Karrion Kross Responds To Fans Critical Of His WWE Heel Work

Karrion Kross knows his heel work still "frustrates" some pro wrestling fans, but to him, work is work. The former two-time "NXT" Champion opened up about his shocking 2021 "WWE Raw" debut — the one in which he lost to Jeff Hardy in less than two minutes –- during a recent appearance on the "Cheap Heat" podcast and how fans have complained to him about WWE asking him to put Hardy over in the match. According to Kross, doing the job for Hardy was an easy choice given his "old school" pro wrestling philosophy. 

"If I'm working as a heel, my main job is to make sure the audience stays behind my babyface –- always," Kross explained. "So, all of the things that people say all the time that they don't like that I'm doing or I'm not doing enough of, or they want to see me doing this, there's a little bit of a reason why I'm not doing it. I'm fully aware of that." 

Kross, who was released by WWE less than four months after that Hardy match, also opened up about fans' support for him as well as some fans who have come up to him to express how upset they were over his loss to Hardy that night. Kross would return to WWE earlier this year, and he said he isn't worried about his fans being upset over him being a heel. "If I'm going to be a bad guy, I'm going to be the bad guy."

"I know I get criticized or ridiculed for that, but this is the functionality of my job," Kross said. "There's a black hat and a white hat. So, with the Jeff thing, I heard them react and I was like, 'Hey, I did my job.'"