Happy Corbin Says Recent Change To His WWE Presentation Made Him “Sick”
During the latest episode of the WWE After the Bell Podcast with Corey Graves, Happy Corbin spoke about the many superstars who have influenced his career in different ways and why it's important to be able to reinvent yourself.
The former Andre the Giant Battle Royal Winner spoke about wanting to have a sustained run with the WWE and in order to do that, you have to have the ability to change your character like he did going from "The Lone Wolf" to "Happy Corbin".
"That's the art of what we do," Corbin said. "We have the ability to adapt. It's not like a movie where you're applying for one role. We have these careers, where if you want to have a 10 or 12 or 15-year career like a lot of these legends that you see and put on a pedestal, then you have to have the ability to change.
"Even Roman Reigns, he's had this whole time as a good guy, kissing babies and putting on a smiling face and he's had to adapt and change. You look at Taker, Taker is a guy who started his career as The Undertaker with purple gloves, a dark hat, then he went into American Badass. The guys who have long successful careers have to have the ability to change.
"When you have a guy who is stuck in his ways and doesn't want to change and wants to do the same thing... and you see it with guys, they come here, they don't find success, they go somewhere else and do the same thing.
"It's like dude you have a chance to restart, try something new, try something different and they don't, their pride just gets in the way and they are worried about what the internet is going to say or what their friends are going to say but you talk to John Cena in long lengthy conversations, he's talking about that's how you have longevity and find success for years.
"You take something that you may not think is good and you go okay, instead of saying this is bad, I want to leave, it's how do we make it the best I can absolutely make it."
Continuing to talk about the changes he's made to his character, Happy Corbin spoke about his entrance music being switched and why he was very upset when it happened. Corbin stated that he had to check his pride at the door and re-think why changing his music was actually a positive for his character because it helped him garner more heat from wrestling fans.
"I think there's struggles I still have, my entrance, when I first heard it I was so bummed out," Corbin said. "My heart, I was hurting. I love my old entrance and it was one of those situations where I'm putting my head in my hands like, can I do this? Can I walk out of the curtain to this music? It made me sick.
"That's where you have to check your pride at the door. I was also cut off guard, I had no idea I had new music, I just got to work on that Friday and it was like 'here's your new music,' I was like wait what? I have new music? I'm going 'this is a joke right? You're having fun with me? You want me to come out and be happy about this? This hurts me.'
"Then you do, you step back and take that perspective and go oh man, if I hate they're going to hate it and if I'm happy about it it's going to piss them off even more. Then you go oh, now I'm in, now I love it, it's hilarious to me. It's part of who I am now and it's fun. If you can't embrace those things, you can't adapt, you can't try to make them good. Is the song good? Obviously not but I act like it is and I do love it now because it irritates people.
"Some people just can't set their pride aside and do it for [the WWE]. We're an entertainment company, this is what we do, we entertain people."
Unfortunately for Corbin, his route to a WWE World Championship match just got even worse, losing to Drew McIntyre during Night One of WrestleMania 38. It was reported that McIntyre was supposed to have a "special entrance" for the night, but was cut due to timing restraints.
Happy Corbin revealed the ultimate influence that The Undertaker had on his career and talked about the recent WWE Hall of Fame inductee as someone who wasn't afraid to critique his work in a positive or negative way.
"I really think just how you carry yourself," Corbin said. "That man is an icon, we know that. I've had these conversations and it's how you carry yourself as a star. When he walks into a room, he demands attention with the details. He's another details guy, he thinks about every little thing that he's doing. It's not like the match, the moves, it's does this make sense? If I punch him in the face and this is the reaction does that make sense? He's piecing together 10,000 piece puzzles and then worrying about every detail. Is this the piece that fits there? Is this how I want to walk to the ring? How long do I want to take to stand on the third step of the steps before I get into the ring?
"Those are the things that 99% of the people don't think about, they don't take the time to reshape those details and I think he's one of those guys. When I had those conversations with him, I was talking to him at the Royal Rumble for 40 minutes about how to do things and how to poise myself after doing something and it's like those are little things that separate you from everybody else. For me it's every conversation just getting details from him and how to make the most out of the smallest thing and to be a big guy, he's one of the best ever."
Finishing up his conversation about The Undertaker's influence on his career, Corbin revealed that Undertaker started taking a liking to him while he was in NXT.
"He's grabbed onto me since I was in NXT," Corbin said. "He helped me with my original entrance. 'Stand here, take your time, let the camera see your face, this is cool, this is not cool.' He's also not afraid to tell me when I'm doing something wrong. I think it's rare these days, everybody is worried about hurting somebody's feelings and Taker will grab me and go 'dude, that sucked, what're you doing? Why would you do that, tell me your thought process. Okay here's why your thought process is wrong.'
"When you can have that relationship with somebody then you're going to get an honest answer when you go 'hey, what'd you think of that?' And he can do that with himself, when he talks about the [WrestleMania 30 match against Brock Lesnar] that he was super unhappy about and knows it wasn't good, how many people can step back and say that? I am one of those guys too, I'm going to watch things back that I didn't like and how do I fix that?
"From a guy like him, that's what I've learned. We did it in football, you watch the game after the game, it's the same thing in this. If you can't be self-aware, humble yourself down to where you can say something wasn't good, you'll never get better."
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.