The Problem With Baron

[EnviousDominous]

Baron Corbin is here, and he's never leaving.

I see this man as an example of how, if you follow all the rules and be a responsible employee, you'll succeed. The fans don't like him, and the WWE seems to see this as an incentive to push Baron even farther.

Now; it's my opinion that anything that Baron touches turns to shit. From the perspective of someone who wants to be entertained, I'm being given a lot of big moments that fizzle out because they involved Baron.

The King of the Ring tournament was brought back. Why? The closest thing to an explanation that I can come up with is that the King of the Ring tournament was brought back to elevate Baron. Baron did his usual paint by numbers style of heel wrestling, and he defeated Chad Gable clean. Now, the really odd thing for me is that there was almost no drama in regard to the tournament, with a very slight amount being invested into some kind of Chad Gable Cinderella story. So, one conclusion that I discount is that the WWE planned for the fans to be emotionally invested in Chad Gable, and that they would hate Baron for beating him. I discount that conclusion because Baron didn't use any heel tactics in his match with Chad, so apparently we fans were supposed to be so impressed with Chad that we would then be even more impressed with Baron. My head hurts.

The WWE seems stuck in a very idiotic state of mind where they believe that it's possible for us to hate AND respect Baron, and that when we're obviously annoyed with his presence that we've proven that we hate and respect him. So basically; If we tell the WWE -- point blank -- that we don't respect Baron, the WWE takes that as proof that we do respect Baron. Any inverse to that concept still seems to give the WWE the idea that we respect Baron.

I get that fans can be unnecessarily snooty at times, and that we'll unfairly rip on a performer who is actually doing a decent job (Lance Storm). But this experiment ran its course long ago, and there's still nothing there.

[Y 2 Jake]

He's overexposed, everybody is. He's not great but then again there are guys in WWE who are great and that doesn't mean much in that system either.

I think he'll be a damn fine King. He or Elias are the only two I could see who'd be enhanced if they were given that ridiculous gimmick.

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Who's the 3 biggest heels in WWE the last few years? Jinder Mahal, Baron Corbin, and Shane McMahon. All 3 hated because fans feel they didn't deserve their push.

Many people will argue they're the best heels. As long as they're getting the desired reaction, why does it matter? But I think it does matter because it allows for very lazy booking that contributes to a bad product.

[Psykohurricane]

Personally, i don't see anything wrong with Baron at the moment. To tell you the truth, i actually became a fan of his after the KOTR tournament. For all the faults the IWC want to find him, the guy delivered on so many aspect during the tournament itself. Some of the best matches in the whole tournament were with him involved in some way and the final was probably the best match of the whole tournament.

The think is, the guy gets it and that why WWE is continuing to give him a push. He not there to sell merchandise or to get the approval of the IWC, he's there to be a heel and be hated and you give the reason you want for as to why you hate him, at the end of the day you still hate him none the less so he did is job. Corbin is as much of classic heel as classic heel gets in today'S modern wrestling environment and that'S refreshing to see in my opinion. I wasn't a fan of him before because i didn'T thought he was ready to be put in the top heel spot but after his performance throughout the tournament, he proved to me at less that he deserve to be in the position he'S in and i can't wait to see what he will do with the whole king corbin gimmick.

[Jack-Hammer]

As much as I didn't think I'd ever really say this, Corbin has grown on me to some degree. Don't get me wrong, this time last year in which Corbin was all over Raw made for some of the worst television in all of WWE history as he was someone that was put into a spot that, in my opinion, didn't suit him nor did he have the ability to really be able to pull off and it showed in both terms of record low ratings for Raw, decreases in people buying tickets to events featuring Corbin and the fact that Corbin was essentially the main event since it hasn't been until WrestleMania 5.5 months ago that Raw has had a stable, consistent main event championship picture.

Since WrestleMania, Corbin hasn't been featured on WWE a whole helluva lot, he's been limited to one or two segments, he hasn't been put into positions that exceed his ability or just don't fit in with who he's trying to portray and he's currently in a spot in which I think he's cut out for. To me, Corbin is a pretty solid mid-card guy who can deliver good matches in the ring. Even the most potent of haters have to admit that Corbin's matches are usually pretty good and I think he's actually improved over the course of the KOTR tournament. Right now, Corbin is in a spot that he can pull off, he can potentially make it interesting, he's not all over the show and that's a good thing.

