Karrion Kross’ return shocked a lot of people when he took out Drew McIntyre and stared down Roman Reigns at the end of last week’s SmackDown.
Despite reports stating that WWE were considering bringing back Kross the day of his return, no one expected to see the former NXT Champion on that night’s SmackDown.
Speaking on iHeart Radio’s Wrestling With Freddie, Freddie Prinze Jr recalled the conversation he had with Kross before his WWE return.
“I announced, on the first season of this (podcast) and with Ariel Helwani, that I was starting a wrestling federation. I still am, I’m working hard at it. My champion, and I’ve spoken with him a lot, was going to be Killer Kross. He was my guy. I was building the whole thing around him. We had kind of worked on the story, we talked about philosophy, his character, his wife’s character, with the caveat of ‘you can’t hold your career up to make my thing go. If you get other offers and you need to make a living, go make a living.’ On Wednesday, actually, it was Thursday, the day before SmackDown, I get a text that says, ‘Hey man, I need some advice. Let’s chat.’ I already know. I almost wrote him the day before, ‘With Vince gone, you’re going to get a call from Hunter.’ I literally wrote this text and I said, ‘He’s going to offer you the moon and if you say no, you’re out of your mind. Don’t trip.’ I deleted the whole text and instead, I sent him a picture from this storyboard guy who is doing part of the show for me, so I can pitch it properly, I sent him a picture of the storyboard stuff instead. I didn’t want to freak him out,”
“The very next day, I get this text, ‘Can we talk? I need some advice.’ We start chatting, he says, ‘I talked to Hunter. They made an offer and it’s real. I think I believe him when he’s telling me what’s going to happen. You and I need to talk.’ I told him what I just told you. ‘I wrote you a text yesterday that I deleted because I knew this was going to happen once Vince left the company.’ We talked about it and I said, ‘You’d be crazy to chase my dream in place of yours. Your dream was never to be,’ I don’t want to say the name of my federation, ‘your dream was never to be the Freddie P Champion, it was to be the WWE Champion. I couldn’t hold you up from that. If I was in my 20s, maybe I would, because I’d be jealous and angry, but I want to see you succeed at the highest level. My federation is not going to be at the highest level. That’s WWE, forever.’ He goes, ‘That’s funny, that’s the same thing my mom said.’ ‘Always listen to your mother.’ I didn’t know how fast this was going to happen. We say good bye, hang up, and the next day I’m watching the segment with Roman Reigns and Drew and all of a sudden, ‘my champion,’ runs out and kills Drew and puts him on the clock. ‘Oh, they’re putting a rocket ship on this man,’ which is what they should have done the first damn time. Even though it’s bittersweet, the dad in me is like, ‘Hell yeah, go make those bones’ and the artist in me is like, ‘Look at him, that’s a champion right there.'”
Freddie Prinze Jr on Wrestling With Freddie
H/T to Fightful for transcription
Follow Corey at @CoreyBrennanBS on Twitter
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