Former WWE star Karrion Kross, now working as Killer Kross, has explained why he isn’t particularly enthusiastic about the direction professional wrestling is currently heading.
During an interview with 11Alive, Kross was asked which current wrestler he believes could “take the torch” and lead professional wrestling into the future.
Rather than naming a specific performer, Kross said the question is more complicated because he isn’t sure what the future of the industry itself will look like.
“It’s a complicated question if I’m answering honestly,” Kross said. “I can give you a headline response, and it would be completely inauthentic to what I actually believe.”
Kross argued that professional wrestling has traditionally reflected wider society and culture, making it difficult to predict what type of performer will be best positioned to lead the industry in the years ahead.
“The problem I’m seeing right now is, you know, wrestling has always been sort of like a reflection, sort of a social commentary of, like, what’s going on socially in the world,” he said. “It’s always been that way. Like, a lot of what we see in the programming is a reflection of what’s going on in society.”
“So, to say who right now could carry it into the future, I don’t know what the future is going to look like.”
Kross then expressed frustration with what he sees as wrestling programming increasingly sacrificing time that could be devoted to matches and storylines.
“So far, I actually don’t like the direction. Sorry, I don’t like the direction that wrestling is going in with cutting down so much time in the program away from the actual wrestling and the stories.”
He compared watching wrestling to attending a theatrical production, arguing that advertising can disrupt the audience’s immersion.
“Like, if you go to Broadway or you go to theater, you know, you wanna watch the show and you want to be immersed in it, and constantly, like, blasting you with advertisements and, like, even after a match, they’re dropping commercials and advertisements and stuff like that. I don’t like that.”
Kross acknowledged the financial reasoning behind increased advertising but said he doesn’t personally like seeing wrestling airtime treated as another opportunity to generate revenue.
“I understand that there’s, like, revenue to be generated, but treating the airtime for wrestling like it’s real estate time for other stuff to generate revenue, I understand the business practice of it, but I don’t like it.”
That uncertainty is why Kross ultimately declined to identify one wrestler as the person who should carry professional wrestling into its next era.
“So, when you ask me who’s gonna lead us into that, it could be—it could be anybody. What does it matter? You know what I mean?”
However, Kross believes that if the industry’s focus remains on professional wrestling itself, the performers who excel at the craft will be capable of leading it.
“If it’s pure pro wrestling, the pure pro wrestlers will be able to do that.”
