Karrion Kross had nothing to worry about.
Kross spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard while promoting his new book, Life Is Fighting. In the book, Kross recalled his first run with WWE on the NXT brand. Karrion Kross was set to meet Triple H in person, but their first conversation was over the phone. Kross texted him to introduce himself, and Triple H asked if they could speak now.
Kross, who was in the middle of traveling to one of his final indie bookings for DEFY Wrestling in Seattle, took the call while he was on the subway. After a few minutes of conversation, the train went underground — and the call dropped.
Kross said he nearly had a meltdown, wondering what Triple H would think about his new signee screwing up a life-changing phone call. However, he called Triple H back and realized he had nothing to worry about.
Karrion Kross thought he screwed up the call of a lifetime
During the new interview, Kross reflected on his mindset during the dropped call, which he called the “phone call of your life.”
“I was on my way to DEFY. I was on some sort of aboveground/underground train. And that was just the time we decided to talk. There was so much I didn’t take into consideration with where I was going to be geographically,” Kross said. “I’m on my way to this indie show, Hunter and I started talking on the phone. He says, ‘First impressions are everything.’ And then it goes underground. He’s in the middle of telling me something important. And the call just drops off.
“I’m sitting there like, ‘What the f? Oh my God! What the f? I can’t believe this is happening. He’s going to think I’m an idiot.’ And then we get back above ground finally. The call still is not going through. I’m like, ‘We are above ground. What’s going on?’ The signal comes back and finally picks up, ‘Hey man, sorry about that. I’m on my way to a show, went underground.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, no worries.’ I was like… Because you never know how somebody is going to react, right? It is the phone call of your life. So much stress.”
Strangely enough, a similar situation happened with Ricky Starks before he joined NXT. Starks told Cody Rhodes that he, too, had a call with Triple H while he was in Seattle, of all places. He said the noise prevented him from hearing everything Triple H said, which included something about RAW and SmackDown. Starks didn’t want to seem rude or ask The Game to repeat himself, and said ‘Yeah, yeah, for sure’ in response. Starks later found out that Triple H told him he wasn’t going to RAW or SmackDown yet, and they wanted to give him time to polish up in NXT.
Karrion Kross comments on how much he collaborates with Triple H
Kross dedicated a portion of his book to talking about his NXT debut and relationship with Triple H. This includes sharing the character overview that he wrote to share with WWE brass to explain what kind of character he envisioned for himself.
Kross’s character has seen some changes in the years since then, and he continues to be a fan favorite despite a lack of consistent TV time. Kross was getting over with the live audience and on social media, but he’s seen more screen time during his feud with Sami Zayn. Now, Kross says there’s not as much of a collaborative effort as he would like, but he still would like a chance to be more involved.
“Virtually none. Yeah, not much. I don’t know how much I can say. Not much, unfortunately. I would love to be more involved with how that comes to life,” Kross said. “A lot of times, I’m just given what I am given. And I’m gonna do my absolute best to make that as entertaining as possible. What’s really cool about doing anything live in front of the audience, like during a commercial break, is that it’s very free-flow. And any time you ever get in front of the audience whether you are on the ring or you are on the mic, there is an opportunity to allow engagement. And more or less the backstage stuff is very controlled.”
Life Is Fighting is available now through physical and digital retailers like Amazon. Watch our full interview with Karrion Kross below:
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