Karrion Kross on Only Learned of His WrestleMania 41 Role on Day of Show, His Stance on Logan Paul in WWE, & Backstage Response to His Comments on Post-WrestleMania 41 RAW Recap Podcast Show

A recent episode of The Ariel Helwani Show featured Karrion Kross as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Kross’ thoughts about how he only learned of his role for the AJ Styles vs. Logan Paul match at the WrestleMania 41 Night 2 show on the day of the show.

“I get a text, ‘We need you at the building now.’ This is like noon… 1 PM (on the day of WrestleMania 41 night two), and I was like, ‘Oh boy.’ I was like, there’s a lineup of people here. I can’t get up and leave. So I just politely and as respectfully as I could, I just sent back a text like, ‘Let me get through all these people. They were all waiting here in line for a very long time. I can’t. Please understand.’ They were cool with it. Knocked out the line, went to work.

What you saw in the AJ/Logan match (is what they needed me for). Honestly, I felt very grateful. I felt grateful. To have any part of the show whatsoever at all. You can want the world. You can want it all and you can go for it. But it’s important not to lose the gratitude of even having the smallest part of something so big, you know?”

Kross also gave his thoughts about how he was not originally scheduled for WrestleMania 41 and how he was confused over it at first.

“I was confused (about initially not being set for WrestleMania 41). Very confused but again, it’s not the type of thing that I think myself or anyone can stew in. It’s like, what do we have today on Monday? Maybe it’s your cup of tea, maybe it’s not. You have to try to make the best of that and try to hit a home run. Every week, I’m trying to hit a home run with whatever they give me. Whether it’s five seconds, whether it’s a background shot, something. It was an opportunity to make somebody laugh when they’re watching or make somebody really, really angry. I just circle back to that. I have to. Because I’ve seen people go nuts in this business. They’ll drive themselves insane trying to theorize what’s going on. All you can do is check in, ‘What do you need from me? What do you need from me on the show?’ And just try to give ‘em that.”

Kross also gave his thoughts about Logan Paul getting a high profile WrestleMania match at the expense of others in WWE. Kross also stated that he does not have any actual issues with Paul and instead with the system in place in WWE that rewards people in the mainstream more than those who are there full-time and have always been there for the company.

“I’ll say this, I don’t have a problem with Logan Paul. I think he’s an amazing athlete and I think he’s doing really good work, and a lot of people will be pissed that I’m saying that. But it’s true. I don’t wanna B.S. around that. What I have a problem with is this idea within the system to reward the mainstream archetype like Logan with certain types of liberties and privileges that could be delegated to the people that have pretty much dedicated their entire lives and are here full-time. I struggle with that and I’m not the only one. I think it just needs to be said. I have no problem as a professional wrestler with anyone coming in and being on our show and doing anything. Just as long as I get to hit them with a steel chair as they walk in. If I can hit them with the chair! Then they can come in and do whatever they want. After that? You know, it’s fine. But, in all seriousness, we, the collective, the talent, the wrestlers, the performers, we can go viral too. I don’t want there to be this idea, this dependency that other people from other lanes are the only people that can do that. We can too and that’s why I say, it didn’t really come from a disgruntled place. It came from a place of passion. I wanna show people what they wanna see. I know what they wanna see, and I proved that. That was the whole point. That’s where that comes from and those are my thoughts on him.”

Kross also gave his thoughts about the backstage reaction to his comments he made on the post-WrestleMania 41 RAW Recap podcast show about him venting over being left off the card for the show in favor of Logan Paul getting a match with AJ Styles instead.

“I don’t think it’s a broad group of people that have misconstrued it. It’s a very small group of people that feel like it falls under complaining. It’s not complaining. It’s using your voice and speaking up and saying, hey, I’m here. I’m here, I want to be here. I wanna give you the best of what I have, in general. I mean — I got a standing ovation when I — I won’t drop names. I got a standing ovation when I saw everybody the following day, which felt awesome and I had no idea that that was going to resonate the way it did with people. A few people even came to me in tears, saying, ‘Thank you for saying what you said.’ I was just being honest. I had an open criteria that day and I told ‘em. I said, ‘People are gonna watch this. I have something to say, and I have a feeling people are gonna wanna hear this.’ So I said it… Sort of (got heat for it). Sort of. Yeah, not everybody was thrilled about that.”

Kross also gave his thoughts about his expiring contract status with WWE being out in the public.

“Whoever did it. That put me over the edge. I think that happened online, like, shortly after A.O.P. and (Paul) Ellering were gone. It was just like kind of one thing after another. I’m still pretty pissed about that. I don’t know who did it. It’s impossible to say. I have no idea, but, I was kind of out of my mind in that moment. So, it’s kind of hard to put myself back there. It’s just privacy, you know what I mean? Who the hell is supposed to know about that? Stuff gets leaked all the time.”

Kross also gave his thoughts about his new approach to his on-screen presentation in WWE.

“Yeah (there was a point when I decided to be more real & authentic). I think it probably happened when Miz and I were working together. I think something clicked there, you know? I couldn’t tell you specifically what it was but, it just hit me. I don’t even know what it specifically was. Something just occurred to me. I kind of wanna drop the act a little bit and leaning into what I’m feeling like is being called for me.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2