Killer Kross was interviewed by Ruben Jay for Multimedia Mouth during Starrcast II, and Kross talked about how he approaches making his character presentation and in-ring style stand out.
Kross cited a number of influences in wrestling, but said he looks for different ways to stand out and takes different elements and adds them to his own presentation of his character:
“When I look at a roster of performers, I think about the demographic that’s watching the program. So age wise—who are we catering to? If you go to Los Angeles and you go to a PWG show that’s a very specific demographic whereas if you go to the Mid-South that is also a very different demographic. If you go to the East and so forth, I try to think about how I can stand out and be an individual on the show because if you watch five or six matches and if they all feel the same, then what are we doing for you? We’re not really doing much, right? So I try to take elements and I put them into my character presentation and ring work and I try to stand out and give you something different. You know an alternative, even within what you’re watching. I want to continue to do that and my goal is to always be a household name in this business.
“I’ve had guys that I’ve idolized in the ring, but I have character presentations that I’ve idolized that are probably not really the same ones that other people idolized. Like Andy Kaufman’s one of them. Bobby Heenan, Jerry Lawler, Roddy Piper. Everyone knows about the good promo, you know from a guy in the ring, but you know people forget about those guys because they didn’t do as much in the ring as other people, but you never questioned a single thing that those guys said. Whether you thought this was a show or not, there was a level of sincerity in their work cause they meant everything that they said. I try to bring that to life and I try to put that into what you guys are watching. I believe in what I’m saying, so you believe it. And that’s my goal. Wherever that lands me, I’ll be happy with cause it’s more important to me to be fulfilled in my work and to make sure I can take care of my family more than anything than anything else and sometimes, like with any job, it becomes very difficult to find that middle ground, right?”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone.com)
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