There’s a lot to like about Baron Corbin if you’re an WWE official. He’s got the size that makes him a believable future world heavyweight champion someday, a unique look, and a great, pompous character. Sure, his promo skills need a little bit of work, but that hasn’t stopped others from making it up the ladder.
So when Corbin won the Money In The Bank Briefcase back in June, it was expected that at some point within the next year that he’d be a world champion. Instead, Corbin became not only the second man to not win the world title upon cashing in the briefcase, but he lost in particularly humiliating fashion just before SummerSlam. Shortly after the biggest block party of the summer, word came out that Corbin was being punished for something, but it wasn’t clear exactly what.
Thankfully the folks at PWInsider shed some light on the incident that may have sent the former football player tumbling down the card. According to PWI, a locker room meeting between the talent and guest speaker Dr. Joseph Maroon regarding head trauma somehow ended up being a public debate between Corbin and Maroon.
A bit of the brouhaha, as documented by PWI:
PWInsider was told by multiple sources that Corbin, a former NFL player, cut off Maroon and expressed an opinion, as a former NFL football player, that challenged Maroon. We are told that Corbin argued that there would be some form of head trauma with every play as football helmets are always cracking against each other. During the exchange, Corbin noted he is part of a concussion-related lawsuit against the NFL and said that he knew Maroon was against CTE [ … ]
We are told that Maroon did agree with Corbin that CTE was a problem, but was trying to make the point that the study did not mean 99% of NFL players actually had CTE and that everyone has to put things into a proper perspective. Corbin, obviously, disagreed with Maroon’s stance, and for several minutes, the two went back and forth.
The entire scene was described to PWInsider.com as “awkward”, “time standing still” and “an awkward moment that led to awkward laughter” by three different sources who were at the meeting. A fourth source pointed out that it wasn’t a case that Corbin was yelling or being belligerent, but was perhaps expressing his opinions in “the wrong time and the wrong place” to truly have that discussion. The fourth source noted their feeling that Corbin would have been better served by pulling Maroon over privately after the meeting, as that wouldn’t have taken the attention away from the matter at hand.
This looks like a sticky situation for the once-rising star, but not all is lost as Corbin is still involved in the United States title program with AJ Styles at the moment. Whether or not this incident continues to hurt Corbin in the future remains to be seen, but if Corbin ends up suffering further and extended humiliation on WWE television, we might have some semblance of an idea why.
