Update On WWE’s Decision To End Baron Corbin-JBL Pairing
The Baron Corbin-JBL alliance is over because WWE felt like it just wasn’t working the way they had hoped.
Sometimes stories take place on WWE programming that just doesn’t work out and that’s what happened to the Baron Corbin-JBL pairing on Raw.
Baron Corbin was traded to Raw from Smackdown on October 17th to mercifully put an end to his run as Happy Corbin. However, Corbin didn’t get moved to Raw alone because he had WWE Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) as his manager/mentor. The former “Wrestling God” JBL claimed that Corbin was a “Modern Day Wrestling God.” As expected, that regularly drew boos from the audience.
With JBL by his side, Corbin picked up some wins in the early going, but then the losses started to pile up. During the Men’s Royal Rumble match, Corbin entered at #14 and was eliminated by Seth “Freakin” Rollins in about seven seconds.
This past Monday on the February 6th edition of Raw, Corbin lost a four-minute match to Dexter Lumis while JBL looked visibly angry at ringside.
Later in the show in a backstage segment, JBL told Baron Corbin he is channel-changing television. JBL said that his Hall of Fame career has lost all credibility because of Corbin. When JBL told Corbin he does not belong near the Hall of Famer, Corbin said that he’ll do better. At that point, JBL said you can’t polish a turd, he tried and JBL walked away.
After Raw, it was reported that JBL is not scheduled to appear regularly on WWE programming going forward. The Corbin-JBL pairing lasted less than three months.
During a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer commented on WWE’s decision to pull the club on JBL serving as the manager of Baron Corbin.
“They gave up on it. Obviously, this wasn’t the plan. The guy in charge, that’s Paul (Levesque aka Triple H), felt it wasn’t working and that was it. Where they go with Corbin, I don’t know. It felt very much like a burial for Corbin. He’s had so many gimmick changes. There’s nothing wrong or right with him but in the pantheon of stars, he’s just not at that top star level.”
“I think they wanted him to be at that level and they gave him every chance to be at that level. He’s just a guy. A tall guy but he’s just a guy.”
It’s unknown what is next for Baron Corbin other than his days with JBL by his side are over.