Baron Corbin On His Reaction When Vince McMahon Pitched “Happy Corbin” Name
On the latest episode of the Out of Character Podcast with Ryan Satin, Baron Corbin spoke about the different names he's had during his time with the WWE since getting called up from NXT in 2016. From Baron to Constable to King to Happy Corbin, the former offensive lineman in the NFL spoke about which name was his favourite and why.
"Whichever one irritates the people the most," Corbin said. "Constable irritated people because most people were like 'I don't know what a Constable is,' and I also didn't as well. Happy irritates people a lot too so I like that one as well, it gives confusion too."
Baron Corbin continued to talk about his name change and where the original idea of the character came from. The former Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal Winner spoke about how being around Vince McMahon and Triple H helped shape different personas of his characters over the near decade he's spent with WWE.
"Being around Vince for years or Triple H, they kind of start to learn your personality so they tailor characters, they get these ideas and tailor that character based on their interaction with you over the years," Corbin mentioned. "Could've been something with Vince where I'm making him laugh or just having fun being one of the guys with him and then he goes 'I've got one of these ideas where you're just over the top happy.' He always tells me that people don't like you, they're really not going to like you when you're happy all the time. It works and it's just fun man."
"[The name Happy] was 100% Vince. I heard it on Twitter, the WWE just copy wrote 'Happy Corbin' and I was like what? I was confused and I came and asked and they were like we really don't know what you're talking about then sure enough a couple of weeks later they were like 'Your name is Happy Corbin now.' Twitter knew before I knew and that's how you find out about a lot of stuff, it's so funny. I had no idea, same with my music. I showed up to work and they were like 'Hey, we're going to erase your entrance,' I was like 'It's no different?' They were like 'nope, you've got new music' and I was like 'huh? Since when?!' "
The 37-year-old also transitioned his character into "Sad Corbin" for a short while after dealing with several misfortunate situations. For weeks, we saw Corbin dealing with hardships and even created his own Go-Fund-Me account and asking other talent for money. Baron mentioned how much fun he had becoming Sad Corbin and described how he learned of the idea from Vince McMahon during a late-night call.
"I honestly believe that the Sad Corbin wasn't supposed to last as long as it did," Corbin said. "I think it was supposed to be a two-week thing of like you're going to lose the crown, you're going to get depressed and it became very entertaining and I had a lot of fun. It was like the polar opposite of anything I had done and I think that's what's fun about this job for me is that it doesn't become monotonous when you continue to evolve and that was just a hard left of anything I had done.
"Just a miserable guy with a dirty shirt and the worst part was not being able to cut the hair or the beard. I get a text message at like 2 AM from Vince and he's like, 'Don't shave or cut your hair'. After three weeks I've got the Costanza hair going and the best part is I'm visiting schools for my daughter and I'm going in and my beard and hair, I look ridiculous. I have to apologize for how I look and say it's my job. I think it became organically interesting."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE After the Bell with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.