NXT's Karrion Kross on Getting Challenged by Randy Orton, Snubbed by Batista

Ahead of their NXT Championship match with Finn Balor at NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver Night Two, [...]

By Connor Casey

Ahead of their NXT Championship match with Finn Balor at NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver Night Two, Karrion Kross and Scarlett appeared on Wednesday's edition of ComicBook Nation. After hyping up his match with Balor (and giving his two cents on Godzilla vs. Kong), Kross was asked about his interactions with two former Evolution members in Batista (Dave Bautista) and Randy Orton.

Back before Kross signed with WWE he competed at Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 2 event in September 2019 and dared the Guardians of the Galaxy star to fight him at a future installment of the shoot-style event. Even thought the clip of him delivering the promo gained a bit of traction online, Kross said Batista never gave him any kind of response.

"Nope [he never responded. I was just in the moment, I didn't even tell Josh about it. I was there and I wanted it to be real. That show, when we were there, is as real as it gets. I was just thinking to myself, right before the curtain it just popped up in my head like, 'Well he's legit. He's got a legitimate background, he'd be awesome here.' I felt like a lot of people felt like Dave Bautista still had more in him than at the time when he retired, a lot of people were kind of bummed that he was retiring. ... I thought, maybe sometimes people just need an invite to come into someplace other than just knock on the door."

On the other side of coin, Orton called Kross on Twitter out of the blue back in February. "The Viper" wrote, "Get yo ass up here and let's fight make some $ and crack a beer. Wtf you waiting for??? Time? F— time. Haha I'll set my alarm."

"I was really flattered," Kross said regarding the interaction. "He doesn't have to acknowledge anybody. The guy is one of the greatest of all time, third-generation, everybody knows his story. I guess he saw something that night and decided to put it on blast. I can't wait to work with him. When the time is right, I'll be up there."

Check out the full card for TakeOver: Stand & Deliver Night Two below:

  • NXT Championship: Finn Balor vs. Karrion Kross
  • NXT North American Championship: Johnny Gargano vs. Bronson Reed
  • NXT Cruiserweight Championship: Jordan Devlin vs. Santos Escobar (Ladder Match)
  • NXT Women's Tag Team Championship: Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart vs. The Way
  • Adam Cole vs. Kyle O'Reilly (Unsanctioned Match)
0comments
Start the Conversation

of