Baron Corbin Reflects On Failed Partnership With WWE Hall Of Famer JBL

Former WWE star Baron Corbin has discussed his unsuccessful stint alongside JBL in WWE, accepting blame for it.

Corbin and the WWE Hall of Famer were paired together for a brief while in 2022, with JBL serving as the former WWE star's on-screen manager. Corbin, in an interview with "SI" [recorded before Corbin's WWE exit], stated that he doesn't know why the partnership wasn't a success.

"The tides changed when everything was changing in WWE, and we went the JBL route, and I think that, you know, it struggled. I can't put my finger on why it struggled. I think that people, and John and myself, wanted more out of like ... I wanted John to be able to, like, decapitate a few people, and it was, you know, it's a process of getting him back in the ring and getting him doing that. He kind of just became like a mouthpiece for me, an introduction, you know, kind of thing, where he would get the crowd all riled up for me," the former WWE star said. "But I think we all, kind of, just wanted a little bit more from that and it just didn't click. I mean ... I'll take the fall for it. I'm happy to do that because JBL's one of the greatest of all time, especially one of the greatest heels of all time, and sometimes things just don't click."

The former United States Champion, though, pointed to one moment during his pairing with JBL when he thought it would be a success. "But there was like a moment where he hit Bobby Lashley in one of our matches and you heard the crowd [go] like 'boom,' and I like [thought], 'That's it, that's what we want more of," recalled Corbin.

But, WWE and Corbin couldn't turn that into gold, which is when they decided to take the character in a different direction with his move to "NXT."