Wrestlers’ Court: Baron Corbin no more-bin

On November 1, Tom “Baron Corbin” Pestock’s WWE contract expired. WWE announced that Pestock’s deal would not be renewed, making him a free agent.

Pestock/Corbin spent 12 years with WWE. He began wrestling after a varied athletic career that started with amateur boxing and included attempts at a professional football career.

Pestock’s departure has drawn criticism from fans, who are quick to blame WWE for mishandling “Baron Corbin’s” career. They claim inept booking prevented Corbin from reaching his potential, including world championship runs that never happened (and that no one was clamoring for at the time).

Traditional fan metrics like titles and accolades seem to bear these claims out. In an era where career mid-carders like The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston or Rey Mysterio rack up solo and tag team gold (and the occasional world title to boot), Baron Corbin held exactly one singles title: a 10-week stint with the United States championship. Towards the end of his WWE run he won the NXT tag team championship with Bron Breakker — mainly so he could take the pinfall and protect Breakker when they lost the belts.

Corbin did better with other forms of recognition. He won the Money in the Bank briefcase in 2017, but his failed cash-in attempt on fellow heel Jinder Mahal is one of the most anti-climactic in the gimmick’s history. Only Mr. Kennedy and Otis (both of whom lost their opportunities without cashing in) were worse, course corrections to more impressive victories for Edge and the Miz. Corbin also won two of WWE’s “Kiss of Death” prizes: the 2019 King of the Ring tournament and the 2016 Andre the Giant memorial Battle Royal.

I think Corbin’s original “Lone Wolf” gimmick hurt him. Heels are misanthropic by nature, but a character who exists at a remove has fewer chances to make the audience care. Heels often need to travel in packs, if only to increase the opportunities for outside interference and ill-gotten wins.

The “Lone Wolf” made it difficult to surround Corbin with performers who might have developed him further. A stable or manager might have helped Corbin gain confidence, or tweaked the character so he could collect ‘easy’ heel wins and build audience enmity.

Officially, Corbin played the “Lone Wolf” from 2016 to 2019 before he transitioned to a craven authority figure as “Constable Corbin”, a lower card “King Corbin”, a semi-comic down-and-out “bum” character and nouveau-riche “Happy Corbin”. I don’t think he ever quite got past the awkwardness of that first period. Towards the end of his run, Corbin was briefly paired with JBL, a late bloomer in his own right who had to reinvent himself repeatedly before he hit on his most successful persona. The two grated against each other and WWE gave up on the pairing.

Successful “Lone Wolf” characters exist but are best portrayed by charismatic wrestlers with sharply defined personae, often drawing from their real-life temperaments.

Bruiser Brody rarely stuck around a territory long enough to make long-term alliances. He was known to go into business for himself as well, which kept other wrestlers at a distance.

Allen “Bad News Allen/Brown” Coage brought his version of the character to WWE in the late 1980s. Coage had been wrestling for 11 years by the time he joined the WWE, promised a world title run and salary to match by Vince McMahon. Coage worked primarily in Calgary and Japan. Like Corbin he was a legitimate athlete — a bronze medalist in judo at the 1976 Olympics. Behind the scenes he was a notorious tough guy with little patience for what he saw as pro wrestling’s endemic racism. In WWE Coage was a mean, sadistic loner who insulted fans and tossed his beaten opponents out of the ring like trash. One of few heels who lacked a manager, he was so unpleasant he rejected other bad guys: at WrestleMania IV he won a Battle Royal by eliminating Bret Hart after the two men agreed to split the prize (this would mark the beginning of the Hitman’s babyface turn). Coage participated in two Survivor Series teams and walked out on both. Frustrated with a series of broken promises, Coage left WWE within two years.

Coage was so successful as a bald, bearded, black-tights-and-boots wearing introvert that WWE copied the gimmick and gave it to a white guy named Steve Williams, who enjoyed immense Stone-Cold success with it. I liked this early version of Steve Austin best — so much so that as the crowd turned him babyface and he started caring about other wrestlers like Dude Love, or saving damsels in distress like Stephanie McMahon, I thought it was a betrayal of his character and lost interest.

Corbin may have been a jerk, but he was rarely portrayed as a threat. Compared to Brody or Coage or Austin, Corbin lacked killer instinct. Blessed with a rare, protected finisher in his “End of Days” reverse STO, he wasn’t sadistic. At his most evil, he hit his finisher on female wrestler Becky Lynch. Dastardly, but an outlying move compared to the havoc wreaked for decades by the acts above.

Pestock is physically imposing — tall and lanky — as well as an accomplished multi-sport athlete if not a bodybuilder. Physically, he reminds me of Killer Kowalski, especially during the period where Kowalski sported a receding buzzcut. Kowalski was billed at 6-foot-7, 280 pounds. Pestock is an inch taller and five pounds heavier. Yet, WWE never made a fuss about his size. Corbin should have been heir to a tradition of tall heels (not quite true giants whose size alone would sell tickets) who could wrestle, whose size made them credible Goliaths against babyface Davids. Kowalski was one: “Big Cat” Ernie Ladd, The Spoiler, Don Leo Jonathan, Blackjack Mulligan, Big John Studd, Bruiser Brody, Sid Vicious, Dan Spivey, the Undertaker and Kane qualify.

All of these performers had significant sadistic streaks. Kowalski practically invented that part of the gimmick. Ladd terrorized opponents with the Asiatic Spike, Kowalski, Mulligan and Spoiler used variations of the Claw. Others used more high-impact moves and built heat via post-match attacks.

