WWE free agent Baron Corbin sends a message to the NXT Universe

Jun 03, 2023

When Baron Corbin emerged from the back to throwdown Carmelo Hayes and hold up his NXT World Championship, it left fans wondering what the heck was going on in Orlando.

Now granted, WWE did make it abundantly clear what was going on during the 2023 WWE Draft, informing fans that free agents like Von Wagner, Omos, and Dana Brooke were allowed to show up on any program they pleased and participate in any matches they could book and they even reinforced that concept earlier in the show by having Mustafa Ali stop by to do commentary, but Corbin's arrival was more… violent. He crushed the babyface as the crowd watched on in horror and kept the mystery alive as the show went off the air.

What gives? Well, fans didn't have to wait too long to find out, as the former King stopped by NXT once more to explain his intentions ever so slightly and to chastise the current crop of young Superstars for not taking things seriously.

"You know, I never thought I’d walk back through these doors," Baron Corbin said. "Look, when I got the call, I cleaned out my locker, and I never looked back. Over the next eight years, I ascended to the top of RAW and SmackDown. While I was main eventing pay-per-views, NXT Superstars continued to get called up to the main roster. When they got there, they were full of talent and hunger. And then something changed, I wonder what it was? Now, they come up full of ego and attitude. H*ll, some of them sit in the locker room and twiddle around their thumbs on their cell phone, acting like they got nowhere better to be. They act like we should thank them for coming up to RAW and SmackDown.

"Then I walk through these doors. I hear Superstars in the back talking about their legacy, talking about how they’re the next ones to be called up, or they are complaining that they haven't been called up yet, and it's starting to make me sick. They walk through these doors to a championship team. They have guaranteed contracts and they’re living in a house that I built. Me and all of the other OG's started in FCW, and we took this train all the way to sell out Barclays Arena with 16,500 people. Don't clap for that now, you’ve never done it before, get off my band wagon. I come through those doors tonight, and there's Superstars can't even look me in the eye. They don't show me the respect that I deserve."

Yikes, Corbin is giving off some serious old-man energy, with his demands for respect feeling somewhat toothless, considering his near-record-breaking loss to Cameron Grimes on SmackDown. Still, Corbin wasn't done, as he went on to declare exactly what he wants to accomplish in NXT, and needless to say, it was a doozy.

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Turning his attention to the future, Baron Corbin noted that he plans to put the next crop of WWE Superstars through the wringer in order to see who actually belongs in the company and who should take their athletic abilities to another sport, say Dana White's Powerslap.

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"Now I have no control over that last draft class that came up, but you can make d*mn sure I got control of the next, because I’m gonna make every one of those Superstars regret ever signing a WWE contract," Corbin said. "Every single one of them is soft, every single one of them is weak, and they’re sure as h*ll not as good as they think they are. That all lies on the champion. The NXT Champion, Carmelo Hays. Melo walks around here like his stuff doesn't stink. There you go, cheer for him. Cheer for him, cuz old Melo got a taste of main roster reality last week when I laid him out, put him down, I took his title, and I stood over his body, and I held it over my head."

Alright, so Corbin isn't shooting for the Melo's NXT Championship a la Dolph Ziggler or even trying to settle a feud with some Superstar that fans didn't know about to this point; no, Corbin is heading looking to set the tone for the future and take on all challengers to see who is or isn't WWE material – a regular Dijak but with more star power. If that's the case, WWE fans will be stuck watching Corbin on two shows a week instead of one; a disappointing occurrence no matter how you slice it.