Throughout Baron Corbin’s career, he has attempted to simply make the best of what he is given.
Whether it was him being “The Lone Wolf,” King Corbin, Happy Corbin, Bum Ass Corbin, or one-half of The Wolfdogs, he said he took any role possible with a “zero ego” approach.
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, which took place shortly before news broke that Corbin was released by the WWE, the former United States Champion mentioned how he embraced when the promotion offered him a character, even if it wasn’t something that other wrestlers might have not liked.
“There are some people in our world that would be like, ‘You want me to look like a bum and do this? I’m a WWE Superstar!’” Corbin mentioned. “‘You want me to do that? Hell yeah, let’s go. This is going to be fun. Let’s turn it up to 12.’ That’s something I’ve always learned from [John] Cena. How do you take what they give you and turn it into gold? And it’s a lot of work. I mean, you have to fully commit. There’s times I have to sit in the back and take 20 or 30 minutes getting my head in the space of being totally dishevelled and a disaster.”
The latter part of that paragraph is referring to “bum ass Corbin,” a brief part of his character in recent years that saw him file bankruptcy after losing his King of the Ring crown to Shinsuke Nakamura. He would later rename himself Happy Corbin after going to Las Vegas and becoming rich, then poor, then rich again.
In what may have turned out to be a prophetic question, Corbin was asked later in the interview what he hoped his legacy as a wrestler would be. He described wishing people could think of him as “a guy that can be put in any situation and make it work.”
“I would just like to be that Army Swiss Knife in the fans’ eyes if you will,” he said. “A guy that can do anything and entertain people … I just want to be considered an incredible entertainer.”
His full interview with Sports Illustrated can be watched here.
