Killian Dain Says WWE's Nikki A.S.H. Gimmick Has Been In The Works For Six Months
Former WWE star Killian Dain appeared on the It's My House podcast to talk about his release from WWE. Dain had initially broken into WWE as a member of Sanity, alongside his wife Nikki Cross and former WWE stars Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young. Dain attributed to the group's lack of success on the main roster to bad timing and Triple H not being around when they were first called up, although he cannot say that for sure.
"Nobody's ever admitted to me what went wrong," Dain said. "We can only really assume, we can only really speculate. Maybe nobody in the top brass saw any of the three of us as being marketable enough. We're not the first, and will certainly not be the last.
"We were a little unlucky at the time because Triple H wasn't around on television a lot of that period, because they were negotiating for the new deals for TV at the time. By the time he was backstage more we were already on the way out so maybe that was just bad timing and things like that. A lot of the writers and producers we've worked with on NXT who were there on Raw, Smackdown, you know, maybe had other people in mind for acts and for angles and stuff. I just put it down to the fact that we didn't impress at the right time."
Since departing WWE, Dain has watched his wife Cross take on the gimmick of Nikki A.S.H., a new superhero style persona. Dain is very excited about her potential run and believes this new colorful character may be what WWE and wrestling is looking for.
"She has taken it like a duck to water with this new gimmick," Dain said. "I'm really excited to see what happens next with it because she's made this happen.
"It started as a concept that took about six months to get fully organized and prepared and ready. And as soon as it was ready, as soon as the gear was in the mail it was 'go go go go' and that's one of the coolest parts of it. I know that they really enjoy it right now but in a year's time, that could be very different. But I'm hoping we can get a couple of years out of this, because I think she's brilliant for kids. Like, I grew up loving the cartoon era of WWE, because those colorful characters are what drew me in. And we need to think about the next generation, how do we get kids interested these days."
You can watch the full interview below.