00:00Karrion Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux leave WWE?
00:04Or have they?
00:06Another WWE star gone?
00:08A shocking Hulk Hogan story?
00:10And more.
00:11I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:16We've had many tributes to Hulk Hogan in the weeks since his passing, memorial openings
00:21to both Raw and SmackDown, TV documentaries and Bubba the Love Sponge shoot interviews.
00:26What the most fitting tribute a wrestling company could do is honour one of the Hulkster's
00:30most famous pieces of wisdom.
00:33Good night Hulkamaniacs and Jabroni Marks without a life that don't know it'll work when
00:37you work a work and work yourself into a shoot.
00:40Marks.
00:41Because Karrion Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux have just announced they've left WWE, and nobody
00:45knows if it's a work or not.
00:48Much love brother HH Kiss.
00:50Kross has had, arguably and oddly, his most successful year in WWE ever.
00:55Before he won the NXT title twice back in 2020 and 2021, but he never connected with the
01:00fanbase in the way other stars on the roster did at the time, like Finn Balor, Keith Lee
01:05and Adam Cole.
01:06As a result, Kross felt overpushed, and his title runs were some of the final nails in
01:11NXT's original black and gold coffin.
01:14But thanks to an excellent social media game and an incredible work shoot promo on WrestleMania
01:19weekend, Kross did what Paul Levesque couldn't do.
01:22Kross got Kross over.
01:24In May, his String Them Up shirt became WWE's top selling piece of merch, he got two PLA matches
01:30against Sami Zayn, and fans began to chant, we want Kross at live shows.
01:35Even if Triple H did mishear them as, we want Brock.
01:39That's genuine, that's not me being snarky.
01:41He turned to the audience chanting for Kross during the SummerSlam post show and said,
01:45you got him.
01:46You got Brock Lesnar.
01:47But while Kross was getting organically over, his WWE contract was counting down to end on
01:54the 10th of August.
01:55Many believed, given how into Kross Levesque was during NXT, and how he's finally gotten
02:00himself over through pure hard work, WWE would re-sign him.
02:05But weeks and weeks went by with no reported offer.
02:08And on the 4th of August Raw, neither Karrion or Scarlett were backstage following their SummerSlam
02:12loss, despite being scheduled for the show.
02:16But last week, just days before his deal expired, the Wrestling Observer reported WWE gave him
02:21a new offer.
02:22Fightful Select couldn't confirm this, and both Kross and Scarlett maintained they hadn't
02:26been approached with new deals.
02:28But going by WWE's recent handling of R-Truth and Carlito's departures, which were both
02:33also from contracts expiring, not them getting released, the talent was told what would be
02:38happening at least a week before.
02:41Something didn't add up.
02:42Then Paul Heyman, who has creative influence at the very top of the company, compared Kross
02:47to Stone Cold Steve Austin and massively put him over on The Ariel Hawane Show.
02:52The audience is calling for him to be a bigger star, and if we don't deliver on it in a timetable
02:57that an impatient audience and impassioned audience is going to like, they are going to
03:02get behind him even more.
03:04Which is great.
03:05They are making him a star, we are not shoving him and Scarlett down anybody's throats.
03:11Make a note of Heyman saying fans might get behind Kross even more if WWE don't push
03:16him.
03:17That might be relevant for the conspiracy theories, because WWE have done the ultimate version
03:22of not pushing someone.
03:24They got rid of them.
03:25On Sunday 10th August, the same day Kross and Bordeaux's contracts were reportedly up,
03:30both of their wrestler profiles were moved to the alumni section of WWE's roster page.
03:37And then, somehow giving both the work and shoot arguments equal fuel, Kross released an
03:41hour long video on his YouTube page entitled, My WWE Contract Ends Today, which is actually
03:48part two of the killer documentary he has been making since the road to WrestleMania.
03:53In it, he said, I've been f***ed.
03:56Things are not bad, things are just very strange.
03:59I feel like the following day after WrestleMania and the Sam Roberts podcast, I literally slipped
04:04into another timeline.
04:06Once it was done, everyone was like, holy sh**, that was amazing.
04:09And he was saying to me, that's the guy we need.
04:12And I said before I left, please make sure everyone knows this was a work.
04:16Let everyone know that I love it here and I'm just doing my job.
04:19He continued, saying people in WWE told him his getting over wasn't going to last, and
04:24that they'll wait to see if he's getting the same reaction in other cities.
04:28When it was still there and it got louder every week, it was, well, we're not really
04:33ready to sort of embrace that.
04:35I was being told by certain people not to embrace it, and that felt wrong, because having a connection
04:41to the audience like this doesn't come around for everybody.
04:44And it wasn't something that was constructed.
04:46This happened organically because of what has happened over the last three years.
04:50We are getting to a tipping point.
04:53Just like Heyman described, Cross said he knew the more WWE ignored his reactions, the
04:58louder they would get, as the audience were clearly telling the company what they wanted
05:03to see and the company wasn't giving it to them.
05:06They felt ignored.
05:08Cross became angry about this, as he felt fans were investing emotionally in him, and he
05:12knew he might let them down because his contract was running out.
