Killer Kross Reveals Why Vince McMahon Came Up With Gladiator Helmet For Him

Killer Kross reveals who came up with the gladiator helmet.

As part of his main roster call-up back in August 2021, WWE made some changes to Killer Kross’ character. One of those changes saw him wear a gladiator helmet and suspenders.

Speaking with D-Von Dudley recently, Kross revealed whose idea this was. 

“This is a funny story. So when I was still in NXT and I was the champion, somebody who’s no longer with the company that a lot of people were not fond of sends me an email. We were talking about him earlier. He sends me an email and he’s like, ‘Hey, we got this idea.’ I think his name was Jim Laryngitis or something like that. 

He sends me this email. There’s the picture of the mask and they want me to keep the gladiator garb. Initially, which I came up with because when we were at NXT, it felt like the Thunderdome, like from Mad Max. We had the plastic glass, they were like powerbombing head first into the glass and it felt like life and death. 

At the time I was watching the show Spartacus and I thought this is gear that nobody’s wearing. It feels sort of gladiatorial. Wrestling’s always felt gladiatorial, but then they wanted to put weird scraps on it with the mask. I asked him, ‘What’s the purpose of this?’ He’s like, ‘Well, we can make Halloween costumes out of it and you get a percentage of that.’ I go, ‘Oh, well more money.’ If you want to run with this, this is an idea you’re giving me, clearly you want to make a successful monetization out of this. 

I said, ‘Where does this come from?’ ‘It’s all Vince’s idea.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ I go to him, and I say, ‘Tell me everything you want me to bring to life out of this.’ He was like, ‘I just want you to go out there, and I just want you to fucking kill these guys.’ (Scarlett) No, but he’s also more like Anton LaVey, like the horses ripping the bodies apart. (Kross) I was just like, ‘This stuff he’s giving me is not really telling me anything about the character.’ He’s telling me what he wants me to do to people in the ring. Okay, fair enough. What is this? He kept saying the Gladiator of Misery. 

You’re gonna conduct misery on these people. You’re gonna torture them. I was like, ‘Okay.’ (Scarlett) He literally described it like, ‘Oh yeah, when they strap people’s limbs to four horses and they run and rip the body.’ Like, you described that. (Kross) What do you call that, drawn and quartered? I said, ‘What the fuck is that?’ I had to look it up online. I go, ‘I don’t know what the fuck that is. Do they really do that?’ I said, ‘I don’t know if we’re doing a vignette of me attaching people to horses and the horses are running in four directions, but this is what he’s talking about. I don’t think we can fucking do that.’”

Elsewhere in another interview, Kross commented on Ronda Rousey. Fans can check his comments here. 

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