Baron Corbin has praised John Cena for advice the WWE legend gave him several years ago, claiming that it helped his career “immensely!”
Prior to Cena winding down his in-ring career and competing on a part-time basis, the 16-time world champion faced off against Baron Corbin at SummerSlam 2017 in arguably the biggest match of the latter’s career up to that point. Whilst Corbin didn’t come out with an upset win, Corbin benefitted from the rivalry off-camera thanks to some invaluable advice given to him by Cena.
Speaking on WWE After The Bell, Corbin reflected on the two pieces of advice Cena gave him that have stuck with him: Thinking ahead to what his next steps are beyond what he’s currently doing and how he can make the absolute best out of whatever he’s given.
“Two things that he’s really preached on me is always think about what’s next, where do you go after this show tomorrow and a lot of guys don’t do that. Like when I had the match with him at SummerSlam (2017), he’s like, ‘Think about Monday night. We’re gonna do what we do at SummerSlam but what are you doing Monday night?’ So always have a few steps ahead so I always try to think of that.
But then the other thing that really stuck with me that John has preached which I think has helped my career immensely is that how do you take what you’re given and make it the absolute best you can? And that process he goes through when he’s handed a promo. Okay, I see what you want and you want this exactly like this. How do I make it the best I can absolutely make it and it’s kind of one of those things you see a challenge in it.
Corbin specifically attributed the success of his Sad Corbin gimmick to Cena’s second piece of advice, claiming saw it as an opportunity to grow his character portfolio.
We all get promos, we all get opportunities, we all get things that we may or may not wanna do. How do I make it stand out? How do I make it amazing? How do I make this and turn it into gold? And I think Sad Corbin’s the prime example of that. When Vince (McMahon) tasked me with that, I saw it as an opportunity to change, show character work and just to add another level to my body of work and it was only supposed to be like a two week thing and it ended up running for months because I went all in.”
John Cena Recently Teased WrestleMania Coming To The UK
John Cena stunned British fans earlier this month when he made a surprise appearance at WWE Money In The Bank in London and got physical with SmackDown’s Grayson Waller.
But it was Cena’s promo that really got fans talking, stating that he was on a mission to bring WrestleMania to London. The idea has since been supported by several UK MPs including the Labour Shadow Minister of Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Alex Davies-Jones.
h/t to POST Wrestling