In a recent video on his official YouTube channel, WWE star Karrion Kross spoke candidly about the groundswell of fan support he has received in recent months and the mixed reactions behind the scenes.
Kross recalled that early on, some doubted whether the support would last.
He said, “I remember in the beginning people were saying hey, I wouldn’t take it seriously, it’s not going to last or hey, let’s see if it’s for real when you go out there tonight or if it’s still there when we’re in a different city or a different state. Then when it was still there and it got louder and louder and louder every week, that went away and it was kinda like, ‘Well, we’re not really ready to fully embrace that.’”
Kross revealed that certain individuals even advised him not to acknowledge the reaction: “I was being told by certain people, ‘Don’t acknowledge it,’ which felt really wrong because having a connection with the audience, especially one that is like this, this doesn’t just come around for everybody. It wasn’t something that was constructed or thought of. This happened organically through a series of events… This is something that is happening because of what has happened over the last three years. I don’t feel like we are all collectively going in the direction that the audience would like us to go in. And that part doesn’t feel good.”
Kross emphasized the importance of listening to the crowd: “You can’t ignore the crowd in this business. You can try. It’s not going to be good in the end. You don’t want to make your audience feel they aren’t a part of this. You can’t tell them they are part of this and they are the universe and they are so heavily involved in every aspect of it and then on a whim tell them certain subsections don’t matter, we can’t do that. That pisses people off and turns people away.”
