Ex-WWE Star Calls Out Company For “Gross” Contract Negotiations

WWE released Karrion Kross in August 2025 when his contract expired. The release came amid failed contract negotiations between Kross and WWE.

According to the ex-WWE star, the company initially extended a contract renewal offer late, just as his previous deal was ending. When he asked for an explanation and metrics on how WWE valued their offer to make an informed decision, WWE refused to provide the information and gave him only 24 hours to accept the offer.

Kross waited and asked again the next day, but WWE still did not provide details and eventually withdrew the offer, leaving him and his wife, Scarlett, without renewed deals.

WWE Was “Strategic” With Karrion Kross’s Contract Negotiations

During an interview on Behind The Turnbuckle Studios with Jonathan Coachman and Vince Russo, Kross described WWE’s negotiating tactics as “very gross” and manipulative, expressing his dissatisfaction with how it was handled.

We just kind of shrugged, and we’re like, I mean, we’re not fatalists in the sense of like if we can’t do what we want, oh my god it’s the end of the world. Of course, it means the world to us to be there and to perform at our best, but also not under the conditions of that, like we’ve always proceeded with logic and and fairness and if that’s not going to be met we’re not like young starving 20-year-olds that are going to subject ourselves to conversations like that being spoken to like that.

Like, we know what’s going on. And if the conversation is not going to proceed fairly, then, you know, we’ll just say, “Hey, we’d like to keep dialogue open. You know, we’re not saying no, but we’d like to keep dialogue open. We’d like to further discuss this.” And even at one point, the guy was like, “Well, we’re going to tell them that you declined the offer.”

And I said, “Don’t do that because that’s not what I did. Don’t put words in my mouth. Don’t tell them that I declined the offer. If you have something to tell them, tell them that I want I would like to keep the dialogue open. Like, there it was just the whole conversation. It felt strategic on their end. Yeah. Strategic and very gross. (From 25:59 – 27:09)

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