Appearance alone should have made Pestock a bigger star in WWE. I would have tried pairing him up with Karrion Kross — another multi-tool player who seems to have trouble connecting with fans as a heel. Their complimentary looks and in-ring abilities remind me of tag teams like the APA or New Age Outlaws. Let them capture a vibe together and tear through WWE’s teams before splitting. Turn the clock back a few years and throw Kevin Sullivan in as a manager, and the ensemble becomes a magnet for heat — and Kross and Corbin get to learn live in-ring from one of the greatest heels in wrestling history.

Former WrestleMania opponent Kurt Angle commented on the end of Pestock’s WWE career. In an interview with WrestleZone, Angle said:

Baron, I think he’s underrated. I think it kinda sucks [seeing him get let go]. They started utilizing him the way they should have. They had him beat me, which I was okay with…It was my last match. And obviously, you are going to lose your last match when you retire. But, Baron after that, he ended up winning King of The Ring. And then nothing else happened with him.

It’s a little disappointing to know that he beat a legend at WrestleMania, the legend’s last match. And they didn’t do much with him after that. For me, it makes me feel like I did that for nothing…I thought they were gonna run with the kid. I thought they were going to make him one of the top-tier guys and he was on his way.

Pestock responded to Angle’s comments on Twitter: “To be fair, that’s one of the reasons I wish I had become world champ! It would paid honor to what Kurt did for me. I will forever appreciate it and wish I could have done more to make it worth it for him”

Jim Cornette opined on his YouTube show that it would be difficult for Corbin to secure independent bookings. As reported by Ringsidenews.com, “Baron Corbin… we’ll see what happens. Obviously, would he want it? Well, he’s got to reinvent himself now. It’s a little hard, I would think, after 12 years. I think he needs to reinvent himself into a whole new profession instead of wrestling. But, you know, again, if you were an independent promoter… Oh God, I could have Baron Corbin on my show for only, what, $1,500? If he’d go that low? Maybe $2,000? What are the kids making these days when they come out of WWE? How is that going to work? Nobody would want him.”

Cornette is correct insofar as if Pestock chooses to stay in pro wrestling, he needs to reinvent himself. Corbin stayed on the roster long after fans perceived him as competitive.

There are plenty of former WWE wrestlers whom fans considered undervalued during their runs. Some take advantage of the creative freedom they have outside of WWE’s structures and improve their standing — at least among fans and independent promotions. A subset of this group uses the momentum they build during their time away from WWE to manifest their return, hopefully to a better spot on the roster.

After signing with AEW, Shelton Benjamin has reunited with one of the better talkers in the game in MVP and aligned with Bobby Lashley, who used his own TNA sojourn to leverage his way back to WWE for a massive late-career run. He gets to show his undiminished athletic prowess against smaller foes and looks like a badass. In character or not, Benjamin noted in a recent AEW interview that he felt “suppressed” in his former role.

Nic “Dolph Ziggler” Nemeth left WWE and has immediately become a featured player in Japan and is the current TNA World champion.

AEW owner Tony Khan is leaving money on the table every day he fails to sign Raj “Jinder Mahal” Dhesi, with whom he had a Twitter beef last year. Dhesi is tearing up the independent scene, including Scott D’Amore’s reborn Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling (which itself seems like a potential conduit between bigger promotions).

Matt Cardona played a sympathetic but hapless enhancement part through most of his WWE career. I’ve written before about his transformation into a self-aware heel “Indy God”.

The same goes for a procession of NWA champions including Cody Rhodes, Cardona, Trevor Murdoch, former “Brodus Clay” Tyrus, EC3 and current champion Thom Latimer.

Rhodes left WWE to barnstorm the indies. Saddled with the Stardust” gimmick when he left WWE, Rhodes reinvented himself as a serious wrestler and world-beating babyface, He won the ROH and NWA World championships, demonstrating that he could carry a promotion. He was a founding presence in AEW on screen and backstage. Clearly, WWE paid attention.

Pestock is 40 years old. He has time for a big run, but he will need to invest in a different approach to his character. AEW is full of former WWE talent who use variations of their old personae. For the most part these attempts failed. Wrestlers from Miro to Malakai Black follow a pattern: debut to a significant pop, have a high-level feud or two, and within months be consigned to the same spot on the card that they left — or worse, toil away on Collision or Rampage or be banished to Ring of Honor.

On November 11, Pestock surfaced on social media sporting a grey beard and glasses — a play on Jean Reno’s character in the French action film Leon: The Professional. Leon is an anti-hero assassin, who has a change of heart when he is assigned to protect a 12-year-old girl played by Natalie Portman. It’s a neat idea, used previously by Claudio Castagnoli.

I’m more interested in a character that integrates the real Tom Pestock, a glimpse of whom I’ve seen on social media. Outside the ring, he’s a thoughtful family man who loves cooking steak, drinking scotch and who appreciates fine watches.

For an unlikable “Lone Wolf”, that’s a dude I could hang out with.

And maybe a way to connect to a broader audience.

TOP PHOTO: Baron Corbin at NXT Deadline on Saturday, December 9, 2023, at the Total Mortgage Arena, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Photo by George Tahinos, georgetahinos.smugmug.com

RELATED LINKS

• Nov. 1, 2024: Corbin, Nox, Hartwell among WWE releases
• Mar. 28, 2004: Baron Corbin has ear glued back together after match
• Previous Wrestlers’ Court columns by Jonathan Schwartz