Killer Kross recalls his experience inside the debut MLW x Don Gato event.
In his return match for Major League Wrestling, Killer Kross faced fellow former WWE star Matt Riddle at the MLW x Don Gato wrestling special, with the Charleston Music Hall as the backdrop. Ahead of the event, MLW CEO Court Bauer teased a Vegas Sphere–like set consisting of a wrapping video wall that allowed for immersive backgrounds. According to Kross, it was this exact feature that reminded him of WWE‘s pandemic-era presentation.
“For me, I looked at it with my TV mind already going. As soon as I saw the screens behind the ring, I immediately thought it kind of reminded me of NXT in 2020 during the pandemic, when we had all the fans on the screens,” Kross said in a recent interview with WrestleZone.
Kross says his experience in WWE made the adjustment to MLW’s venue easy
“Back then, we didn’t really have an audience, at least not real people. We were working toward the cameras for the viewers at home. In this MLW situation, though, we had a live audience on one side of the building. So I was just doing the analytics in my head. Here are my roaming cameras, and here is the audience. I’m just going to perform in that general direction. For me as a performer, it actually made things a lot easier. It’s never really a problem having an audience 360 degrees around you in terms of how I perform or how things come across on streaming or TV, but this setup was easier, and honestly, I liked it.”
In trying to attract new fans to the industry, Kross feels there is nothing worse than when a wrestling promotion falls short in its production value. As such, he suggests that companies create a completely different environment, such as the one seen at MLW x Don Gato, rather than a lesser iteration of something high-value.
“That’s what that venue felt like to me, and I enjoy that,” he said. “You take pro wrestling and put it in a nightclub, I love it. You put pro wrestling in an opera house, even better.”
MLW Battle Riot VII will air for free on MLW’s YouTube channel beginning on Thursday, February 5 at 8:00 pm EST.
RELATED: Killer Kross Says Communication With Triple H Was Very Odd At End of WWE Run
