Baron Corbin says he was “smiling ear to ear” when he was told he would be giving Becky Lynch the End of Days

Corbin: “It was not. And as soon as it was told to me, I was so excited, smiling ear to ear. I was like, ‘We never do it!’ It was Vince [McMahon]’s idea. I think a lot of things in wrestling are overdone so much, and that was something that at the time hadn’t been done in years—and in Philly of all places—so it was pretty awesome.

Malcolm‬: “I was confused by this other segment where you were in the ring with the McMahons and Triple H, and they essentially blamed you for everything. I was like, ‘No, it’s not his fault.’ What were your thoughts on being in the ring during that moment, where you’re basically getting blamed for everything that’s going wrong?”

Corbin: “Yeah, I mean, I took some blame for things I had nothing to do with there. I was on TV a lot, and they’re attributing everything to me. I was a main event guy at the time with all of that, so you kind of get put in that spot. But it was a really cool moment in my career to literally be standing in the ring opposite Stephanie, Hunter, Shane, and Vince. At one point, we went to commercial during the promo and I didn’t know when we came back because it was so loud. The crowd was singing ‘Na na na, hey hey, goodbye.’ They were chanting, ‘You’re fired,’ and all that. Hunter walked over and he just whispered to me, ‘You can’t pay for this kind of heat.’ It was a very surreal moment. It was cool. Whatever they blame me for—whatever—it’s character and television. But I love that picture of me standing across from them all. That was a great thing.”

Malcolm‬: “Was there ever a conversation about you actually winning that Universal Championship?”

Corbin: “I mean, Vince always kind of dangled that carrot in front of me. I always worked for it. For three or four years, I was in the main event every week, and it was with Seth, it was with Roman, it was with Kurt, it was with Braun—it was all of those guys that really do a great job carrying the company. I had a lot of opportunities; it just never came to fruition, unfortunately. So, you never know though.”

Malcolm‬: “What was it like working with John Cena at SummerSlam 2017?”

Corbin: “I mean, John’s the best. He’s the greatest to ever do it. I’m really excited watching his run—I wish I was part of that tournament—because we have the history from that match, from SummerSlam, Money in the Bank, him costing me the briefcase, all of those things. It would have been a cool story to tell. He’s a guy I look up to and idolize in this industry because of his ability and also the type of person he is. There’s nobody I’ve met that has the level of fame he has that comes with the level of humility he has. He’s unbelievable. I texted him the other day and I was like, ‘Man, you deserve this.’ He’s like, ‘Deserve’ is not in my vocabulary.’ That’s the type of guy he is. He wants to give back to this community, to the fans, to the company—and that’s just not heard of very often.”