Originally published on ProWrestlingSheet.

Former NXT Champion Karrion Kross has spoken candidly about being forced to relinquish the title due to injury.

Kross was speaking to Pro Wrestling Sheet's Denise Salcedo when he opened up about that period of his career.

"The injury itself and being taken completely off course was absolutely devastating as you could imagine," Kross began. "It’s my life’s work. The perception is that I was in NXT for a short period of time and found all this success. But people don’t take into consideration that it’s been many many many years that I put into this craft in order to get that one night," he continued.

The former champ then talked about how he forced himself to recover from the mental anguish of having his dream derailed.

"NXT Takeover 30 at the time, to get in the ring, and compete for that belt, I put everything into that moment so to have that all derailed so randomly in a freak accident it was brutal but like anything in life when you’re dealing with a very serious traumatic situation you gotta pick yourself up, dust yourself off and say ‘where can I find the silver lining in this situation?’ And I did that, and I rehabbed and recovered way before they thought I was gonna get back which I was very happy about. We’re back on track and we’re gonna stay after it now," he said.

The ex-IMPACT star debuted on NXT back in April of last year. He went on a dominant streak that culminated at NXT TakeOver: XXX with a win over Keith Lee for the NXT Championship.

Kross relinquished the title a few days later due to a shoulder injury he sustained in the TakeOver: XXX main event.

“On the path there are obstacles, but for me, the obstacles are the path,” he said before putting the NXT Championship on the ground next to an hourglass and walking to the back. He returned to action in December of last year.

Check out Denise's interview with Karrion Kross below!