The divide between NXT and the main roster seemed apparent on Monday's WWE Raw when NXT Champion Karrion Kross made his WWE Raw debut.
Kross, who has defeated all the top names in NXT during his title reign, lost in less than two minutes to Jeff Hardy, who recently lost to Veer on WWE Main Event. Before Kross made his official Raw debut, he worked dark matches and appeared on Main Event.
Appearing on Keepin It 100, Chase Parker of Ever-Rise revealed what he told Kross during his dark match run.
"I said this to Kross a couple weeks ago, because he had been doing dark matches, 'None of this matters right now.' In three weeks, you'll beat Sheamus and be the champion and everything will be great," he said.
After Kross' loss to Hardy, Fightful Select published the following report:
One talent told Fightful that it felt like a message was being sent, though they didn't elaborate on what they thought that message was. There was significant frustration from those we spoke to about how Finn Balor, Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano, Santos Escobar, Oney Lorcan and others had worked hard to help make Kross as dominant as possible. The general mood of those that we spoke to was a "not mad, disappointed" vibe, as they felt this represented how the NXT brand was viewed by higher ups as a whole
Matt Martel weighed in on why he believes Vince may have had Kross lose quickly and the divide between NXT and WWE.
"To go back to a conspiracy theory, the tinfoil hat, here. They cut (Samoa) Joe, right? Then Hunter immediately signs him. In my mind, I'm like, maybe that pissed Vince off? Maybe he's going to say 'this is part of the rivalry.' I don't know. It's a possibility," said Martel.
Joe was released by WWE in April but re-joined NXT in June. He has been feuding with Kross on NXT television.
Ever-Rise were released by WWE on June 25.
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