05:16He also claimed he said he wanted to re-sign with WWE as early back as January, as he had
05:21no intention of going anywhere else.
05:23He did have a conversation about negotiations, but he felt like it wasn't a real conversation,
05:29and it left him profoundly disappointed.
05:31His on-screen partner and real life wife Scarlett then posted on Twitter,
05:35My time in WWE has been an incredible ride, and I can truly say it's been the best locker
05:40room I've ever been a part of.
05:42These people aren't just co-workers, they're family.
05:45I love you all, and I'll deeply miss seeing you every week.
05:48To the fans, you've never just been a crowd.
05:51You've been our partners in every fight, and the reason we give everything for this.
05:56From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
05:58The next chapter starts now, and I'm ready to bring something unforgettable to any stage,
06:04anywhere in the world.
06:05If you want the smoke show on your show, let's make it happen, with information on how to
06:10book her for future appearances.
06:12Which Cross followed up with, hey, life is fighting, right?
06:16Now accepting bookings.
06:18Business at KillerCross.com.
06:19See you all again soon, hourglass emoji.
06:23Those bookings might take a while to come in though, as indie promoters reportedly think this
06:27is all a work.
06:28Over the last year, WWE has shown a worrying tendency to work their own locker room.
06:34Working the fans is fine, in fact that's the central idea of professional wrestling.
06:38But when you book storylines to also trick your own wrestlers, that can breed distrust
06:43and resentment.
06:44See the dying days of WCW.
06:46This can happen when a booker, in this case Paul Levesque, becomes obsessed with trying to
06:50create surprise moments.
06:52And this year has already seen three high profile instances since WrestleMania, with R-Truth being
06:57legitimately let go and then brought back, muddying how permanent WWE releases are to their own
07:04talent, Seth Rollins' worked injury, meaning wrestlers might not be able to trust their
07:08own co-workers' health status, and the return of Brock Lesnar, creating a reportedly uncomfortable
07:14atmosphere for the wrestlers who were caught unaware.
07:18Considering Carrion already having cut a worked shoot promo back at Mania, and Heyman essentially
07:23laying out the playbook of how to get the fans to cheer for him more on the week of his departure
07:27keep him off TV to increase audience support, which is exactly what happened with the R-Truth
07:32fiasco, many are sceptical whether Cross and Scarlett have actually left WWE.
07:38And that includes MLW higher ups who reportedly told Fightful that they believed the situation
07:44was a work, as do many of the other promoters the site has spoken to, and they aren't sure
07:49whether they should reach out to Cross and Scarlett as a result.
07:52That said, Fightful report that if this is a work, WWE are also working their own roster
07:57and creative team, as they have been told this is legitimate.
08:01But maybe Cross and Scarlett don't need independent promotions.
08:05Because enough are affiliated with WWE now to keep up the facade.
08:09The two have previously wrestled extensively for both TNA and AAA, with Scarlett's AAA debut
08:14actually being the promotion's most watched ever YouTube video.
08:18With both of those companies now in working relationships with WWE, they could turn up there
08:23while building momentum for whatever storyline invasion return they might have planned.
08:28But there is a notable bit of evidence in the shoot column.
08:32Because at the same time Cross and Bordeaux announced their departure, so did other main roster
08:36star Ashanti the Adonis, who posted on Twitter that he's moving on from the company after
08:42six years.
08:43Fightful has followed that up, confirming his contract has expired.
08:47Which means all of the original hit row have now been released at least once, with this
08:51marking Adonis' second time.
08:53Do you think the Karrion Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux situation is a work?
08:56Let me know down in the comments.
08:58You jabroni marks!
08:59What sadly isn't a work, however, much love HH Kiss, is how Hulk Hogan ruined his own daughter's
09:06singing career.
09:07Brooke Hogan is the Hulkster's daughter, who got her own spin-off reality show, Brooke
09:11Knows Best, from her family's Hogan Knows Best series.
09:14Brooke had become estranged from her father in recent years, but she made a surprise appearance
09:18on the Bubba the Love Sponge livestream, where Bubba, who was a close friend of Hogan's,
09:23revealed Hulk had tried to ruin her singing career with the label SoBe Entertainment.
09:28I know that you think that your record label let you go on Christmas morning.
09:32Do you know that your dad is the one that wrote the letter?
09:36That didn't come from SoBe, that came from your father, because he wanted to blow up
09:41your SoBe deal.
09:42Bubba claimed he was there when Hogan wrote the letter, and that it was part of Hogan's
09:46plan to sign The Big Show Paul White to a boxing contract, which somehow involved Cecil
09:51Barker, the CEO of the label.
09:54The Wrestling Observer have corroborated that Brooke Hogan did receive that letter on Christmas
09:58Day 2011, but they point out the reason might not be because Paul White was going to have
10:02a boxing contract, as that was a Big Show plan back in 2007, four years beforehand.
10:08Brooke said on hearing the revelation,
10:10"...it always felt like the second I got going, he pulled the rug out from under me."
10:15Brooke has now re-signed with SoBe to start recording again.
10:18Speaking of the Big Show, how many times does he appear on the 10 worst ever wrestling face
10:23turns and runs?
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