Baron Corbin's time in WWE was dominated by ups and downs, much of which can be blamed on Vince McMahon's booking. For example, making him an authority figure not only drove viewers away but it damaged Corbin's career almost beyond repair.
Being sent back to NXT helped him turn things around and, as Bron Breakker's tag team partner, Corbin found new life in WWE. Separated when he returned to the main roster, Corbin's return was largely disappointing and after a short-lived partnership with Apollo Crews, he was released.
Talking to Chris Van Vliet, Corbin revealed a moment in the final weeks of his time with the company when he felt particularly disrespected. That came after SmackDown's head writer let him know he'd only be used as a "body" for The Bloodline's Jacob Fatu.
"I was sitting with the head writer of SmackDown, and it still just kind of makes my blood boil, because it doesn't pertain just to me. But I was just like 'Hey, do we have any ideas? What are you thinking creatively?' He's like, 'Well we got we got Jacob up and running, so we're gonna need bodies for him.' I was like we're not bodies dude. Nobody on this roster is just a body. That was so frustrating to hear. Like I said, it doesn't pertain to me, but it just goes, this is what you think of [us]. I've been here at this point 12 years and I'm a body for somebody else?"
"Dude, if you want to say something like that go 'Hey man, we think you'd be great, because you could help build Jacob, you could make him look like a monster.' Dope, let's go. But we're gonna need bodies? He's referring to the bottom half of the roster. When you say that it's so disrespectful to say that about people who go out there and put their life on the line every night, because careers can be ended in an instant. I mean, look at Big E, one suplex wrong and he may never wrestle again, it can end like that, or you can end up a quadriplegic. All of these things could happen. It's your livelihood. It's how you put food on the table."
"I'm so gracious to have such a long career that I don't have to worry about that. But if you're three years in and you're just a body, and you're disregarded as not even a human being, in a sense, come on dude. It takes everybody, guys who are there to be extras, they're just as important as talent in a sense, because without those guys doing that, we don't have major superstars. You need guys that can do that and do it well. I think that that's harder sometimes than being the top guy when everything is fed to you, you're given every opportunity, you're built on this pedestal."
"When you're all the dudes clawing at the bottom to try to get there, it's way harder to be down there and survive and be happy and successful than it is to be this is our guy, we wrote his name right there, so everything else funnels to him. That's easy to be up there. It's the only hard part is the amount of time it takes. When you're put on a pedestal, it's much easier than being guys fighting for those two three minutes on a show and then to refer to him as bodies. I said something, and he was like, 'I didn't think about how I said it that way.' But I was just like, This is why it's good that I'm going away for a little while regardless."
Even with Triple H calling the shots in WWE, it's clear some people in the company have the same bad attitude towards talent.
It's not hard to see why Corbin felt disrespected and, as he explains elsewhere in this conversation, he's excited to move on from WWE as "The Nomad" Bishop Dyer.
You can watch the full interview with Corbin in the player below.