Killian Dain: Plans To Debut Nikki Cross’ New Gimmick Were Changed (Exclusive)

In an exclusive interview with WrestleTalk, Big Damo (Killian Dain) opened up about his real-life wife Nikki Cross’ new gimmick in WWE.

Damo made a specific point of mentioning that the gimmick wasn’t originally going to debut exactly as it did, but Nikki Cross had garnered so much momentum that WWE chose to strike while the iron was hot.

Cross actually only started being used again due to someone else being absent, but she impressed so much that WWE kept using her, and she’s continued to push on ever since then.

Giving his full thoughts on Nikki Cross, her career and her recent gimmick change, Damo said:

“I’m like, ‘Hey Nikki, you’re the sugarmomma now, so you need to do well here (laughs)!’ In all seriousness, I’m sure, for her – because she was with us at training when we found that I was getting the heave ho (released) – obviously there’s a part of her that’s utterly gutted because we’ve done this journey together and we’ve been very lucky to have been able to do it together to be honest.

“But, out of all seriousness, the best thing that happened to her was the split from SAnitY worked out great for her because it got her a chance to do her thing and start exploring who she was. And then she goes to the main roster and goes with Alexa, and again going away from Alexa has been better for her as well, because being attached to somebody’s great and everything, and they made some brilliant moments when they won at WrestleMania and everything and it was fantastic, but the truth is you need to flesh out who Nikki Cross is, and finally we’re getting that opportunity.

“Obviously I’m slightly biased, but I don’t work for the company anymore so I can say what I want! So when it comes to Nikki, I think she’s an incredible talent and they’d be idiots to not be using her on a regular basis, and I think they’ve kinda realised that. So just before they started the superhero character, somebody got sick or hurt or something, and they needed Nikki to fill in. And they loved how she did, they had her on TV week-by-week-by-week.

“The superhero wasn’t meant to start this way at all, so they were just like, ‘Err, let’s just ride the momentum and go for it’, and that’s literally what they did. And I’m so glad they did because sometimes with the stop-start, it can take so long and then people lose interest and whatever else. But she’s getting a chance to talk before every match, which is her at her best, is on a microphone.

“And obviously there’s a slight difference in having to get her diction right on an American product as it would be back home – it was a lot easier for her to just be Scottish. So here she has to be a little bit more wary. Drew Galloway (McIntyre) has been great for her to give advice on that because he went through the wringer when it came to his accent, because he’s from Ayr which is a much thicker accent than Nikki’s in Glasgow. But Nikki’s having now to work a little bit harder on that, just so she can be as presentable as possible for kids all across the world.

“We need to have characters that kids can get behind, because that’s what brought all of us in, was the cartoon aspect of the WWF and WCW. And I can’t really think that we have too many at the minute, because – I know society is a lot grittier and everything these days and whatever else, but kids are still kids, the Teletubbies are still going! But honestly for me, having a fun, energetic character who can fall and can fail, but can always pick herself back up again, I think that for me is incredibly important because we’ve been in this period for ages where everybody’s a badass. I mean, come on, we need to start thinking long-term, because how many badasses can work? Not that many – if we’re all badasses then who loses?

“So it’s great that she’s willing to be a little bit sillier, dorkier, whatever word the Americans wanna say, camp is the perfect word for what we would say back home. That’s what it should be, because that’s what wrestling was the entirety up until the last maybe 10 years or so. I know MMA’s got massive, and movies and TV shows, everything’s getting grittier, and things have changed and whatever else. But to bring kids in, we need to make it fun and she’s definitely a character who can make it fun, and I’m really excited for it and I hope that they keep using her the way they’re using her right now.”

If you use this exclusive quote or any portion of it please credit WrestleTalk.com and link to this page

In the very same interview with WrestleTalk’s Adam Blampied, Damo also spoke about how a TV overrun one week and a police dog biting Shinsuke Nakamura another week completely changed plans for SAnitY’s main roster debut. You can read about that at this link.

Keep an eye on our exclusives page for more stories throughout the coming days, and the full interview will be up on the WrestleTalk Podcast channel this Sunday (July 11).

To make sure you stay updated with all the latest wrestling news, add WrestleTalk.com to your Google Discover feed and follow us on Twitter!

• big damo
• nikki cross
• Killian Dain
• wwe

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