Bishop Dyer (Baron Corbin) Wanted To Take Sad Corbin To WrestleMania 38, ‘Imagine How Shitty I Would Have Looked’

Bishop Dyer discusses his run as ‘Sad Corbin’.

In July of 2021, Bishop Dyer (then wrestling under the ring name Baron Corbin) would debut a new gimmick in WWE after losing his King Of The Ring crown. In addition to the crown, he would lose his wife and kids, financial stability and more. He would also stop shaving his head, with an unkempt beard and dirty clothes.

While speaking to Fightful’s In The Weeds Podcast with Jeremy Lambert and SP3, Bishop Dyer was asked about his run as ‘sad Corbin’, with the former WWE superstar noting that he wanted to take the gimmick all the way to WrestleMania 38.

“Originally, when Vince told me what we were doing, because he wanted to get me out of the King stuff. He had Happy Corbin in his mind before we even took the crown off with Shinsuke and Boogs. He was like, ‘You’re just going to be dejected for two or three weeks. I don’t want you to cut your hair or your beard. You’re just going to be down in the dumps. You lost your crown.’ We did the first week of TV and it was good and he really liked it. Then, I did a random Raw Talk with Kayla Braxton and I was like, ‘I’m just going to lay here on the floor and freestyle.’ When I cut the promo about having to bang the can on the street to get it open and the stain on my shirt, that sparked it to the next level. Then it was, ‘Oh, we’re going to take this longer now.’ We did the TikTok where they wouldn’t let me in the arena. Those are the social things that were my idea and my pitches where I’m just freestyling. It got that character some serious entertainment points and people really grabbed onto it to where people were trying to hand me money when I was trying to do my entrance. I had a lady in Houston trying to shove $20 in my window. ‘I’m not actually poor. This is a character.’ My daughter was trying to go to private school, and we’re applying and going to the private school to do visits, and I look horrible. I’d always apologize. ‘Listen, I understand that this is not a good thing right now.’ The beard was terrible I had the bald look with the sides grown out. In Vegas, when I stole the briefcase from Big E, me and Kevin Owens had a pitch that took us all the way to Mania. Vegas needed to be a hope spot. I need to have those videos where I’m back in the money and cut to, I lost it all. Like everybody does in Vegas. I wanted it to be like, ‘We haven’t seen Corbin in two weeks’ and there is clips of me in a homeless encampment in Vegas. I would have thought that would be hysterical. I was trying to take it as far as I could go because people were having fun with it, but it was turning me babyface. Vince did not want me to be babyface. Kevin and I talked about winning the tag titles, and him trying to pull me out of the dumps. We had a pitch where I take the bullet for him in a match because the Usos were the tag champs, and I would dive in the way and get superkicked, and I go to the hospital and am in a neck brace. ‘Let’s go super over the top with it,’ and then him and I win the tag titles at Mania, but then I turn on him. ‘That will make me the biggest heel ever.’ Vince was like, ‘You won’t make it there as a heel.’ He just didn’t want me as a babyface, so he turned me at Vegas. I wish we would have gotten another six months out of it. Imagine how shitty I would have looked. This terrible mustache would have been over my lips. (My hair) would’ve been Hogan with (long hair) and nothing on top. It would have been Earthquake’s hair. Kevin is one of the best there is, and it would have been so fun, because Kevin would’ve garnered the sympathy for me and it would have been gold. What could have been.”

Elsewhere in the same interview, Dyer spoke about his infamous dog food segment with Roman Reigns and The Usos. You can read more about that here.

Bishop Dyer is now paired with Donovan Dijak, another former WWE star, in MLW. The Skyscrapers, as they are collectively known, are slated to take part in MLW Fightland. The event will be held on September 13 in Texas.  Learn more about that event here.

Check out the full interview with Bishop Dyer embedded above.