Karrion Kross recalls a creative pitch previously made by Bobby Lashley.
Upon his return to WWE SmackDown last December, Karrion Kross entered into a program with former WWE Champion Bobby Lashley. This feud later elevated its numbers, as Kross recruited The Authors of Pain, Paul Ellering, and his wife Scarlett, while Lashley sided with The Street Profits and B-Fab. In total, the Kross-Lashley spanned five months, with the culminating moment coming in the form of a Philadelphia Street Fight at WrestleMania 40.
During a recent appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, Kross recounted his road to WrestleMania. In doing so, Kross revealed a previous pitch for a staged fight with Lashley, which would then be leaked to the wrestling news outlets.
“On the way to that Mania match, Bobby and I were constantly trying to find ways to intensify the conflict,” Kross said. “Respectfully, we just felt like there were certain things on the way there that felt redundant. And it’s not me being salty about anything, it’s just him and I wanted to make this as intense and as crazy as possible. He had an idea to try to blur the lines on the way there, to make it feel as real as possible.”
“There was even one time Bob was like, ‘You know what we should do? All these guys, they like to talk and they like to run to the dirt sheets and stuff. Dude, we should fight at the beginning of the show. We should get in a fight because all these guys are going to go and call the dirt sheets and tell them that we actually had a fight, and it’s going to stir people up into what we’re doing on TV.’ I was like, ‘Bob, what? Hold on a sec. First of all, what happens if nobody breaks up the fight?’ And he was like, damn, I didn’t think about that.”
Bobby Lashley’s Idea Raises Worries For Karrion Kross
In addition to the unforeseen dynamics of the fight, Kross also raised concerns about the reaction it would elicit from WWE executives, including Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque. At worst, Kross believed the angle could potentially get him and Lashley fired from the company. As such, Kross suggested that he and Lashley keep the idea just that — an idea.
“I go, ‘Also, what happens if we get fired?’ Because what are we going to do? [Triple H]’s going to pull us aside and be like, ‘what’s wrong with you guys?’ [We say] ‘Oh, it’s just a work.’ And he’s like, ‘You guys are bleeding, what are you doing?’ Then just the whole logical process of having to explain that it was a work and hoping that the office would have been okay with it, that we did that, and then it spilling. I was like ‘Let’s hold off on this idea. I love crazy stuff like this, but please, let’s hold off on that idea.'”
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