Karrion Kross Trends After Shocking Loss In His Debut On WWE Raw

Karrion Kross lost his debut match to Jeff Hardy on WWE Raw.

Credit: WWE.com

NXT champion Karrion Kross lost his debut match on WWE Raw to Jeff Hardy (Age 43), who received a hero’s welcome from the Dallas crowd, in a familiar instance of WWE’s saboteur booking of an NXT call-up. This type of sabotage was also utilized for the returning Keith Lee, who suffered a one-sided loss to Bobby Lashley in his home state.

Kross, who quickly became a trending topic from incensed fans on Twitter following the loss, was previously undefeated as a dominant two-time world champion on NXT. His first title reign ended due to injury, but Kross picked up right where he left off by beating Finn Balor for the NXT Championship at WWE NXT TakeOver: Stand and Deliver.

After WWE aired a perfect pair of shows in its return to live fans on SmackDown and at Money in the Bank, WWE seems to be regressing to the type of confounding booking that undermined up-and-coming stars before and during the pandemic. WWE appears content in relying on part-timers such as Goldberg and John Cena—both of whom were featured on Raw—which is fine. But WWE’s lingering problem of failing to build the next generation of stars was put on display in WWE Raw’s return to live crowds.

Kross’ loss also hinders his previously anticipated feud with Samoa Joe, whom Kross choked out at the end of WWE NXT last week.

In addition to his surprising loss, Kross was given a half-hearted entrance that was a shell of the superstar entrance he receives alongside Scarlett, who was nowhere to be found.

After fan concern for Kross during an underwhelming singles match against Shelton Benjamin, where he was stripped of all his much-needed bells and whistles, these concerns seem to have been validated with his showing tonight. After suffering defeat for the first time, Kross vowed to avenge his loss in a post-match interview, but the damage appears to have already been done.

Kross noted Hardy mad e the biggest mistake of his life, and that “everyone will fall and pray,” however his career will need a prayer—at the very least—to overcome this truly mind-boggling booking.