Earlier this week on WWE’s “The Bump,” Bobby Lashley was asked about his mindset heading into WrestleMania 40 this weekend.
On Sunday, Lashley & The Street Profits vs. The Final Testament’s Karrion Kross & AOP in a Philadelphia Street Fight will be taking place. Lashley has said that he has been handcuffed as of late.
Kross appeared on the “Undisputed” podcast to address Lashley’s comments. He said,
“Let me put this in perspective. I’ve had nothing but respect for this guy from the very beginning. We’ve worked for the same companies. I show up, I do good business, I don’t go into business for myself. We’re all from different generations. I talked to Paul Ellering about this. I said, ‘Paul, am I out of line right now?’ He said, ‘Absolutely not.’ To go and do media and say, ‘I’m excited about this weekend, but I’m looking at the main event, and we’re going on to bigger and better things,’ brother, just sell the match on Sunday. Don’t talk about how you’re handcuffed. Here’s the reality check. Everybody in this business is handcuffed. We all think we can do better. You don’t go out in the court of public opinion and try to get sympathy on the week where all eyes are on us. It’s totally unnecessary, it’s a slap in the face to the audience. ‘Yeah, I’ll show up, it’s not really what I wanted to do.’ It’s a slap in the face to the boys in the match. He should apologize to Profits and B-Fab. Honestly, he should apologize to AOP and Paul Ellering. Paul Ellering has been in the business for a long time. The dude almost fell over when he heard that. It’s completely unprofessional. People were confused about the conflict on TV of what brings the groups together to fight. Guess what, now it’s fucking real because it is real. You guys are going to get your money’s worth on Sunday. I’m showing up to give you the show of your life. I don’t know what this fucking guy is doing showing up on Sunday, but I’m happy to be here and happy to be part of the lineage of this. I guess we have to apologize to Bobby that he’s not in the main event. Maybe it’s because of the way he talks, which is why the top guys don’t want to work with him. ‘Handcuffed.’ Everybody has great ideas and thinks you can do something better. Here is the business. This is the difference between being a wrestler and a professional wrestler. ‘He’s just mad, he shouldn’t say that.’ It’s beyond that now. This blew my mind today. Beyond that, I’ll go do my job like I always do. Doing something like that, it’s disrespectful to everybody that came before him and everybody showing up that night. I thought that was fucking crazy.”
Kross also noted that it all comes down to respect for him. He added,
“We’re all very competitive. We’re all trying to put on the best performance. You don’t want to ever look down on somebody. You don’t even want to lead them into thinking you’re looking down on them. It’s okay to think you can do better and that you belong higher up on the card, but to just go out like that, whatever his intention was with that statement, this is the way he said it, this is the way I took and the way a lot of people took it.
“This isn’t the way you climb up the card. When you get people crying for you online, that’s not going to help improve your position. I understand, maybe you’ve had the worst your in your career for wrestling. I heard him say that. That’s his words, not mine. I can empathize with that. To go out there and try to win people over and have them cry for you, sorry man. That’s not what this business is all about. I think he forgot where he came from, ironically. I used to look up to that guy. I remember when they stacked him up in ECW, and I thought, ‘This is the right guy. For the reincarnation of ECW, this would be the guy you want to put in there.’ You don’t want to put in a WWE manufactured person, the crowd would reject him. I looked at him so differently, with admiration, so much admiration, up until six hours ago. I lost my mind.”
