Karrion Kross reflects on the fan reaction he got at WWE Night of Champions.
Last Saturday saw Karrion Kross compete in his first PLE match since WrestleMania XL. The former two-time NXT Champion got a massive reaction from the crowd as he made his way to the ring for singles action against another fan favorite in Sami Zayn.
Despite dominating most of the match, Kross failed to put away Sami in front of a red-hot crowd at Riyadh’s Kingdom Arena. Sami would show up during the main event match between John Cena and CM Punk for the Undisputed WWE Championship.
Karrion Kross felt amazing about fan reception at WWE Night of Champions
Karrion Kross might’ve walked away with a loss, but he isn’t shying away from acknowledging the tremendous amount of support from the WWE Universe at Night of Champions. Here’s what Kross had to say about the fan reaction during a recent appearance on Busted Open Radio:
“It felt amazing,” Kross admitted. “A lot of times, when I’m about to walk out through the curtain, especially recently, I don’t know what is going to be coming at me. I have no idea. I know it’s going to be something. It’s going to be boos or cheers, but for the last couple of months, it’s been an overwhelming amount of support and cheers.
“I’m not comparing myself to Steve Austin, but I remember being a kid when the audience began to turn with Steve Austin, or even with Shawn Michaels, when he was a heel and the audience started cheering. It was very cool, like an anti-hero vibe. This has happened to me before. This happened to me on the independents. I was working as a heel and at the time on the indies, I was cursing off the audience and doing everything I could to keep them behind the babyface. Nothing was budging. Eventually, promoters turned me babyface.”
Kross recalls facing Drew McIntyre in Saudi Arabia
“When we were out in Saudi, every time I’ve gone, and I’ve been five times now, I’ve only wrestled once and that was against Drew in a steel cage, which was amazing. I took my first suplex off a steel cage, and rightfully so with him because he’s one of the strongest human beings I’ve ever met. I had no concerns whatsoever that we were going to get the rotation right. It felt amazing.
“Every time we’ve been there, anytime we’ve walked outside or been anywhere, people go crazy. When we did the live press conference and the crowd came up for us. Then I knew when we were going to walk through the curtain and walk on the stage that they were going to be there for it. It felt really good. I’ve been dying to be in front of people. That many people, on a stage like that, I’ve been dying to do it. To have that sort of response was amazing. I knew I would be able to turn at least half the arena and make sure they were going to stay behind Sami when we were out there. Just the reception we got, it felt really good.” (H/T Fightful)