Now with that all said and done,t he simple fact of the matter is that Baron Corbin will slmost certainly be a multi time World Champion in WWE. It's all but guaranteed at this point unless/until he does or says something that causes Vince to lose interest in him. The problem with that is, allegedly, Corbin is someone that's really well liked backstage by just about everybody as he's not the prick in real life he portrays on TV. and has gained a reputation of talking with and listening to anyone backstage, regardless of what their style of wrestling is, that's willing to give advice. For instance, I've read articles claiming that he's respectfully asked big guys like Taker and Kane on how to work, he's spoken with guys like Rollins, Styles and Bryan on ways to help ensure the safety of smaller wrestlers that he's throwing around and who're taking these high impact moves. I guess my point is that Corbin is someone who takes the business seriously and wants to do all he can in order to get better in it, which is something to admire. Another thing I've noticed about Corbin is that he's actually gotten some muscle mass packed onto that lanky frame of his. Corbin's body has always just kinda hung there in this weird combination of chubby, skinny, lanky, toned and untoned areas of his body. Corbin doesn't look like a gym rat or anything, but given that he's legitimately about 6'7" or 6'8", he's got some size on his arms, chest and shoulders finally so that he actually comes off as a little threatening rather than just being this lanky bald guy with too many tattoos. Remember how his stomach looked? At times, you'd almost swear a face was about to form out of it as it just looked so sad, droopy and pathetic.

I think Corbin MIGHT be ready at some point to be a top level guy, it's hard to say in WWE anymore when you consider that Jinder Mahal spent 6 months as WWE Champion despite being one of the least qualified men to do so in championship history, if not THE single least qualified. You'd think that Bray Wyatt and Brock Lesnar will be the next Universal and WWE Champions but who knows right now? I could very, very, very, very easily see WWE fucking things up with the Fiend already, destroying Wyatt's momentum by having Rollins go over him. Why? Because it's exactly the sort of thing WWE has done with Wyatt for years in that hey never really pulled the trigger with him. Guy has a great mind for the business, is praised for his ability to put together fascinating characters and top notch promos, delivers entertaining matches inside the ring but was never pushed to that next level. They have their next best chance here, so don't be surprised if it doesn't happen. As for the WWE Championship, you had to see something like this coming given that SmackDown is moving to Fox in a few weeks and this will probably be a pretty good drawing main event, a main event in which Kofi is all but certain to lose because it's Brock freakin' Lesnar. Of course, it's possible WWE actually uses Brock Lesnar to elevate someone else, Kofi in this case, but that's not been standard operating procedure for their use of him.

At any rate, Baron Corbin is probably here to stay. At some point, he'll have a World Championship around his waist and that might be okay in another year or so but as of right now, being firmly planted within the mid-card picture, I think he's in a good spot.

[Spidey]

He's a fantastic heel who is doing great with what he's given. I don't like him and that's the idea.

I'd argue there are way worse whitebread characters running around the WWE who deserve more scrutiny than Baron Corbin right now.

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

At least he changed his prom shirt, right? Give him props for that.

[Y 2 Jake]

Currently better than Styles, right?

[#AbsoluteUnit]

To me, he's just another part of the show. No need to make it a big deal.

['Ravishing' Ned Flanders]

I just find him boring and bland. He gets a reaction sure but not every reaction is a good one and i'll die on that hill if need be. Reacting to someone because they're complete dog shit is nothing like reacting to someone because they're a good heel & the sooner people realize the difference the sooner the product may improve.

[EnviousDominous]

He's a fantastic heel who is doing great with what he's given. I don't like him and that's the idea.

I'd argue there are way worse whitebread characters running around the WWE who deserve more scrutiny than Baron Corbin right now.

Well shoot. Simply "running around the WWE" is a lot different than being the guy who's being sold as a deliberate buzzkill toward anything exciting.

I really don't hate Baron, I don't have very many reasons to hate him. For what the writers have given him in terms of character depth, he deserves to just be another shmuck chasing after R-Truth twice a week.

Remember when The Million Dollar Man kicked that basketball? Remember when Andre tore Hogan's shirt? Remember when HHH was revealed to be the guy who attacked Shawn Michaels in the parking garage? Remember when Buddy Roberts got his hair cream in Junk Yard Dog's eye? Remember when Earthquake squashed Damien? Remember when Jake the Snake crashed Macho Man's wedding? Remember when Sergeant Slaughter swore allegiance to Saddam Hussein? Remember that one time that Baron... hurt Braun Strowman's foot causing him to miss a week?

