Bishop Dyer Details How His AEW Debut Came To Be, Reveals Tony Khan’s Reaction To The Match

Dyer speaks about his debut for AEW.

Before AEW Dynamite went live on TBS and HBO Max from Orlando, Florida, there were dark matches that took place. One of the matches featured the AEW debut of Bishop Dyer f.k.a. Baron Corbin.

Dyer teamed with Martin Stone, Hadar Horvitz, and Ori Gold. They fell in defeat to Austin Gunn, Billy Gunn, Brady Booker, and Elijah Drago.

Dyer detailed his experience on the newest recording of Off The Ropes with Jonathan Coachman. He said he picked up Paul Wight and drove him to Addition Financial Arena, where AEW’s show(s) were taking place.

“The highlight of my day was not only being in the ring, with that crowd, because the crowd was just f*cking awesome through and through. But, the whole thing started because I went to pick up Big Show to take Big Show up to Orlando for the show and to just see my people, and they ended up switching their shows last night and adding Collision post-Dynamite, because there’s supposed to be a snowstorm… So they did it last night and we stayed through the end. So we didn’t leave Orlando till like 12:20, 12:30 at night. Drove back to Tampa, got to Odessa, dropped the big man off… Great time, great stories. I love that man to death…”

Dyer was asked if he got a ‘high’ from competing in front of the AEW audience. He went on to share that it was Billy Gunn who brought up the idea of him being part of the match, and Dyer already had his gear with him.

“Oh yeah. Oh my God, yes (I got a ‘high’ from competing in front of the AEW crowd). I’ll kind of give the rundown of how it came about and stuff… I think any wrestler on the planet knows the rule: Always bring your gear. Just always bring it, and so I threw it in the truck and brought it with me, and I got there and saw my man Billy Gunn, who’s like a dad to me. He’s always been my guy that I’ve leaned on through a lot of stuff in the wrestling world. They had the dark matches because he was working with his son, Austin (Gunn), and he’s like, ‘Hey man, do you wanna be in this dark match with us?’ And I was like, ‘Dude, if it gets OK’d, I’m sold. Let’s do it,’ and he’s like, ‘You got your gear, right?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m a professional, dude. Always.’ So they put it through Papa T.K., and it was okay and I did the physical and all that stuff and… when I walked out, it was pretty awesome. When I got into the light — me watching thousands of people there, it’s the first time I’ve been in front of a crowd that size in a while, and seeing them come out of their seats and stand up and cheer and I’m used to a career of boos, and so when you get that kind of pop, and it was funny because the guys I was working with too, a couple of them are in wrestling school out there and we put them with me and then, Danny Burch was a guy that we were together in NXT who I think is awesome, and the two young dudes were like, ‘Oh my God! Thank you! Thank you!’ They were part of that great reaction, and so I made them feel good and step their energy up, and then having the opportunity to get in the ring with Billy and Austin, dude, they’re so good. Like, let’s be real. Billy Gunn, at 62 years old, and looks unbelievable. I’m like, man, I need to go on some serious diet and workout all day long to hopefully look like that but, hard transition when you used to be 330 pounds… When we were putting the match together, Billy and I are like, ‘Well, let’s have a face-to-face. Let’s face off in the middle of your comeback,’ and he’s like, ‘They should react.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know if they’re gonna react. I don’t know if they’re not gonna care,’ whatever it is. But when I slid in, and went face-to-face with Billy and like, again, (John) Cena’s taught me everything I know about listening to the crowd, and Roman (Reigns) as well. You watch them at the same time too because you can see the reactions, and we slide face-to-face and I just see, out of my peripherals, the audience standing up, and you get that, ‘Ohhh!’ Billy and I both just smiled ear to ear at each other because we’re like, oh yeah. That’s it, that’s why we’re here.”

After the bout, Dyer had a quick exchange with AEW President Tony Khan, who told him that he enjoyed the match and thought it was fun.

“I know Tony (Khan) told me afterwards, he was like, ‘The match was so fun. I enjoyed it,’ and obviously, he’s working his ass off back there. I’m not gonna bother him with anything other than, ‘Thank you for allowing me to do that with Billy and Austin’ so that was the extent of our conversation.”

Dyer is currently working with Major League Wrestling. He is one-half of the promotion’s World Tag Team Champions alongside Donovan Dijak. They’ve been in possession of the titles since June 2025.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Off The Ropes with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.