Karrion Kross Says WWE Offered Him A New Deal, Gave Him 24 Hours To Accept Before Rescinding It

On August 10th, Karrion Kross officially became a free agent as his contract with the company expired.

Kross has been featured more on television as his popularity grew throughout 2025, culminating with a match against Sami Zayn at WWE SummerSlam.

Speaking to Ariel Helwani on the Ariel Helwani Show, Kross was asked if he is working the internet regarding his contract.

“No. I’m not answering questions today as a character,” he said.

Kross was then asked to confirm that he hasn’t re-signed.

“No. I was planning on doing a book tour. I’ve been doing a lot of media. ECW Publishing, the publisher of the book, has been helping me with that. There was no anticipation this was going to happen on the book tour. It’s just what’s happening,” he said.

Asked how he got to this point, Kross said, “My contract was up last week. I never actually received an offer until last week.”

Kross said he believes the offer came on Tuesday.

“I got the offer. I wanted to know how they came to the valuation of that offer. Just some information, metrics, analytics, that supported, ‘Hey, this is how we got here.’ When I inquired about that, they weren’t willing to provide that information and told me I had 24 hours to agree to the offer or they would rescind it. The next day, we talked. I asked if they had the information, they don’t. I said, ‘I can’t make an informed decision without the information. I’d like to keep the dialogue open.’ They rescinded the offer. That’s where we’re at. I know how a lot of people feel when they make an exit. I can empathize with everybody’s experience. Every exit experience is different. This isn’t to disparage WWE, but because there are so many convoluted stories going on, and to some degree can affect our livelihood, of what we’re supposed to be doing after. People don’t want to reach out because they’re not sure if they are tampering. The goal has always been to be with WWE. My wife and I still want to be with WWE. I’m at the table for conversations. I did not step out of the conversation. We still want to be there and want to work it out,” stated Kross.

Kross said he had never heard of a deal where you are given 24 hours to accept or it would be rescinded, and doesn’t know why that was part of the offer.

Asked if he was offered lower money than he was making, Kross said, “No, but at the end of the day, when a valuation is being suggested, there has to be something where people can go to, information-wise, to say, ‘This is how we came to this. This is what we think makes sense.’ I asked to see that information. I still haven’t seen it. I want to see it. Let’s look at it together and decide whether this is appropriate or not. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.”

Asked if the offer was off from what he was looking for, he replied, “I didn’t think of it like that. I was thinking, ‘Let’s assess everything together and see where we’re at.’ I want to make sure this is reflective, fairly, of what we have information-wise to look at.”

Asked how close he was to taking the deal, Kross said, “Impossible. I explained to them, ‘There is no opportunity to make an informed decision without looking at the information together.’ You can’t do that. Your whole livelihood is based on this idea with no information to support it. I just wanted to get there and keep the dialogue open. I still do.”

Kross said that he was speaking to WWE directly, not through an agent. He also said he spoke to a company rep, not Triple H or Nick Khan.

“I would have loved to spoken to either of my bosses. When my wife and I came back, Hunter called us and we did our deals over the phone together. I was under the assumption we were going to do that again. We did them at the same time. Typically, I would not put somebody in front of me to talk to Hunter. I feel comfortable to talk to him in person. We would always talk that way,” he said.

Kross posted a video on August 10th documenting the lead up to WWE SummerSlam and confirming that his contract was up.

Asked if he thought he might get a call from WWE after the video, Kross replied, “No. I try not to invent a hopeful scenario in my head, but (it did surprise me), a little bit. I wanted to continue the dialogue. It was strange. A lot of this is strange to me.”

Asked if he expected to hear from someone in the company, he replied, “I didn’t necessarily think the timing of anyone wanting to talk to me would have anything to do with that. There is nothing derogatory or disparaging in that that would create any sort of concern. More just documenting how SummerSlam went.”

In the middle of his two answers, Kross was asked if he was hurt by the situation.

“Yeah. It’s unexpected. I’m not sure I had a high level of expectation. Anytime I’ve ever gotten on board with a company hasn’t quite been like this in terms of communication. I feel like there is so much more to talk about. There is more to explore here. It’s just strange,” he said.

Kross confirmed that he is a free agent and can work with any promotion.

“I’ve been told through people, ‘Hey, what’s actually going on?’ They are telling me that people are concerned about making contact. At the end of the day, I’m not trying to turn this into a game. It’s not a game to me. It’s my life. I’m very big on loyalty; everyone knows that, but loyalty is a two-way street. WWE has given me and my family an amazing opportunity in the past to change our lives. I’m very interested in trying to recover what I think is easily recoverable. It takes two people to come together to talk about it. I’m still here,” he said.

Kross reiterated throughout the interview that he wants to be in WWE.

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit and link to the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.