Karrion Kross says there was zero heat between him and Bobby Lashley leading up to their Philadelphia Street Fight at WrestleMania 40.
The former NXT Champion competed in his first-ever WrestleMania match this year. He led The Final Testament against Bobby Lashley’s The Pride. The two teams had a short but eventful match with The Pride coming out victorious.
During a recent appearance on Chris Van Vliet’s Insight podcast, Kross told the truth about his supposed heat with the former WWE Champion leading up to their Mania match. He said that he hates to break the kayfabe but he loves and respects Lashley:
“Zero [heat], it was a work. He knows I feel this way about him. It’s not the first time I’m saying it. And unless you would have asked me about this, I would have never said it. I love that dude to death.
After the match, I wanted to tell him afterwards so he didn’t think I was trying to butter him up before we went out. I told him after the match was done, expressed how much I love him.”
Karrion Kross explained that he was an ECW fan growing up and was super excited when WWE brought it back in 2006. The period of Bobby Lashley as the ECW Champion was especially his favorite because he loved seeing an athlete the size of The All Mighty doing all sorts of crazy things.
Bobby Lashley’s Crazy Idea
Continuing on the build for their WrestleMania match, Kross revealed that Lashley wanted them to lean into the rumors. The former TNA champion had even suggested a shoot fight before the show to make their match feel more organic:
“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.'”
It wasn’t only Lashley who had crazy ideas to make their match as big as possible. Kross revealed during the same interview that he had some pretty out-of-the-box ideas for weapons he could have used during the bout.
Bobby Lashley’s WWE run unfortunately did not last very long after this bout. The company decided not to renew his contract and Lashley departed the promotion in August this year. Though reports suggest that he has already found a new home and is expected to make his debut there very soon.
