Karrion Kross Opens Up About Decision To Sign With WWE Over AEW

Former WWE star Karrion Kross recently sat down for a conversation with Chris Van Vliet where the topic of AEW was brought up. Kross revealed that AEW was certainly on the table prior to his signing with WWE. But seeing an outpouring of fan support towards him possibly joining AEW had the opposite effect on him, making his drive to shine in WWE even greater.

"Yes, [AEW was an option]. I, man, I don't know if you'll remember this because I can't believe it's been this long, I really can't believe it. So right around that time, I was trying to swerve people as to where I was going to go," Kross said. "By the time I put the post out on Twitter, I already knew. And I was trying my best to protect it as much as I could, you know, try to protect your work. And so I was like 'where do you want to see me next' and it was an overwhelming amount of people that said that they wanted to see me go to AEW. {exhales very deeply out of annoyance for people saying he should go there} Was like a Peter Griffin moment. And so, I don't know.

"Like, I know there were a lot of choices to look at that. One way I looked at it was like, it kind of pissed me off. And, this is my doing, I understand it wasn't meant to be this way, but I thought that at the time the overwhelming amount of people that wanted me to go to AEW versus WWE or New Japan, 'why are people so convinced that I would find much more success in AEW versus WWE?

"Do they think I can't become successful in WWE? Do they believe that?' So I was like, 'I'm gonna show them that I can and I will'. And, you know, it was already, you know, a done deal at that point in time, sort of. I understand, as time went on, that they weren't saying it in a resentful manner, they were saying it because they thought that I would be able to find the best version of myself there."

In hindsight, Kross believes he would have been satisfied working for AEW as well. Not only that, but he also thinks he'd still be performing instead of a free agent.

"I'd probably still be wrestling. I'm sure I would've been happy, I'm sure I would've been creativity fulfilled. All of my friends work for AEW, I had only a couple of friends working in WWE. And I would've been in very good company and, not that I wasn't in NXT at all, the locker room was awesome there. I think I would've loved it."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.