Baron Corbin says WWE exit was the ‘best thing’ that happened to him
The new WWE United States Champion Baron Corbin recently addressed his WWE exit from a few years ago.
A part of the WWE roster for over a decade from 2012 to 2024, Corbin was let go from the promotion after his contract expired in November, 2024. Making his return to the indies and working hard there, Corbin returned to WWE a few weeks ago in 2026.
With his victory over Trick Williams at WWE SummerSlam, Corbin has now crowned himself the new US Champion. Recently speaking to Busted Open, Corbin opened up about his WWE departure and how it helped him in his career.
“That’s the most stress and nervousness I’ve had in a day in a long time. It was the combination of a lot of things. Coming back, I took that year and a half, and I elevated everything I did, whether it was in the ring, in jiu-jitsu, personality, the ability on a microphone. I kept to that grind.
“I think when you’re doing it without that big machine behind you, when you’re having to go to different shows, it’s a testament to how much you love it and where your passion is. If you want to get better without the help of that machine and you’re doing it on your own, I think you can grow exponentially. Whereas if you have the machine, you can take things for granted. ‘I’ve already made it,’ all of that. It’s different when you’re on the outside,” Corbin added.
“Coming back to it, it’s like, I’m going to make a statement. I’m not the same guy I was when I left. I hope people have forgotten about me so I can remind them how dangerous I truly am. When I came in in the beginning as the Lone Wolf, that was the attitude I had, and I think I got lost along the way a little bit. Going away might have been the best thing ever for me and what I’m going to accomplish between those ropes,” he finished.
With his victory over Hayes, Corbin is now a two-time WWE United States Champion.
Baron Corbin says his indie run taught him humility
Following his WWE departure in 2024, Corbin adopted the name Bishop Dyer and began his journey in the indies. In the same interview on Busted Open, he said that the indie run taught him humility.
“To sum it up in one word, humility. In WWE, sometimes we can take it for granted that we’re in front of 10,000 people, 50,000 people, 80,000 people. The entrances, your travel is taken care of, your schedule is handed to you. Everything is kind of spoon-fed to you. When you come out and you have to start booking your own stuff, you’re in control of getting to the shows, you have to set a price, you have to do all of these things. Then you get there and there’s no security for these shows. I’m going, ‘Where do I park?’ And they’re like, ‘I don’t know, bro. That’s on you. Maybe down the street somewhere.’
“You’re looking at these rings. They’re different sizes, 16 feet. They may not be the greatest rings. I was really selective on the shows I was doing, but even then, it’s just a different world. You’ve got to bring your own tape sometimes. All of those little things that maybe I never realized and took for granted,” he said.
“It made me appreciate everything I had so much more. When I was in that arena this weekend, I’m just looking at the size of it and going, ‘How could I have ever taken these moments for granted?’ Maybe that’s why I lost a step at the end of my run there the first time, that kind of arrogance of, ‘This is normal.’”
Shounak Chakrabarti is an experienced sports journalist with a lifelong passion for athletics and storytelling. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Journalism from the University of Leeds and joined F4WOnline in 2025.
Shounak takes particular interest in soccer, closely following top clubs like Real Madrid and Arsenal. Beyond sports, he enjoys fiction writing, photography, gaming, and cinema.