One of the many casualties of the WWE releases this year was the imposing Karrion Kross and his wife Scarlett Bordeaux. The pair had become top stars in Impact Wrestling before signing for NXT in 2019. Kross was soon catapulted into the main event scene in NXT, winning the NXT Championship just four months into his tenure on the yellow brand.
Sadly, he was forced to vacate the championship due to injury, but won it back from Finn Balor in December 2020 at NXT Takeover: Stand and Deliver. He was pushed to the moon in NXT, although was not appreciated as much by the NXT fans.
Kross deviated from the usual crop of NXT superstar. While NXT champions of the past had been champions on the independents with high work rate and a penchant for valuing in-ring ability over character work. Kross was the opposite, with he and Scarlett being one of the most interesting characters in NXT. His entrance, featuring Scarlett lip-syncing his theme song, was one of the best entrances in NXT.
However, Karrion Kross’s main roster run was far less memorable. He debuted against Jeff Hardy on Raw in July, losing to the former WWE Champion Jeff Hardy in a mere 100 seconds. For a champion who had been so dominant on NXT it was a slap in the face.
Kross on Oral Sessions
In an interview with Renee Pacquette, formerly WWE’s Renee Young, on her podcast Oral Sessions, Kross detailed his run on the main roster and how his short defeat to Jeff Hardy came about.
“When I went up and they asked me to do the match with Jeff and put him over, I was like, ‘Sure, that’s fine.’ I grew up a fan of Jeff and getting to meet him and him being cool was an awesome experience, he’s literally one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. ‘That’s fine.’ Kross said,
One of the agents came to me and was like, ‘there’s a long-term plan for this so don’t sweat it and don’t worry.’ Okay, cool. I do my entrance and get out there. The ref comes to me and goes, ‘Hey, your 10 minute match is down to 90 seconds.’ First time we’re working on television, we don’t really know each other in the ring, our rhythm, they come back from commercial and I’m trying not to laugh. If you go back and watch, I’m smiling, closed mouth, trying to hold it back. As soon as Jeff got in the ring, I snatched him and called what we needed to do and that was it,“
His loss was the beginning of the end for his WWE, and just a few months later he was released along with Scarlet Bordeaux.
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