Killer Kross Comments On Triple H’s WWE NXT Leadership

In an interview with SHAK Wrestling, Killer Kross talked about his time working for WWE, specifically the NXT brand under the name Karrion Kross. Unlike his main roster run, Killer Kross was wildly successful in NXT, winning the NXT Championship twice and maintaining consistent characterization throughout his run. He credited NXT as being a collaborative effort in helping him succeed.

"NXT, to me, my experience was more collaborative," Kross said. "They would ask me how I feel about something or I could pitch an idea to them and then we would kind of come together and we would figure out what the best course of what we would do is. So I'll give an example. We had Code Orange play live at my first NXT Takeover when I wrestled Ciampa, and I thought, it was In Your House.

"And I thought it would be kinda cool with the presentation we were doing if I came down to the ring in some sort of a mask. Because Code Orange is, they perform in the style that they perform in. And it's In Your House, maybe it's like a home invasion. I had a creepy outfit to wear and I just finished watching The Nun. I watched The Nun and I watched The Town back to back. And if you remember The Town, the bank robber movie, they were wearing nun masks when they were robbing the bank.

"So I had one of those. I was going to come down to the ring with the leather jacket and a nun mask and it was right after Code Orange had gone on. Hunter saw it and he's like 'hey, I appreciate your level of creativity. However, it's not a good idea to put the mask on you because people are still getting to know your face, and this will take away from footage that we can show.

"If we want to chop things up, people won't know who you are in the highlights.' And he just explained to me the benefit of not wearing this, versus coming down to the ring and wearing it. And so it wasn't a 'hey what are you doing?' Or waving your finger. He explained to me the benefits of not wearing it as opposed to the consequences of it. And I was just like 'he's totally right.'"

Killer Kross continued to praise Triple H, calling him a natural leader. He also stated that Triple H, as well as Shawn Michaels, were two guys that motivated talent to perform better in matches because of how much they believed in talent.

"He, to me, is a natural leader," Kross said. "He's not someone that ever had to raise his voice. He's not someone who had to get angry for people to listen to him. He was a person where I would come into work and he would be completely focused with each and every single person he was working with. I never saw him play favorites. He never told you what you wanted to hear, he always told you what you needed to hear. And he inspired people to be better versions of themselves at work.

"I can tell you without putting anybody's names out there because it's their stories to tell one day, but like I could tell you for sure, as much as people wanted to perform in this business for the fans, they also wanted to perform out of respect for Hunter and Shawn. Because of how much time they would put into them and helping them improve. And it was awesome.

"He was definitely one of the first people I met in the business where I was like, they always say never meet your heroes, right? I had a good feeling about it from the get-go. He's definitely somebody for me personally, as a person, that totally didn't disappoint at all. Like he exceeded expectations if you know the type of person you think you want to meet from watching on TV growing up."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit SHAK Wrestling with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.