WWE NXT’s Karrion Kross Details ‘Gruelling’ Rehab
The former NXT Champion was out of action for three months in 2020 with a shoulder injury
Former NXT Champion Karrion Kross has detailed the gruelling rehab he went through in 2020 to come back from injury.
After winning the NXT Championship off of Keith Lee at TakeOver: XXX, Kross relinquished the title after a reign of just four days due to a separated shoulder, an injury that occurred during the title showdown.
Returning to NXT in December 2020, Kross is raring to go, telling Sportskeeda:
"I feel like the injury never even happened. I came out a lot better than I thought I was going to be out of that situation, but the ligaments completely blew off the bone when that injury happened. I had no idea what that was going to be like coming back. But I [have] full stability back in my shoulder, full strength. I'm doing handstands and military press. I had zero issues with it. So I'm definitely feeling very good. I could put this shoulder through the back of his [Santos Escobar] head, which is probably what I'm going to be looking forward to this Wednesday.”
Kross’ recovery was nothing short of miraculous, coming back to NXT after only three months:
"It was pretty vicious. I decided to do a lot of extra curricular rehabbing as well on my shoulder. So I would go into WWE medical and they would put me through a very rigorous process of rebuilding stability and getting the inflammation down in the joint. When I came home, I would bring all of the equipment that they would give me to use and I would do it three to four times a day. It wasn't necessary to do that, but I wanted to come back as quickly as possible."
Doctors initially told Kross that he faced between six months to a year on the sidelines:
"I was like, 'there's no way that's happening.' I opted out of surgery. I took a holistic approach. I went on a very clean diet. I changed everything. I put all the time that I would normally put into training into my rehab process and compressed that eight to 12 month window down to three months with no surgery. So I'm very proud of that. It was really hard. It was really, really hard.”