Confirms It Is Not A Work, Says Scarlett Wasn’t Given Offer, Explains Why He Didn’t Sign His

Karrion Kross appeared as an in-studio guest on the August 13 episode of The Ariel Helwani Show to discuss his departure from WWE in his first full-length interview.

During the discussion, the pro wrestling star confirmed that his WWE departure is not a work, and spoke about the offer the company made to him, why he didn’t end up re-signing, how Scarlett was never offered a deal, how AEW has not yet reached out to him and how he still ultimately hopes to end up in WWE.

Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts. Also embedded below is a complete video archive of the discussion.

On his WWE contract expiring and the new offer the company made to him: “My contract was up last week. I never actually received an offer until last week. I got the offer. I wanted to know how they came to the valuation of that offer. Just some information, metrics, analytics, that supported, ‘Hey, this is how we got here.’ When I inquired about that, they weren’t willing to provide that information and told me I had 24 hours to agree to the offer or they would rescind it. The next day, we talked. I asked if they had the information, they don’t. I said, ‘I can’t make an informed decision without the information. I’d like to keep the dialogue open.’ They rescinded the offer. That’s where we’re at. I know how a lot of people feel when they make an exit. I can empathize with everybody’s experience. Every exit experience is different. This isn’t to disparage WWE, but because there are so many convoluted stories going on, and to some degree can affect our livelihood, of what we’re supposed to be doing after. People don’t want to reach out because they’re not sure if they are tampering. The goal has always been to be with WWE. My wife and I still want to be with WWE. I’m at the table for conversations. I did not step out of the conversation. We still want to be there and want to work it out.”

On if the offer was for less money than he was making: “No, but at the end of the day, when a valuation is being suggested, there has to be something where people can go to, information-wise, to say, ‘This is how we came to this. This is what we think makes sense.’ I asked to see that information. I still haven’t seen it. I want to see it. Let’s look at it together and decide whether this is appropriate or not. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.”

On if the offer was off compared to what he was looking to get: “I didn’t think of it like that. I was thinking, ‘Let’s assess everything together and see where we’re at.’ I want to make sure this is reflective, fairly, of what we have information-wise to look at.”

On how close he was to accepting the deal: “Impossible. I explained to them, ‘There is no opportunity to make an informed decision without looking at the information together.’ You can’t do that. Your whole livelihood is based on this idea with no information to support it. I just wanted to get there and keep the dialogue open. I still do.”

On representing himself in negotiations, but going through a WWE representative instead of Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque or Nick Khan: “I would have loved to spoken to either of my bosses. When my wife and I came back, Hunter called us and we did our deals over the phone together. I was under the assumption we were going to do that again. We did them at the same time. Typically, I would not put somebody in front of me to talk to Hunter. I feel comfortable to talk to him in person. We would always talk that way.”

On how he is now a free agent: “I’ve been told through people, ‘Hey, what’s actually going on?’ They are telling me that people are concerned about making contact. At the end of the day, I’m not trying to turn this into a game. It’s not a game to me. It’s my life. I’m very big on loyalty; everyone knows that, but loyalty is a two-way street. WWE has given me and my family an amazing opportunity in the past to change our lives. I’m very interested in trying to recover what I think is easily recoverable. It takes two people to come together to talk about it. I’m still here.”

On how if he ends up in TNA people will still think the situation is a work due to them being under the WWE umbrella: “Yeah, that’s what everyone is thinking. I’ve read it and seen it. Everyone is thinking I’m just going to pop up under some other company in the WWE umbrella. They are hoping I do because this seems to nonsensical to people. People are following the course of events to get to here and are going, ‘How did this happen? This must not be real because this makes no sense.’ Believe me, I also think this makes no sense either. This is baffling to me too. It drives me nuts that I have to admit that. It is baffling.”

On if he’s open to talking to other companies and confirms that AEW has not reached out to him yet: “I’ve talked to many people across the board about doing a lot of different things. I have things that we’re lining up, my wife and I, we just haven’t announced dates. Nothing so far that we have taken on would necessarily interfere with coming back home to WWE. I’m not trying to turn this into a game, I know that can be advantageous for a lot of people. I don’t like to proceed like that. I will resent myself for proceeding that way, even if it’s monetarily beneficial to do that. I don’t want to do that. I’m still waiting at the table to finish discussing things we never got a chance to discuss. I think there is still a lot to talk about.”

On ultimately still wanting to end up in WWE if possible: “From attempting to recover the issue with WWE. I’m not fishing for any major television wrestling companies to call me. I have been contacted by several, but I’m not looking for that. I would like to explore the conversation more with WWE.”

On how no offer was made from WWE to Scarlett: “There was no offer to her. I was told at one point, because I did inquire, ‘After we deal with you, we’ll deal with her.’ I don’t see why we couldn’t have done things the way we did them before where we do the deals together.”

(H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.)