During an appearance on Oral Sessions, Killer Kross recalled getting released from WWE.
āTo be honest with you, I kind of felt like it was coming. I felt like the situation could have been recovered, with my presentation on the main roster... I felt like it could have been recovered. Itās fiction, and in the world of fiction, the possibilities are endless. But I was like, yeah, I had a weird feeling that night, just on the debut, I kind of feel like this is the direction itās going in. It was like, a sense of disappointment, but it was also a sense of relief.ā
Kross also touched in losing his debut match on Raw.
āWhen I went up, and they asked me to do the match with Jeff and put him over, I was like, āSure, thatās fine.ā I grew up a fan of Jeff, and ,me getting to meet him and him being cool was an awesome experience for me. Heās literally one of the coolest people Iāve ever met. So I was like, āThatās fine.ā One of the agents came to me and was like, āHey, thereās a long-term plan for this so donāt sweat it ā donāt worry.ā Okay, cool.
āI do my entrance and I get out there, ref comes to me and goes, āHey, your 10 minute match is down to 90 secondsā ... First time weāre working on television, we donāt really know each other in the ring, our rhythm. They come back from commercial and Iām trying not to laugh. If you see, if you go back and watch it, Iām smiling. Like closed mouth, trying to hold it back. As soon as Jeff got in the ring, I snatched him and I just called what we needed to do and that was it.
āBut when I went back to NXT the next day, I spoke with someone there and I just said, I go, āLook, my biggest fear right now, my biggest phobia is that thereās a hole being dug for me, and Iām nervous that if Iām not permitted to crawl out of it myself and people absolve themselves of creating the situation ā Iām not gonna be a return as an investment, Iām gonna to get fired. So, what do you think I should do?ā Because part of this business is doing what you are told. My intuition was telling me that everything was off. Everything felt wrong, and I felt something bad coming four months before it happened. But everyone I would talk to was like, āOh, no, everybody loves you. This is good, you have no problem,ā but I felt it coming. I tried to, as professionally, politely as I could, talk to people in the chain of command about that... I just tried to be a good sport.ā
The conversation continued between both Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux.
Kross: I got an email with what it was supposed to look like. Apparently, the music was supposed to change, the entrance was supposed to change, and this was supposed to be like an enhanced version.
Scarlett: Evolving something good into something different and better.
Kross: When I saw the picture of it, I showed it to her ā and I just started laughing. I said, āI can be comfortable wearing this, but this is not gonna get over in 2021.ā
Scarlett: Itās confusing because, why is the music that Iām singing ā itās still there. And then, thereās a mask there, but thereās no explanation. So sometimes if thereās one promo to explain why all of sudden he a mask on, why is Scarlett is still singing. But when thereās no explanation, people feel like they had something taken away. Versus, if it had been a new song and a whole new presentation, people would have been like, āOkay, this is new,ā but it just felt like an amputated version of what it was.
Kross: I look at it like this ā nobody wants a reputation of being difficult to work with. Nobody wants a reputation for being a mark for themselves or not wanting to do business. Here I am, I for me personally had the dream experience in NXT. I walked in there, my ideas were embraced, we collectively collaborated on stuff... I felt inclined as a professional to embrace these ideas that were being given to me, because thatās all I was getting in NXT. If I had an idea, and I had something I wanted to say or I had an idea to I wanted to contribute to something, it was always met with enthusiasm. Or if they thought the idea was not great, they would make it better. So I thought to myself, āI kind of owe it to them to engage them with this.
Scarlett: We were also ready, when we signed up for WWE ā we were like, weāre trading creative freedom to finally be able to have a steady income. We got our house because of WWE. We were so grateful to even have jobs during the pandemic when people we knew, I had family members who lost their jobs... and people were struggling on the independent scene. So we were so grateful for anything we were given. We tried to take that perspective no matter what. We were like, āItās not our money, no matter what, weāre going to make the best of whatever it is,ā so thatās how we tried to take it.
Paquette also asked about both WWE's creative camp led by Vince McMahon and NXT's creative camp led by Triple H.
Kross: As it was explained to me, two separate entities. Like NXT really couldnāt interfere or expand, or even be involved with anything that was going on for main roster from a creative standpoint. Because I was transitioning, there was nothing that could be done, they just said, āAsk lots of questions.ā
Scarlett: It is very much two different brands... and we were ready for that. I think we were confident in our abilities ā promo work, wrestling-wise ā we can get anything they give us over.