Karrion Kross is pulling back the curtain on what he believes really happened after he moved from WWE NXT to the main roster, and during a conversation with D-Von Dudley, he made it clear he thinks the system was designed to knock talent down before contract negotiations even started.
Kross explained that several wrestling veterans warned him ahead of time that Vince McMahon might not like talent arriving on the main roster already viewed as stars by fans. According to Kross, those warnings suddenly started making sense once the strange gimmick changes and costume ideas started rolling in.
“And we had people that have been in the business for 30, 40 plus years pulled us aside and said, ‘Yo, listen, we’re telling you this in confidence. Your equity coming into main roster is probably going to make Vince very uncomfortable because he has to resign you to a main roster deal. So be prepared for him to come up with some really bad ideas to knock you back a bit to make you insecure and to hurt your confidence so he can sign you for something much lower because the way Hunter had us built in NXT, people online were fantasy booking an NXT champion against Bobby Lashley and against Roman Reigns.’”
Kross then admitted things really clicked for him once WWE approached him about a new deal during what he viewed as the weakest point of his entire presentation on television.
“I don’t think the boss liked it. And I think that’s where a lot of the silliness came from. And sure enough, as soon as things got weird with the costume ideas and all that stuff, they offered me a new contract at my lowest point. And I said, ‘Oh damn. They were right.’”
Kross also suggested WWE already had a financial hierarchy internally and didn’t necessarily want more talent moving into higher pay brackets, regardless of how over they became with fans.
“They obviously want to make the highest profit margin and sometimes giving you the money that you could honestly draw… they already have people in a high figure bracket. They don’t want to allocate any more of that money to you.”
The comments add to the long-running debate surrounding WWE’s handling of former NXT talent once they reached the main roster under Vince McMahon’s leadership.
What do you think about Karrion Kross claiming WWE intentionally cooled talent off before contract negotiations? Do you believe there’s truth to it? Leave your thoughts and feedback in the comments below.
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