Interview: Killer Kross on Lucha Underground, His Character’s Origins, Impact, WWE Rumors

A recent episode of the Interactive Wrestling Radio podcast show had Killer Kross as the guest and some of the topics discussed included his White Rabbit character in Lucha Underground, the origins of his Killer Kross persona, his career in Impact Wrestling, and the rumors of WWE being interested in him after his Impact debut.

On the topic of his White Rabbit character in Lucha Underground, Kross stated he was sold very quickly on the idea when it was presented to him and has been very happy with the reception for his character.

“It was a blast and I was sold very quickly on it because Paul London and Chris DeJoseph called me about it. I think, literally, I was on a plane within 7 hours to start filming that. I was able to pull off a variety of different things for a variety of different characters. Many different ideas were considered and they were hitting a wall with this one. They ran it by me and said they wanted me to put my two cents in on it and they wanted me to make it mine. I wanted to contribute to the product with anything I could. Would I have liked to have contributed more and did I think I was going to be contributing more? Yes! But, due to things we don’t have time to discuss, it turned out like this. But, I’m happy! I’m really happy with how it turned out. And, I’m happy people enjoyed it. That is why I do this so if that happened, that is a touchdown!”

On the topic of the origins of his Killer Kross persona, Kross stated he pulled from a wide variety of sources as the inspiration for his character’s persona.

“Well, at the risk of sounding legitimately insane… I have a lot of influences from novels, from comics, from films, from wrestling… I really just try to let these things breathe through where this Killer Kross is from. I have a whole context in my mind of where he would be at any time, what he would be doing, what he would be thinking, how he would be handling different situations because if you do that like an actor would in a series where you develop that character for 8 months, you can take that character anywhere and it will come off with absolute sincerity. You can see the same wrestling moves over and over again – There is a redundancy of wrestling moves. But, what you’re not going to see that is not redundant is execution of sincerity and character presentation. I realized that right off the bat with this. I said everyone has already seen powerbombs and suplexes and yeah, I’m going to do them. I know what people want to see in wrestling and I’m going to give it to them. However, what can I show them that is going to be really unique? I just played with different character presentations and combined a lot of things that I knew well and felt I could pull off sincerely and believably. And, some of it comes from social media. I can’t even tell you how often people come up to me and mention something I did a month ago, 6 months ago, a year ago, 3 years ago that stuck with them and it was a moment. The devil is in the details. I’m all about that. I never, ever throw works to the wind. If you enjoy watching things for details, that will always be in my work.”

On the topic of his career in Impact Wrestling, Kross stated he has been enjoying his time in the company and the appreciates the amount of creative freedom given to him.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t mean this in a derogatory way but I have enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I was going to because I have been given a lot of creative freedom as far as the things that I have been doing – So much that we don’t really have time to get into here. But, I’ve been able to take things that I’ve done elsewhere and independently really breathe here. That was always my intention. I’ve been getting this ready, what people are watching, for a long time on my own accord. So when people say about this so authentically, they really don’t realize I have been in this skin for a really long time. The fact that I am able to show people this – The odds of that happening are slim to none. But, the writers believed in this when they saw it. That had a big part in it. Because, they see everything. They are very over-critical for good reason. They oversee everything. They were like, “This needs to be on television.” I said, “Yeah, you’re right. It does! So, lets get it out there!” (laughs)”

On the topic of the rumors of WWE being interested in him shortly after his Impact debut, Kross confirmed those rumors to be true.

“That is absolutely true. Yes. (laughs) Everything happens for a reason. I don’t say this in a negative way but I don’t think people in WWE internally or the fan base would have had any idea how to receive this character if I had went there first with it. That has a lot to do with their general platform and their presentation. I don’t think they would have known how to implement this character. So, the fact that it is happening elsewhere… Maybe one day there will be a time and a place for this guy on that stage. But, this (Impact) is the perfect place to be doing this.”