Backstage Update on Baron Corbin and WWE Pulling Back on His Push

– As previously reported, there have been rumors as of late regarding WWE apparently pulling back on Baron Corbin’s push in the booking. Corbin recently lost his Money in the Bank cash-in to Jinder Mahal, and then he lost in the opening match at Summerslam this year against John Cena. PWInsider has a new report regarding what has happened with Baron Corbin’s booking in WWE.

Previously, there was talk of Baron Corbin’s outspoken behavior on Twitter getting him into trouble with the WWE brass. The Wrestling Observer indicated that while Corbin’s tweets did not help him, WWE cooled off on Corbin’s push because of “an entirely different situation outside the ring that happened a few weeks ago.” What apparently happened outside the ring at the time was still a mystery.

PWInsider’s new report possibly sheds light on that incident, which involved Dr. Joseph Maroon. The incident apparently took place at a talent meeting in the first week of August. Dr. Joseph Maroon, the head of WWE’s Wellness Policy, was brought in by WWE to discuss the importance of injuries related to concussions and why in-ring talents should report any concussion type injuries to management as soon as possible.

During the talent meeting, Corbin, who is a former NFL player, reportedly cut off Maroon during his discussion and expressed his own opinion, which actually challenged Maroon. During that time, Corbin argued that that head trauma in the NFL should be expected because every player in the NFL uses helmets, and players frequently crack their helmets against each other. Corbin also commented on a concussion-related lawsuit that he is part of against the NFL, and he said that he knew Maroon was initially against CTE, noting Maroon’s depiction in the Will Smith film Concussion.

In that film, Maroon was portrayed as a pro-NFL doctor who tried to deny any relationship between football concussions and players suffering from CTE as presented by Smith’s Dr. Bennet Omalu. Maroon reportedly agreed with Corbin that CTE was a problem, but Maroon apparently tried to make the point that the study did not mean that 99 percent of NFL players actually had CTE and that everyone was trying to put things into a “proper perspective.” Corbin then disagreed with Maroon’s stance, and the two are said to have argued back and forth in an “awkward” situation. The scene was also described as like “time standing still” and “an awkward moment that led to awkward laughter” by three different sources who were also in attendance at the meeting.

Additionally, a fourth source stated that while Corbin was not yelling or acting belligerent, the situation was likely a case of Corbin expressing his opinions in “the wrong time and the wrong place.” The same person noted that Corbin should’ve spoken to Maroon privately sometime after the meeting instead of taking attention away from the matter at hand during the meeting.

The general feeling from the sources in the report that Corbin hurt himself by voicing his opinion in front of the locker room at the meeting instead of trying to speak to Dr. Maroon in private, and Corbin hurt the general flow of the meeting. By doing this, Corbin took away from the importance of the meeting about the significance of the WWE talents’ health, Corbin made it about him and Maroon’s past NFL comments. As a result, Maroon put himself in a position of defending his reputation instead of educating the locker room.

The report does note that some wrestlers were impressed by Corbin speaking out, since it was not the type of thing they would generally do or try to bring things up in front of management.

While Corbin did lose his Money in the Bank cash-in match, he is still a fixture of the Smackdown brand. So while it seems WWE has pulled back on his booking, it does seem like WWE Creative is still possibly invested in Corbin in the long-term.