‘WWE fans treated me like dirt but it was all part of the plan’

When it comes to Baron Corbin, it took a long time for WWE fans to appreciate what they had.

The former United States Champion – whose exit was confirmed earlier this month amid shock roster cuts after 12 years on the roster across Raw, SmackDown and NXT – was consistently called on from his bosses for big moments throughout his career.

For almost his entire run, he was playing a heel (the wrestling term for a villain) and his deep understanding of that role meant fans often overlooked his talent, frequently telling him he ‘couldn’t wrestle’.

‘It can get you a little bit because you just want to be – as lame as it is, you just want to be appreciated for that,’ he exclusive told Metro.co.uk in one of his final interviews weeks before he was let go.

‘Do you understand how hard this is to do, on everything in your life? It is the TV, the social media, the home.

‘It can be frustrating to go out there and just get treated like dirt, and then get beat more than you win and so people assume you’re just not good, or something like that.’

Baron Corbin has opened up about the way fans saw him (Picture: WWE)

He understood his job as a villain, even if it was ‘tough’ at times (Picture: WWE)

He added: ‘That’s tough to walk around with. So, yeah, it can be difficult.’

However, it was all part of the plan, with the 40-year-old former NFL star doing everything he could to make sure fans hated him, while appreciating the moments of support

‘I really dug into being a heel. And you take a lot of crap for that. You take people saying you can’t wrestle, you got to have thick skin to handle this,’ he confessed.

The former United States Champion did everything he could to be hated (Picture: WWE)

The art of ‘truly being a good heel’, can be lost on some people, as Corbin pointed out how a lot of wrestling’s villains still try and ‘get the funny pops’ and reactions.

‘You’re not being a true heel. People need to hate you 24/7,’ he explained.’They want to think you can’t wrestle – let them think all of those things. And you have to, like, kind of just swallow that as you’re going through your career.’

That was ‘hard’ for Corbin to do for so long on such a large scale, so it was ‘rewarding’ when things shifted after a crowd in Paris, France through their support behind him.

Corbin has always had the in-ring skills even if he deliberately didn’t show it (Picture: WWE)

He was glad to have fans finally getting on side (Picture: WWE)

‘People were like, “Wait, we can cheer him?” It feels like they’re saying thank you, or appreciating all of those years of just grinding through the mud with being a heel,’ he said.

‘So it’s got a different feeling than if they send someone out there say, “Hey, they’re just a good guy now, cheer for him”. That never happened. I never changed.

‘The fans were like, “Oh no, we get it now”, so it feels pretty good.’

Corbin noticed a shift happening during the Wolf Dogs team with Bron Breakker (Picture: WWE/Andrea Kellaway)

His popularity started to climb with his lighthearted Wolf Dogs tag team with Bron Breakker in NXT, while SmackDown viewers saw another side to him with his Apollo Crews tandem.

‘The stuff with Bron in NXT really helped launch me into that, and NXT did as well, because then I got down there and it’s not like, “Hey, you got four minutes on SmackDown,’” he said.

‘I’m down there and I got 20 minutes. And I’m like, “Alright, let’s put some work in. Let’s go”. And so I think people like, “Whoa, he can wrestle. He can go”. I’m like, yeah, it hasn’t changed. It’s been this way since I started. I could still [wrestle], I’m just doing my job.’

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