This week’s guests on Corey Graves’ “After The Bell” podcast are Baron Corbin and JBL. They were on to discuss why they are collaborating and their future plans.
JBL on his partnership with Baron Corbin:
“Because I wanted to be with Baron, period. I saw Baron. I saw an opportunity that this guy can save the business. This guy can turn back the clock and make this business what it was. I don’t like the progression of what the business is becoming and I thought Baron Corbin is the one that can do this. To me, he could be a modern day wrestling god. That’s exactly what he is. So I came back for one reason and that’s Baron Corbin. It wasn’t like, I think I want to come back. I think I want to do something. I came back specifically because of the potential of Baron Corbin. He’s going to be the next, or one of the next, world champions.”
Corbin’s reaction to being paired with JBL:
“I mean, obviously, we have a lot of similarities. I think that’s one reason I connected so much with this and took this opportunity. When I have a guy in my corner giving me advice and leading me down the path to success, it’s a guy who’s in the Hall of Fame. It’s a guy who’s done it, a guy that’s been world champion, a guy that’s taken people’s heads off, and that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to fix a lot of things. I’m old school man. You know, when I started watching wrestling, it was old school cats. It was big dudes running people over and they were being violent in the ring. They didn’t care about social media. They didn’t care about what people thought about them. They went out there and got the job done and they weren’t afraid to hurt some people in their path. So, that’s kind of my mentality. When I connected with JBL, he talked to me about this partnership. Obviously, I had to jump at it extremely quick because I was excited. I feel everything that he talks about how this business is going down a path that I’m not a fan of. I’m not going to step back and just go, ‘Oh, I just don’t know. I’m the old guy. I’ve been around for 10 years now.’ I’m not gonna let it happen and there’s a guy now in my corner that sees that same need for saving and he’s using me to do that.”
JBL believes that wrestling should be a big man’s game:
“People call us villains or bad guys or heels or whatever they want to call it, but that’s simply not the case. We speak the truth. We speak the truth about what the business is doing. It’s a big guy’s business. I mean, you look at baseball. Baseball had gone down the tubes. Baseball was gonna die after the strike. Who came along and saved it? Guys like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, big guys, big guys came along and saved the sport. That’s exactly what’s going to happen now. I mean, we drew 93,000 people at WrestleMania III, an iconic moment that set us off on this WrestleMania extravaganza that’s lasted and become this huge event as big as the Superbowl in the cities that they’re in because of Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan. I mean, there was a reason that guys that were great workers, great wrestlers, weren’t in the main event. I came back for one reason and that’s because Baron Corbin needs to be in the main event because this business needs Baron Corbin. Baron Corbin doesn’t need this business. Look, he didn’t start off and have to go through the Indies. He didn’t have to play single A ball. He started off batting cleanup for the Astros. That’s what he started doing. Baron does not need this business. This business needs Baron.”
Corbin continued:
“I’m just gonna tag on that because you know, these people around the world that watch what we do, watch our product, they want to see superhuman people. They want to see guys they don’t see crossing in the mall or in a restaurant. I’m watching the news in Kentucky Friday or Monday morning when I’m in the gym. It’s got it on, and Johnny Gargano is on there talking about our product. I look at that guy and I go, he looks like he should be working in a little pop up store in the mall, not claiming to be a WWE superstar on national television. So I think that you need to get people in a place and make them be stars, and when you’re 5’4” and 140 pounds, I’m not buying it as someone sitting at home, seeing it on TV, because I’m not seeing them have the ability to beat up, you know, an elite level athlete of size, stature, speed, athletic ability, those kinds of things. So I’m here to just change that path that we’re on.”
JBL added:
“Let me make it clear. There’s always a spot for a guy like Johnny Gargano. He’s incredibly talented. He’s a wonderful wrestler. People really like him. I’m just talking about the difference between guys who carry the company and that’s Baron Corbin.”
You can listen to the complete podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
