There was a time when WWE thought that Karrion Kross and his partner/valet/wife Scarlett were an expense too excessive to afford. Deemed on par with cutting out trips to the all-you-can-eat sushi bar the week rent is due, Nick Khan and company opted to release the duo from their contracts due to “budget cuts” in the midst of their most profitable year of all time, and told the duo that they “didn't have to go home but they couldn't stay here.”

At the time, this decision felt more like a merciful release than a cutthroat sacrifice to show fans who is boss. Kross was embarrassed on the main roster after a methodical build-up in NXT under Paul “Triple-H” Levesque, and after having basically everything interesting about his character washed away, from Scarlett to his introduction in favor of a gladiator getup and a strange presentation, he was finally allowed to go back to being the “Killer” who once shined on Impact.

So naturally, a performer of Kross' caliber would get signed up shortly thereafter, right? He'd land on his feet, find a new home, and make WWE regret their decision a la Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre before him? Nope, but not for a lack of trying. While Kross was offered a single match in AEW that he rejected – a match that was ultimately wrestled by W. Morrisey – and amassed an impressive win-loss record in promotions like MLW, NJPW Strong, and a number of other indies, no opportunity ever resulted in a long-term deal that eliminated him from eventually signing with WWE when the chance presented itself.

Fortunately for Kross and Scarlett, Vince McMahon retired, Levesque gained creative control of the company as a whole, and Kross was back with a new presentation that had far more in common with his original NXT presentation. He didn't have to travel around the indies taking whatever bookings were available, didn't have to become Minoru Suzuki's 37-year-old “young boy,” and didn't have to pivot his career to instead take a shot at professional fighting, which, according to the duo, was apparently an option that was on the table.

Karrion Kross almost ended up in a very different place than WWE.

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When Kross and Scarlett made their debuts on Corey Graves' After the Bell podcast, they talked about a number of different topics across the professional wrestling universe. They discussed what Kross did away from the company, how he ended up back in the company, and most importantly of all, what they are going to do in WWE now that they again have a chance to become “lifers.”

All things considered, the episode was pretty standard stuff for Graves; he's as natural on the podcast mic as he is on commentary and was on the mic in-ring back in the day, and his ability to get his fellow wrestlers' guards down is impressive. What wasn't standard, however, was the nugget Kross dropped about potentially pivoting away from wrestling in some way to instead train for UFC and fight in the Bare Knuckle Fight Championship; the league that Bobby Lashley fought for when he was away from WWE. Check out a transcription of the show's segment via Fightful below.

“Here's some breaking news. Daniel Gracie, who is one of our head instructors for Brazilian jiu-jitsu, he was encouraging me to re-locate to Philadelphia and fight in UFC. On top of that, while that was going on, I was speaking to David Feldman from Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship and I was on the verge of taking a three-fight deal. On top of that, we were getting involved in television projects and movies and stuff like that. It's kind of funny how it all worked out. It kept getting pushed back for delays and had it not, and we signed on, there is a really good chance we may have not been able to come back when we got the call.”

Whoa, now that is very interesting. While every wrestler mentions TV/movie projects as something they would either like to look into or actively pursue during their time away from the ring – just ask MJF – few actually jump over to the shoot side of the professional grappling world, with the number of wrestlers-turned-fighters far rarer than fighters-turned wrestlers. While some, like Lashley, Brock Lesnar, and CM Punk, have made it work to varying degrees of success, the concept of watching Kross attempt to duke it out in a BKCF ring would have certainly taken some getting used to. All things considered, it seems like everything worked out for the best.