New WWE NXT Champion Karrion Kross Talks Injury & How Long He Expects To Be Out For

New WWE NXT Champion Karrion Kross has spoken about his injury, including the severity of it and how long he expects to be on the shelf for, in a new interview with ESPN.com.

Kross beat Keith Lee to win the title in the main event of NXT Takeover: XXX but was injured in the process.

According to the interview, the injury occurred when Lee hit Kross with a clothesline and felt like "a choir of demons screaming inside my shoulder in unison".

Concerning the severity of the injury and how he's feeling about the situation, Kross said that: "I will get the professional, educated opinion on what the severity of it is [via an MRI on Monday]. But it’s definitely separated. I won’t beat around the bush about that. As the saying goes, it’s not ballet. I feel mixed emotions right now. The whole situation is very bittersweet. I think from a natural place, I’m always a very motivated individual. I’m a solution-based thinker, rather than a pity-based thinker".

Though the MRI will determine how much recovery time is required, Kross doesn't believe he will miss significant ring time: "From my point of view, no. [Due to] how I feel and what I’ve heard, I don’t know. I’m very intuitive with my body. And the range of emotion that I have right now, while it’s not what I would like it to be, for me personally, it would indicate to me that I’m going to get be able to get through this without any sort of extreme measures, so to speak. In my opinion, today".

The injury may have happened at an inopportune time, but Kross knew he needed to finish the match in order to prove himself to his colleagues: "Whatever is going on with my shoulder is not as important to me as proving right now to every single person that I work with, every single person that's taken time or equity out of their careers to elevate me, that I'm worth a s---," Kross said. "And I'm gonna finish this strong, no matter how severe this is. This is the time where people see who you really are. Because nobody could do anything for you right now. You have to stand up on your own two feet and show your worth.

There are times in life where something happens and now it's time to prove all of those things that you said. That was my calling [Saturday] night. That moment for me was [Saturday] night. It didn't happen at a time where it was convenient. It happened in literally the most important match of my career on probably the most important day of my life occupationally".