Karrion Kross Says Reception In Saudi Arabia Felt Good, Compares Reaction To Shawn Michaels Anti-Hero Vibe

At WWE Night of Champions, Karrion Kross competed in his first televised match since April when he was part of the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal on WWE SmackDown.

Kross had been getting good reactions on WWE Main Event and in backstage segments with Sami Zayn.

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Speaking to Busted Open Radio, Kross was asked about the reception he received in Saudi Arabia.

It felt amazing. A lot of times, when I'm about to walk out through the curtain, especially recently, I don't know what is going to be coming at me. I have no idea. I know it's going to be something. It's going to be boos or cheers, but for the last couple of months, it's been an overwhelming amount of support and cheers. I'm not comparing myself to Steve Austin, but I remember being a kid when the audience began to turn with Steve Austin, or even with Shawn Michaels, when he was a heel and the audience started cheering. It was very cool, like an anti-hero vibe. This has happened to me before. This happened to me on the independents. I was working as a heel and at the time on the indies, I was cursing off the audience and doing everything I could to keep them behind the babyface. Nothing was budging. Eventually, promoters turned me babyface.

"When we were out in Saudi, every time I've gone, and I've been five times now, I've only wrestled once and that was against Drew in a steel cage, which was amazing. I took my first suplex off a steel cage, and rightfully so with him because he's one of the strongest human beings I've ever met. I had no concerns whatsoever that we were going to get the rotation right. It felt amazing. Every time we've been there, anytime we've walked outside or been anywhere, people go crazy. When we did the live press conference and the crowd came up for us. Then I knew when we were going to walk through the curtain and walk on the stage that they were going to be there for it. It felt really good. I've been dying to be in front of people. That many people, on a stage like that, I've been dying to do it. To have that sort of response was amazing. I knew I would be able to turn at least half the arena and make sure they were going to stay behind Sami when we were out there. Just the reception we got, it felt really good."

Zayn was victorious in the bout, but Kross attacked Zayn on Monday's WWE Raw.

Elsewhere during the interview, Kross joked about taking back bumps. You can find his comments here.

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