Baron Corbin says his second NXT run was only supposed to last a month.
Last year, on the May 30th edition of WWE NXT, Baron Corbin made his return to the brand and attacked then NXT champion Carmelo Hayes. This would lead to a title match between the two, and a lengthy run as part of the NXT roster for Corbin. During his time on the brand, Corbin would end up teaming with Bron Breakker as part of The Wolf Dogs, winning the NXT tag team championships before being moved back to the main roster in the 2024 WWE Draft.
While speaking to WrestleManiacs UK during Bash In Berlin week, Corbin spoke about returning to NXT and revealed his run was only supposed to last a month.
"It brought everything out of me. It was such an amazing experience and opportunity to go down there and be around Shawn, who I've never worked with this hands on. Obviously met him a bunch of times, had conversations with him. But getting to directly work with him and then Russo, Matt Bloom, Terry Taylor, Norman Smiley, all those guys that down there, they have such a passion and love for this world and this business, and they protected at all costs. So to get down there, and it was just supposed to be like a month thing, to beat up Carmelo Hayes a few times and they said, 'are you into doing more?' and I told Sean, I said, 'let's call Hunter and let's don't leave me alone let me be here'. Let's reset this. Shawn was like, I'm all in. Like, whatever you want to do, let's do it. He wants everybody in that building to succeed. I think that's the biggest thing people need to understand about Shawn Michaels right now. He's giving you all of the tools and the opportunity and the people behind you to succeed, to create and tell the story that you want to tell. So to get down there and do that and really take ownership of what I was doing. And, you know, with Russo saying, hey, you know, where do you want to go? I was like, man, it's burn the ships. Like, that was like a mantra just for me of like, when I kind of was finishing my time up there on the main roster before, I was stuck, man. Mentally, I was burnt out. Physically, I was burnt out. The stuff with JBL just didn't work for some reason. It didn't resonate with the audience. I saw it, and I still think it could have been so successful. So that really hurt, because I think the world of John, and it really kind of put me in a dark place, in a sense. So getting to go down there and going, wait, I get to tell my story now. Let's give these people the real Baron Corbin. Let's give them all the authenticity that we can. I think that's what translated across the screen. People are texting me, Big E's texting me, Corey Graves is like, 'yo, you're having so much fun down there.' and I really was. There was nothing contrived about that. They gave me every opportunity and everything I asked for to succeed.So it was my job to make it work and put it together and make it perfect, and I think we did."
Corbin continued, noting that he garnered a new appreciation from the fans through his second stint in NXT.
"That's why I got that new lease on life and the new appreciation from the fans. The fans got a new version of me down there where they were like, oh man, he can go. Like we always knew, you know, he can talk in the ring, he can put on some good matches, but he can go. You know, when you're out there with Ilja, with Carmelo, with Braon, with so many of the superstars they have down there, Trick Williams right now, like he's killing it. But to get down there and compete with those guys who are hungry, it was really a truly special experience. I will always pay tribute to that and to rejuvenating myself, my mind for what I'm doing, and just me as a WWE superstar."
As mentioned, Corbin would move to the main roster once again as part of SmackDown in the 2024 WWE Draft. Most recently, Corbin has begun teaming with Apollo Crews.
In a seperate recent interview, Corbin spoke about how the TNA partnership will help motivate the NXT roster. You can read more about that here.
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