Fuck it, make Baron spit in the face of Daniel Bryan. Make Baron win the 24/7 championship, and then dissolve it in a vat of acid. Make Baron slap an old lady in the audience and laugh while she cries. Make Baron someone who we really fucking HATE.

[Spidey]

Well shoot. Simply "running around the WWE" is a lot different than being the guy who's being sold as a deliberate buzzkill toward anything exciting.

I really don't hate Baron, I don't have very many reasons to hate him. For what the writers have given him in terms of character depth, he deserves to just be another shmuck chasing after R-Truth twice a week.

Remember when The Million Dollar Man kicked that basketball? Remember when Andre tore Hogan's shirt? Remember when HHH was revealed to be the guy who attacked Shawn Michaels in the parking garage? Remember when Buddy Roberts got his hair cream in Junk Yard Dog's eye? Remember when Earthquake squashed Damien? Remember when Jake the Snake crashed Macho Man's wedding? Remember when Sergeant Slaughter swore allegiance to Saddam Hussein? Remember that one time that Baron... hurt Braun Strowman's foot causing him to miss a week?

Fuck it, make Baron spit in the face of Daniel Bryan. Make Baron win the 24/7 championship, and then dissolve it in a vat of acid. Make Baron slap an old lady in the audience and laugh while she cries. Make Baron someone who we really fucking HATE.

Folks already hate him. He gets some of the loudest boos in the building. He doesn't have to drop an anvil on a bunch of kittens to get fans mad.

It's easy to give heel examples from yesteryear to try and make a point. Remember that one time Drew McIntyre...said aggressive things? Or remember that one time The O.C. ...gloated backstage? See, there are worse heels running around right now, and a few of them are in emasculating cuckhold storylines. Who the fuck finds those entertaining?

If ever there was a week to give Baron a pass, it's this one.

[EnviousDominous]

Folks already hate him. He gets some of the loudest boos in the building. He doesn't have to drop an anvil on a bunch of kittens to get fans mad.

It's easy to give heel examples from yesteryear to try and make a point. Remember that one time Drew McIntyre...said aggressive things? Or remember that one time The O.C. ...gloated backstage? See, there are worse heels running around right now, and a few of them are in emasculating cuckhold storylines. Who the fuck finds those entertaining?

If ever there was a week to give Baron a pass, it's this one.

To be fair, the WWE tried a Hell of a lot harder to make us hate Drew, and if they tried half as hard with Baron then I doubt I would have ever started this thread. At this point, dropping an anvil on kittens is about all that Baron could do to make us wonder about him. Fans getting mad about having just took a piss break during the Sasha Banks segment only to have to sit through another boring Baron segment with empty bladders isn't the same as fans getting mad about mewing kittens getting compacted on live tv. I'm being such a huge Baron Corbin right now by annoying you with redundancy, but remember when Nikolai Volkoff claimed that if he defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship that he'd tell Nikita Khrushchev to push the nuclear launch button?

I'm not lecturing you, but just so we're clear, there are two distinct types of heels at either end of a heel spectrum that rates the level of excitement we feel for viewing them. On one end you have Sergeant Slaughter betraying his country, and on the other end you have Baron Corbin beating Chad Gable to become the King of the Ring. Chad Gable is fun at best, and nobody that was born after 1995 gives a shit about the King of the Ring. I highly doubt that Baron beating Chad, and ending his pipe-dream of being a Rocky-esque King of the Ring, made anyone bat an eye. The match was great, but it didn't tell the story of a despicable bad guy beating a benevolent good guy.

I've already blamed the writing, but this in my view Baron's whole career has been a perfect storm of bad writing and an emotionless deer in the headlights on screen demeanor. If you try to save him with a catch-phrase, or a finisher that doesn't look fucking stupid, it would come across as desperate.

In regard to the O.C., yeah, they're hot garbage. Everyone knows that their push is only a result of Vince being nervous about them or AJ selling tickets for AEW. Whether or not they're worse than Baron Corbin is a subjective matter, and for me Baron is worse because he gets more unwarranted microphone time.

Baron is what I call a "default heel". He's a heel just like Curtis Axel was a heel. Nobody connects with him, and the best we can come up with is a petty compliment based on his ability to do the bare minimum.

Can you give me an example of people hating Baron for any reason other than the fact that he's an "ok at best" dork who's running around like he's the second coming of Triple H?