, I was told that they felt like he needed that, and I was not one to really fight anybody on that. I’ve always been very easy to deal with and get along with.
They put me on a course to just absolutely ruin everybody. So, the way I saw it at the time was like, ‘He’s gonna be doing the job for me at the end of the month on the pay-per-view. Everyone else has exchanged equity, their own equity, in putting me over for a year and a half. I think I can handle the promo where this is going to be happening.’
Functionally, as an investment, the construction of that promo did not make any sense at all. I thought it was weird that they wanted to go in that direction because– I’ve even said this previously before, it’s their money to get people to believe and invest in this type of thing. This is the time and energy they’re putting into character presentation and they kind of shot in the head, which I thought was just so unusual. It was very weird.
Like, even Adam [Cole] was asking like, he’s like, ‘Are you okay with me saying all this to you?’ Yeah, of course, dude. He’s always been very cool. It was odd, and then there was like follow-up stuff the weeks after too. They kept writing the character into this place where they didn’t want me to rebuttal.
And I, prior to that promo and interview, I’d always have some flexibility to kind of like, ‘Here’s the endgame of the promo, you can say whatever you want. Whatever you think your character would say on the way there to get us from point A to B.’ They didn’t want that. And then after that, I kept getting chopped off in promos later on. They were just kind of, in a manner, putting me under in the promos, which I thought was weird. But also, in all fairness man, it’s not advantageous of the talent that’s going under to have me run them over for four weeks in promos and then for them to get killed clean on the match.
But, to your point, I think that there’s so many– in a universe full of fiction, an unlimited amount of possibilities, there are many different ways to make talents look strong and get over. I’ve always thought, me personally, it’s why I haven’t really practiced it, tearing a talent down and not letting them get anything back, and hoping they’re gonna keep their momentum and their equity in the eyes of the audience when they go over in the match is not the best way to do things. But again, I’m just a wrestler.”
Kross went on to speak about the reaction online and how it’s influenced his career.
He said, “Yeah, it is unfortunate. It’s a weird twilight zone type of thing. I wanted to, until that angle was totally dead and gone, I wanted to protect the legitimacy of that [promo] even though it was kind of working against me. Like I even told Adam, when I see him at media events, ‘Don’t f*cking talk to anybody. Sorry. Like, don’t tell anybody.’ I’m not gonna tell anybody either. My friends are asking me about it. Only the people that I trust, I’ll let them know that it’s a work because the conflict and the heat is what’s going to create the interest in seeing the match.
It got very toxic, very negative, and very weird. That’s social media for you. Some people want to drum things up and make them. They want to put them in another context then they actually really are in. So, you just do the best you can with what you have.”