Billy Gunn Calls Top WWE SmackDown Heel ‘Coachable’
WWE Hall of Famer Billy Gunn has had quite an illustrious career, from his time with Road Dogg in the New Age Outlaws and DX, to his coaching duties with WWE NXT, and now, working for All Elite Wrestling alongside his sons in The Gunn Club. Along the way, Gunn has helped establish some of the many faces we see on a week-to-week basis on WWE television, including Happy Corbin.
For those unaware, prior to coming to the WWE, Corbin was a professional footballer player in college, earning him two spots on two NFL teams. After being released by the Arizona Cardinals in 2011, Corbin quit his dream of playing in the NFL and tried out for WWE at the Performance Center.
Gunn spoke about his experiences working with the former NFL player as a special guest on the latest episode of the "Oh You Didn't Know?" podcast.
"That was the one that sticks out," Gunn said. "Everybody knows that I'm not a big NFL guy because they just come in entitled and they don't want to learn, they don't have a passion and, 'I'm just getting paid money to do this, and okay, I don't have to work.' [Corbin] was a different animal. He wanted to learn this and he couldn't get enough.
"Every time after class, he would come [to me and say], 'Hey, can you stay? Would you just do this?' I have no problem, I'll stay as long as [possible], but it's not a thing that you're just going to come to me because that's the thing that everybody wants to see you do. I feel, sometimes, that's a thing."
Currently signed to AEW, Gunn is also a coach along with being a wrestler on-screen, but he described the key difference between his role as a coach in WWE to AEW.
"We have a bunch of coaches that are bar none, the best in the business," Gunn said. "But nobody uses it. Me, Arn [Anderson], Dean [Malenko], B.J. [Whitmer], most of the guys like they've been there. So hey, how did we get there?"
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Oh You Didn't Know? with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.