Backstage details on real-life heat between Seth Rollins and former WWE US Champion

Corey Graves revealed on the latest episode of his After The Bell podcast that Baron Corbin had legitimate heat with several members of WWE’s developmental roster early on in his career, including Seth Rollins.

At the time, Corbin (real name Thomas Pestock) was known as “Football Tom” by many of his colleagues due to his background as a football player.

Reminiscing about their time together in FCW and NXT, Corbin recalled that other up-and-coming Superstars did not like him because they heard that he had more money than everyone else, so he took advantage of the rumor by showing off $20,000 in cash during a promo class.

Graves added that he used to ride with Rollins and Jon Moxley (fka Dean Ambrose), and Rollins was among the people who did not like the one-time United States Champion.

“I remember going, ‘Guys, I think Football Tom… he might not be so bad.’ ‘Wait, what are you talking about?’ Rollins going, ‘What, no way?’ ‘No, he was asking about how we survived in the indies,’ and that was kind of all any of us wanted [Corbin to show he was serious].”

Baron Corbin’s secret wrestling fandom

Corey Graves went on to say that he knew Baron Corbin was serious about making it in the wrestling business during their long car rides, but he and Seth Rollins previously thought their FCW colleague was arrogant.

“We were just going, ‘Oh man, this guy thinks he’s better than us,’ and it’s that chip, it’s the wrestling chip.”

Graves ended up staying on Corbin’s couch during that time and they would often watch Japanese wrestling together, despite Corbin trying to keep it a secret to everyone else that he was a long-time wrestling fan.