Karrion Kross defied the odds when he returned to the ring in December.
Kross recently spoke with Rick Ucchino of SK Wrestling, and in one highlight, he described the “vicious” rehab process that allowed him to come back much sooner than expected.
“It was pretty vicious,” said Kross. “I decided to do a lot of extracurricular rehabbing as well on my shoulder. So I would go into WWE medical, and they would put me through a very rigorous process of rebuilding stability and getting inflation down in the joint. When I came home, I would bring all of the equipment that they would give me to use, and I would do it three to four times a day. It wasn’t necessary to do that, but I wanted to come back as quickly as possible.
“There were several different time projections that I was given as to when I could come back. One of them was 6-8 months, and then I think two of them was like 8-12 months. And I was like, there’s no way that’s happening. I opted out of surgery, I took a holistic approach, I went on a very clean diet. I changed everything. I put all the time that I would normally put into training into my rehab process, and I compressed that 8-12 month window down to three months with no surgery. It was really hard, but we got through it, and this is part of our industry. This is part of what we do.”
The former NXT Champion emphasized that he feels great physically. He explained that his shoulder is back at full strength, and he’s having “zero issues” with it.
Kross has earned a lot of praise for his remarkable persona in NXT, and he explained how the version of the character fans are seeing now is different than its previous incarnations. He pointed to Scarlett’s presence as one factor, and he also stated that his motives are more passionate.
“The Karrion Kross from back then used to beat people up for money and used to enjoy it,” said Kross. “The Karrion Kross now beats people up because he wants his title back, which is gonna be a far worse beating than they were gonna get if this was just solely based around monetary consumption. On top of that, I have Scarlett with me. She’s a supernatural presence, something that no one has ever really seen. She’s very individual, very special and the whole entire feel of this is gonna be completely different.
“I’m stronger, faster and bigger now than I’ve ever been as well.”
Between his successful recovery from his shoulder injury and his eager mission to reclaim his NXT Championship, Kross is set up for success on the black-and-gold brand in the coming months.
The clip is available here:
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