Karrion Kross Opens Up About Frustrations With His Current Position In WWE

Karrion Kross was one of many wrestlers released by WWE over the last few years to return with a renewed focus under Paul "Triple H" Levesque's new creative regime, with his wife Scarlett also returning. No longer bound by his repackaging under Vince McMahon, Kross is ready to prove himself, and he said as much in a recent interview with Josh Martinez of New York's Z100 radio station. (Martinez says it was recorded the week of the Royal Rumble.) Kross was unusually candid by the standards of a current WWE performer.

"This is probably unhealthy, and I shouldn't say it, but I'm just gonna say it," he said. "I actually get really pissed, because it's not enough. It's not enough. I haven't reached my full potential yet and people haven't seen my best work yet. I know what I can do, and at this level, you need to be afforded certain types of opportunities, which is difficult with a big roster and only two hours of the program. And I know that once I am afforded that particular shot — because I've been afforded a lot, let's not get it twisted — once I am afforded that particularly shot to demonstrate what I can really do, what I've done where people on a major scale haven't seen it? People are gonna be blown away. And I'm gonna fight for that every single week, to get closer and closer to that shot. And I'm being straight with you, I'm being very real."

What does getting those opportunities look like to Kross?

"I think you're gonna be able to expect compelling storytelling," he told Martinez. "If I am granted and allotted the time to romance the audience and 'Shakespeare' them into what it is that I am very good at doing, which is laying down the foundations of eliciting an emotional response to get people interested in what we're doing? You're gonna see some great storytelling. And one of my jobs that I have kind of given to myself is to help fans see different layers of people that maybe they haven't seen before that I'm gonna be working with. I like to put people in different situations and circumstances that perhaps they hadn't been in prior to working with me. So that's what they're gonna get."

Since returning to WWE in August, Kross's main feuds have been with Drew McIntyre and Rey Mysterio. He traded wins with McIntyre in their major matches, winning a strap match at Extreme Rules in October and dropping the feud-ending cage match a month later at Crown Jewel. His last televised win was on the January 6 episode of "SmackDown," where, as part of a side feud he and Scarlett were engaged in with Madcap Moss and Emma, they won a mixed tag team match. 

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Superstar Crossover" with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.