"Leave me alone" - 40-year-old WWE star wanted Triple H to not interfere
WWE Chief Content Officer, Paul 'Triple H' Levesque kicked off SmackDown's run with USA Network this past Friday. While this change is great for every superstar on the blue brand's roster in more ways than one, Baron Corbin preferred his time in NXT.
The Lone Wolf, who found a career resurgence as part of WWE's Tuesday show, loved working under Shawn Michaels. So much so, that the 40-year-old told the Hall of Famer that they should tell The Game to leave him alone so that he could continue working there.
Speaking on WrestleManiac UK, Corbin opened up about wanting to remain in NXT after repeated failures on the main roster. That is not to say the former Money in the Bank winner did not find success on the company's flagship shows. It is just that despite all of his accomplishments, The Lone Wolf was missing something, which was not the case in the white and gold brand.
"It brought everything out of me. It was such an amazing experience and opportunity to go down there and be around Shawn who I've never worked with like this hands on, like obviously met him a bunch of times had conversations with him but getting to directly work with him and then Russo, Matt Bloom, Terry Taylor, Norman Smiley. All those guys down there, they have such a passion and love for this world and this business and they protect it at all costs." Baron Corbin said.
Corbin also said he was initially there only to work for two months. But when asked if he was interested in doing more dates, The Lone Wolf jumped on board and indicated to Shawn Michaels that he should tell The Game to "leave me alone."
"They said 'Are you into doing more?' And I told Shawn, I said 'Let's call Hunter and let's tell him leave me alone,' like let me be here, let's reset this and then Shawn was like, 'I'm all in,'" he added. [From 0:46 to 1:34]
You can check out his comments in the video below:
Baron Corbin got drafted to SmackDown in April 2024 after spending time in NXT since June 2023. His tag team run with Bron Breakker—together known as the 'Wolf Dogs'—also ended after their main roster move.
Baron Corbin on his scrapped run with WWE Hall of Famer John 'Bradshaw' Layfield
During his first run on WWE's main roster from 2016 to 2023, Baron Corbin had undergone several character changes. From 'The Lone Wolf' to 'Constable Corbin,' 'Happy Corbin,' and 'Sad Corbin,' he seemingly was all over the place.
Then the company decided to pair him with JBL, a run that showed promise at first but did not click well with the WWE Universe. Corbin reflected on this in the aforementioned interview, revealing that it put him in a "dark place" but still believes it had all the makings to become a successful pairing.
"The stuff with JBL just didn't work for some reason, it didn't resonate with the audience like I saw it. I still think it could have been so successful. So, that really hurt, because I think the world of John [JBL] and it really kind of put me in a dark place in a sense," Corbin said.
Arguably Baron Corbin's biggest accomplishment to date was when he retired WWE Hall of Famer, Kurt Angle, at WrestleMania 35. It remains to be seen if The Lone Wolf gets back to a prominent position on the main roster.
If you use quotes from this article, please credit WrestleManiac UK and embed the video, with an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.