Baron Futhamuckin' Corbin

[Good Golly It's Ollie]

Is awesome. In an era of indy darlings actually getting noticed and pushed, Corbin stands out as a truly notable new WWE-built talent. And I'm not done fanboying yet, so here's a thread to discuss him, seriously, in terms of what you want to see.

Following a neat rub at WM, Corbin has been passed a torch. The Torch of Giants! At around 6' 8" and roughly 270 lbs, the guy is big, but without being so big he becomes unwieldy in the ring.

And that's not all folks: this monster actually has a personality. And unlike the generic monster who talks about how big or scary he is, Corbin's line of dialogue runs on an entirely different thread: Pay attention to me. Give me a chance. Let me show you that I can hang with the best. Go back to ROH you indy geeks, because it's my turn. It's taken time to surface, but Corbin is a craggy and vicious man, salty about his misfortunes in NXT, and this frustration then manifests in the ring. The character is very heel but is now rather over.

I personally would like Corbin to capture the title before main roster, but failing that, good uppercard feuds would be fine. His beef with Regal is a good bit though. It's not often we see heel wrestler struggling to earn the respect or opportunity from a face GM, and it can work as a storyline.

So what next? Who next? Where would you like to see this character in 5 years?

 

[dsotm5150]

Was a great rub for Corbin to win the battle royal, moves pretty swiftly for a gent his size. I think he'll go far on the main roster he's got talent, plus he's got size and Vince likes giants. I don't know how good he is on a mic but he's got the talent and the look going that could allow him to succeed.

 

[Sean Valjean]

What cracked me up was the crowd going bananas for him when he won. Most of those people are the same NXT fans that shit on him regularly on that show, but when he's up against main roster guys he's a damn hero. That got a big laugh from me.

If Corbin is making his main roster debut now, I'm surprised because I didn't see it happening this soon. I assumed he'd get one NXT Title feud with Balor before moving up. But the Injury Era has required new stars to carry the load, and Corbin could be a major force on Raw. As an aside, I always knew Corbin was huge, but I didn't realize how tall he really was until he stood face to face with Kane.

I'm excited to see Corbin succeed. I've always liked him, and he's vastly improved as a heel in the last 6 months or so. Hopefully WWE doesn't squander this win the way they did Cesaro's victory in 2014.

 

[OYDK]

Corbin has improved a shit ton since last year. I remember making a thread on him a while back basically saying I had no clue what WWE saw in him, and that he was just too green for his position, but now I can honestly admit, the guy is damn good. All of the little things he does inside and outside the ring fit so completely into his character, it's hard not to believe that what you see is what you get with Baron Corbin. Even last night he looked like a grizzled vet in his first Mania, he seems to be a very special talent that WWE has had their sights on for a while. I'm really interested to see where they go with him on the main roster.

After Takeover, I said that Corbin was finally ready to be NXT Champion, but I guess they've got bigger plans in store for him. He has to be coming up right?

 

[Azane]

I still find Corbin to be a bit on the boring side for nXt, and most the time his acting seems forced.

Good to rub him, especially with him being a big man to win the Battle Royal.

I think he's been showing some great intensity as of late on NXT, so if he can keep that up, it will be enough to change my mind.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

Corbin really could be the next Undertaker with the proper amount of tweaking and pushing. He could have an even darker gimmick when brought up to the main roster and defeat some big names to get a quick jump-start.

 

[JoeMallard]

What cracked me up was the crowd going bananas for him when he won. Most of those people are the same NXT fans that shit on him regularly on that show, but when he's up against main roster guys he's a damn hero. That got a big laugh from me.

If Corbin is making his main roster debut now, I'm surprised because I didn't see it happening this soon. I assumed he'd get one NXT Title feud with Balor before moving up. But the Injury Era has required new stars to carry the load, and Corbin could be a major force on Raw. As an aside, I always knew Corbin was huge, but I didn't realize how tall he really was until he stood face to face with Kane.

I'm excited to see Corbin succeed. I've always liked him, and he's vastly improved as a heel in the last 6 months or so. Hopefully WWE doesn't squander this win the way they did Cesaro's victory in 2014.

A NXT guy earned a huge honor last night, of course he would have gotten cheered. Hence the NXT chants after he won. I just hope Corbin doesn't get fed to Roman, so he can look better.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

The most improved wrestler on the roster over the last twelve months, Corbin has a believable bad-ass attitude and chip on his shoulder; his most recent feuds in NXT have been based on the fact that he is fresh from football whereas lots of 'Indy darlings' have been pushed to the forefront of NXT (Apollo Crews, Zayn, Joe, Aries) so it will be interesting how they develop his character on the main roster - does he face off with AJ Styles for example? (Personally I'd say too soon)

Normally I dislike the 'jobber' route as used on the main roster (the NXT way is much better, like WWE used to be back in the day) but with Corbin, who has an impressive move set for someone so new to wrestling, I wouldn't actually mind him decimating the low card. I just hope he doesn't get fed to top liners too soon like Bray Wyatt and Ryback, and have nowhere to go but down.

As for the battle royal, given it was in Texas and the commentators made such a big deal of how proud Mark Henry was about it in his introduction, and especially since he got knocked out straight away, I actually thought that they would book it that Corbin was the last man standing, thought he'd won but Henry would reappear 'from nowhere' to win the match. I was so glad when Henry came back early (to no comment from the 'amazing' commentators at all I may add) and especially when Corbin won.

 

[Hem]

Baron Corbin is the probably one of the most quickly developing wrestlers in NXT. When he debuted and had squash matches, I was not a fan but right now he's one of the biggest reasons to watch NXT.

Well Baron just debuted on the roster seemingly heading towards a match with Dolph Ziggler. I think thats a perfect feud.

Five years down the line Baron Corbin will be the WWE Champion headlining Wrestlemania against the biggest indie darling at that time or someone like Balor/Zayn.

 

[Hard Hit Prince]

He will not amount to anything if he stays in that character. There, I said it. Baron Corbin is as generic as one can be. He's a big bad guy with a bad attitude. He isn't a great worker, he isn't a great talker and if creative doesn't come up with something fresh for him to do, I can't see him still being relevant a year from now. I may be wrong about him and by all means, I hope he proves me wrong. But from what we've seen (and it's a lot already) he doesn't seem to have "it". He doesn't seem to have space when he has to compete with the likes of Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and others who are just waiting for their opportunity to come knocking. Even guys like Apollo Crews, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, Austin Aries and others in NXT seem to have a more potential future than him. Like I said, creative needs to do something cool with him, and if they use their heads I'm pretty sure they can - after all, we once had an Husky Harris.