Baron Corbin has opened up about the process that led to his 2026 WWE return, revealing that he deliberately avoided asking the company to bring him back during his time away.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Corbin said he enjoyed how his eventual return unfolded because he never spent his absence campaigning for another opportunity with WWE. “I think the coming-back process was awesome because I never once in that year and a half that I was gone reached out. You saw that interview Hunter [Triple H] was like, ‘Well, guys are always texting me, ‘I want to come home.” I never did that. If they want me back, they’ll call me. I’m not going to beg for a job. I love that place, and I had communication through the time I was gone with Hunter, but it was never like work. I got to text him, ‘Hey, congrats on this,’ or, like, ‘How’s the family? How are the girls?’ Those kinds of things. And even a few other people there. I stayed in touch with a couple of the talent, but it was always—there was never that line was never crossed of, like, ‘Hey, what would you think about me coming back?’”
Corbin said WWE eventually made the first move, with an initial conversation taking place in December. However, the brief discussion didn’t immediately result in a deal. “And then eventually they did reach out, and, we had a conversation in December that was very brief, and it didn’t go anywhere because it was like, ‘Hey, you know, what would you think? Would you be interested in that?’ I think the reply was, ‘I would be open to a conversation.’”
Rather than waiting around for WWE, Corbin focused on rebuilding his reputation and expanding his experience on the independent and international wrestling scenes. “I’m not pressed. I’m doing things out here. I’m building back the reputation behind the name. I’m racking up those wins. I’m getting titles outside of here, traveling the world, kind of doing a thing that I missed that a lot of people get to do before they come to WWE. I’m upping my game. I wrestled in Mexico and Australia and Europe and all those places, and it kind of leveled up my in-ring ability, which was amazing.”
Corbin ultimately returned to WWE in 2026 after roughly a year and a half away from the company. Looking back, he believes spending that time wrestling around the world allowed him to gain experiences he missed before his original WWE run while also improving his work inside the ring.
