Karrion Kross on His WWE Departure Being Real, WWE Offered Him New Deal But Only Gave 24 Hours To Accept Before Rescinding It, Him Feeling Hurt Over WWE’s Handling of Contract Talks, Scarlett Never Got New Offer

As noted before, Karrion Kross and Scarlett’s contracts with WWE expired this past Sunday and both of their roster profiles were moved over to WWE’s Alumni section on their website.

A recent episode of The Ariel Helwani Show featured Kross as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Kross confirming that his and Scarlett’s departures from WWE was real and he is not working the internet in regards to his contract situation.

“No. I’m not answering questions today as a character.”

Kross also confirmed that he has not re-signed with WWE.

“No. I was planning on doing a book tour. I’ve been doing a lot of media. ECW Publishing, the publisher of the book, has been helping me with that. There was no anticipation this was going to happen on the book tour. It’s just what’s happening.”

Kross also gave his thoughts about his talks with WWE for a potential new contract and how WWE gave him an offer but only gave him 24 hours to accept it before rescinding it.

“My contract was up last week. I never actually received an offer until last week.

I got the offer. I wanted to know how they came to the valuation of that offer. Just some information, metrics, analytics, that supported, ‘Hey, this is how we got here.’ When I inquired about that, they weren’t willing to provide that information and told me I had 24 hours to agree to the offer or they would rescind it. The next day, we talked. I asked if they had the information, they don’t. I said, ‘I can’t make an informed decision without the information. I’d like to keep the dialogue open.’ They rescinded the offer. That’s where we’re at. I know how a lot of people feel when they make an exit. I can empathize with everybody’s experience. Every exit experience is different. This isn’t to disparage WWE, but because there are so many convoluted stories going on, and to some degree can affect our livelihood, of what we’re supposed to be doing after. People don’t want to reach out because they’re not sure if they are tampering. The goal has always been to be with WWE. My wife and I still want to be with WWE. I’m at the table for conversations. I did not step out of the conversation. We still want to be there and want to work it out.”

Kross also denied that the new offer was for lower money than he was making.

“No, but at the end of the day, when a valuation is being suggested, there has to be something where people can go to, information-wise, to say, ‘This is how we came to this. This is what we think makes sense.’ I asked to see that information. I still haven’t seen it. I want to see it. Let’s look at it together and decide whether this is appropriate or not. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.”

Kross also gave his thoughts about if WWE’s offer for a potential new deal was off from what he was looking for.

“I didn’t think of it like that. I was thinking, ‘Let’s assess everything together and see where we’re at.’ I want to make sure this is reflective, fairly, of what we have information-wise to look at.”

Kross also gave his thoughts about how close he was to taking WWE’s offer for a new deal.

“Impossible. I explained to them, ‘There is no opportunity to make an informed decision without looking at the information together.’ You can’t do that. Your whole livelihood is based on this idea with no information to support it. I just wanted to get there and keep the dialogue open. I still do.”

Kross also gave his thoughts about how he was speaking to WWE directly and not through an agent and he also spoke to a company rep who was not WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque or WWE President Nick Khan.

“I would have loved to spoken to either of my bosses. When my wife and I came back, Hunter called us and we did our deals over the phone together. I was under the assumption we were going to do that again. We did them at the same time. Typically, I would not put somebody in front of me to talk to Hunter. I feel comfortable to talk to him in person. We would always talk that way.”

Kross also gave his thoughts about if he had thought he might get a call from WWE for a potential new deal after the release of his video detailing his and Scarlett’s departure.

“No. I try not to invent a hopeful scenario in my head, but (it did surprise me), a little bit. I wanted to continue the dialogue. It was strange. A lot of this is strange to me …

I didn’t necessarily think the timing of anyone wanting to talk to me would have anything to do with that. There is nothing derogatory or disparaging in that that would create any sort of concern. More just documenting how SummerSlam went.”

Kross also gave his thoughts about if he was hurt by the situation in regards to how WWE handled it.

“Yeah. It’s unexpected. I’m not sure I had a high level of expectation. Anytime I’ve ever gotten on board with a company hasn’t quite been like this in terms of communication. I feel like there is so much more to talk about. There is more to explore here. It’s just strange.”

Kross also confirmed he is currently a free agent and can work with any promotion right now.

“I’ve been told through people, ‘Hey, what’s actually going on?’ They are telling me that people are concerned about making contact. At the end of the day, I’m not trying to turn this into a game. It’s not a game to me. It’s my life. I’m very big on loyalty; everyone knows that, but loyalty is a two-way street. WWE has given me and my family an amazing opportunity in the past to change our lives. I’m very interested in trying to recover what I think is easily recoverable. It takes two people to come together to talk about it. I’m still here.”

In regards to Scarlett’s contract talks with WWE, Kross stated that WWE never gave her a new offer and had told him that they wanted to deal with her after him first.

“There was no offer to her. I was told at one point, because I did inquire, ‘After we deal with you, we’ll deal with her.’ I don’t see why we couldn’t have done things the way we did them before where we do the deals together.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2