Freddie Prinze Jr. was prepared to make Karrion Kross the face of his upcoming wrestling promotion until he got the call from Triple H to return to WWE.
On the latest episode of the Wrestling with Freddie podcast, Freddie Prinze Jr. discussed Karrion Kross and Scarlett‘s return to WWE and that he originally envisioned Kross as the face of his wrestling company that he’s starting in the near future.
“I announced on the first season of this and with Ariel Helwani that I was starting a wrestling federation. I still am. I’m working hard at it. My champion, that I’d spoken with him a lot, was going to be Killer Kross. He was my guy. I was building the whole thing around him. He had kind of worked on the story. We talked about philosophy, talked about his character, his wife’s character, with the caveat of hey, you can’t hold your career up to make my thing go right. So I said if you get other offers and you need to make a living, go make a living, man.
“On Thursday, it was the day before Smackdown; I get a text that says, ‘hey, man, I need some advice. Let’s chat.’ I already knew, and I almost wrote him the day before. Hey, with Vince gone, you’re gonna get a call from Hunter. I literally wrote this text. I said he’s going to offer you the moon. And if you say no, you’re out of your mind. Don’t trip, and then I deleted the whole text. And instead, I just sent him a picture from this storyboard guy that’s doing part of the show for me so that I can pitch it properly. I just sent him a picture of some of the storyboard stuff instead. I didn’t want to freak him out.”
Prinze Jr. then recalled how Kross talked to him about Triple H giving him an offer to return to WWE, and he told the former NXT Champion to chase his dreams. Once he saw Kross arrive on SmackDown, he noted that he was happy for him.
“So then the very next day, I get this text from him, can we talk?” Prinze Jr. recalled. “I need some advice or chat, and he says, I talked to Hunter, he made an offer, and it’s real. And I think I believe him when he’s telling me what’s going to happen. And you and I need to talk, and I said yeah, brother. I told him what I just told you. I was like, Dude, I wrote you a text yesterday that I deleted it because I knew this was going to happen once Vince left the company. So we talked about it. I said you’d be crazy to chase my dream in place of yours. Your dream was never to be — I don’t want to say the name of my Federation. But your dream was never to be the Freddie P champion is to be the WWE champion, and I couldn’t hold you up.
“If I was in my 20s, maybe I would because I’d be jealous and angry. But I want to see you succeed at the highest level, and my Federation’s not going to be at the highest level. That’s WWE forever. He goes That’s funny. That’s the same thing my mom said. I said dude, always listen to your mother. So I didn’t know how fast this was going to happen. We hang up; we say goodbye, take care, tell Scarlett I said what’s up and we hang up, and then the next day I’m watching this segment with Roman Reigns and Drew, and all of a sudden my champion runs out, and just kills Drew and puts them on the clock. I remember being like, oh, they’re putting a rocket ship on this man, which is what they should have done the first damn time.”
The former WWE writer made it clear that he was somewhat sad to lose Kross, but he knows there are plenty of great wrestlers he can build his own company around.
“Een though it’s bittersweet, like the dad in me is like, hell yeah, kid, go pick those bones,” Prinze Jr. said. “Right? And the artist in me is like, wow, man. That’s a champion right there, and he could have been yours. But I just have to re-circumnavigate the river, there’s a ton of great wrestlers out there, and I’ll find the one that I click with and can build around. But this was something that was kind of a special moment in my life and like a real honest one that I just wanted to share with everyone else who’s like a total dork about wrestling. Like we are, and if you could have your own Federation, you totally would.”
READ MORE: Reported Details About Major Pitch Involving Karrion Kross And WWE World Title
What do you make of Freddie Prinze Jr.’s comments? Do you think Kross would have been the perfect name for Freddie to build his wrestling promotion around? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
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