Baron Corbin Felt Like He Was 'Drowning' At One Point In WWE Pairing With JBL

Baron Corbin and JBL were paired together in October 2022, the former swapping his "Happy" moniker for "The Modern Day Wrestling God." The pairing was ill-fated, with JBL dropping Corbin in February. Speaking with Corey Graves on "After the Bell," Corbin described the genuine concern he felt at the time. 

"There was a sense of panic there for me because everything I had done up until then had worked," Corbin started, "I've had one promo in my career where I was in the ring in the middle of it going, 'There's nothing that is going to make this good,' and it was a segment with multiple people and I felt the crowd, just going 'Dude, like this is not good,' and you feel it in your gut. I felt like I was just in that movie, like where they're stuck out in the ocean just waiting to get eaten by sharks. I was drowning in a sense, and that's where he had that conversation and I was like, 'Okay, well what do we do?' Then that's when this "NXT "opportunity came up and I was like, 'Hell yes, let's go, let's go down there and do this.'"

Following the WWE Draft in May, Corbin was registered as a free agent able to float between the brands. He appeared on "WWE Raw" and "WWE SmackDown," suffering losses to Bobby Lashley and Butch respectively. He had better fortune when he returned to "WWE NXT" in a title program with Carmelo Hayes, earning his shot with a major win against Ilja Dragunov. He unsuccessfully challenged for the title at "Gold Rush", making a return to his 'Lone Wolf' character for the night. He told Graves that his time in "NXT" has been fun, citing his title feud and nostalgic return to the character. He was also impressed with the social media numbers, especially considering it was only an entrance.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "After the Bell" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.