Corbin recalls advice from Cena.
There have been multiple occasions throughout Baron Corbin’s time with WWE that he’s shared the ring with 16-time World Champion John Cena.
Corbin shared on WWE’s After The Bell podcast that Cena gave him advice when he first joined the main roster and they’ve had lengthy conversations while working out. He recalled having a match with Cena at SummerSlam 2017 and being told that they’re going to do their thing in the ring, but Corbin should also be thinking about what’s next for him for the following Monday.
What he took from that was to always be a few steps ahead. Corbin stated that his plan was never to be in WWE for a few years. His plan is to never have to work for another employer other than WWE.
Then I came to WWE and I had a lot of conversations with John Cena and he’s a guy that will give you the truth no matter what. There’s few people in this business that will do that and John will tell you, ‘That sucked.’ ‘You’re not good enough for that.’ ‘Wasn’t great’ or, ‘That was awesome.’ ‘That was a great job’ but he was a guy who I have conversations (with) at length in the gym when I was coming up a little bit and getting on the main roster. Two things that he’s really preached on me is always think about what’s next, where do you go after this show tomorrow and a lot of guys don’t do that. Like when I had the match with him at SummerSlam (2017), he’s like, ‘Think about Monday night. We’re gonna do what we do at SummerSlam but what are you doing Monday night?’ So always have a few steps ahead so I always try to think of that but then the other thing that really stuck with me that John has preached which I think has helped my career immensely is that how do you take what you’re given and make it the absolute best you can? And that process he goes through when he’s handed a promo. Okay, I see what you want and you want this exactly like this. How do I make it the best I can absolutely make it and it’s kind of one of those things you see a challenge in it. We all get promos, we all get opportunities, we all get things that we may or may not wanna do. How do I make it stand out? How do I make it amazing? How do I make this and turn it into gold? And I think Sad Corbin’s the prime example of that. When Vince (McMahon) tasked me with that, I saw it as an opportunity to change, show character work and just to add another level to my body of work and it was only supposed to be like a two week thing and it ended up running for months because I went all in.
If you can do that (try to make the best out of situations you’re put in), you get longevity in your career. The plan wasn’t to be here three or four years. The plan was to spend the rest of my career and never work for another employer other than WWE.
At the 2023 Money in the Bank Premium Live Event, John Cena returned and teased the idea of London, England hosting a WrestleMania.
In this same conversation, Corbin dove into his NXT comeback.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit WWE After The Bell with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
