WWE: Baron Corbin on Origin of Happy Corbin, Canada Tour Update, Updated SD Ratings

Baron Corbin on Origin of “Happy Corbin” & When He Found Out About Character Change

A recent episode of the Out Of Character podcast had Baron Corbin as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Corbin revealing the origin of his “Happy Corbin” character and when he found out about the new name change.

“That [Happy Corbin name] was 100 percent Vince [McMahon]. I heard it actually on Twitter. They were like, ‘WWE just copy wrote Happy Corbin.’ I was like, ‘What? That’s where we’re — what?’ And so like I was confused and I came and I asked and [they’re] like, ‘Ah, we don’t really know what you’re talking about’ and then sure enough, a couple of weeks later, they’re like, ‘Hey, your name’s Happy Corbin now’ and I was like, ‘Huh, so Twitter knew before I knew?’ And that’s how you find out about a lot of stuff. It’s so funny. So I had no idea, same with my music. I showed up to work and they’re like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna rehearse your entrance.’ I’m like, ‘It’s no different.’ They’re like, ‘No, you got new music’ and I was like, ‘Huh? Since when!?’ Like I had no idea so it was just pretty funny. You got to be able to work on the fly a little bit.”

Corbin also gave his thoughts about his brief run as the “Sad Corbin” character.

“I honestly believe that the ‘Sad Corbin’ wasn’t supposed to last as long as it did. I think it was supposed to be kind — from what I understand, it was kind of supposed to be a two-week thing of like, ‘You’re gonna lose the crown, you’re gonna get a little bit pissed’ but it became very entertaining and I had a lot of fun because it was like polar opposite of anything I’ve done and I think that’s what’s fun about this job for me is it doesn’t become monotonous when you continually evolve and that was just like a hard left from anything I’ve ever done and it was just this miserable guy with a dirty shirt and the worst part was not being able to cut the hair or the beard because Vince [McMahon] is like — I get a text message at like 2 AM from Vince. It’s like, ‘Don’t shave or cut your hair’ and I’m going, ‘Okay, where’s this going?’ After like three weeks, I’m going like [scratching his beard]. I got like the [George] Costanza hair going and I’m like, ‘What am I –’ and the best part is I’m visiting schools for my daughter. They’re like private schools so my daughter’s two-and-a-half and I’m going in and my beard and hair, you can’t wear a hat into these places so I look ridiculous and I’m going, ‘I have to apologize for how I look. It’s my job’ and they’re just like [side-eying me] because it’s private schools, not cheap and they’re judging me the second I walk in. Yeah, it was just really funny.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

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Upcoming Canadian Tour Status in Doubt

As noted before, WWE’s upcoming tour of Canada is currently in doubt following new coronavirus pandemic rules and restrictions issued by the Ontario provincial government. These new rules and restrictions mainly affects WWE’s scheduled house show event on December 29th in Toronto.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the province of Quebec recently issued a shutdown for the coronavirus pandemic in the province. This new shutdown went into effect starting at 5PM EST on Monday and is meant to combat the surge of the Omnicrom variant of COVID-19. It was reported that this new shutdown requires all professional sports games and venues with events currently scheduled to be held without any fans allowed in attendance.

WWE is currently scheduled to hold a house show event on December 30th in Laval, Quebec but its status is now in doubt due to the recent shutdown order issued.

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Updated WWE Friday Night SmackDown Ratings

This past Friday’s episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown drew a final viewership of 2,303,000 on FOX, according to ShowBuzz Daily. This was up compared to the initial overnight number of 2,213,000 viewers on the network.