Baron Corbin First Had WWE Return Conversations In December 2025, Says He Was Focused On Rebuilding His Name’s Reputation

Baron Corbin details his return to WWE.

Corbin shocked fans around the world when he made his surprise return to the company on the July 10 episode of SmackDown. Just a few weeks later, in his in-ring return, Corbin continued the surprise by winning the United States Championship.

Speaking with Busted Open Radio for a new interview, Baron Corbin said that he never reached out to WWE about a possible return after his departure from the company.

“I think the coming back process with awesome because I never once in that year and a half that I was gone reached out. You saw that interview with Hunter like, guys are always texting me, ‘I wanna come home.’ I never did that. If they want me back, they’ll call me. I’m not gonna beg for a job. I love that place and I had communication with Hunter in the time I was gone, but it was never like work. I’d text him like, hey, congrats on this or how’s the family, how are the girls? Those kind of things. Even a few other people there, I stayed in touch with a couple of talent. But, that line was never crossed of like, ‘Hey, what would you think about me coming back?’ Eventually, they did reach out. We had a conversation in December that was very brief. It didn’t go anywhere because it was like, hey, what would you think about [this], would you be interested in that? I think the reply was, I’d be open to a conversation but I’m not pressed, I’m doing things out here. I’m building back the reputation behind the name, I’m racking up those wins, I’m getting titles outside of here, traveling the world. Kinda doing the thing that I missed that a lot of people get to do before they come to WWE. I’m upping my game. I wrestled in Mexico and Europe and Australia and all of those places, it leveled out my in-ring ability, which was amazing.”

When the conversations started to pick back up earlier this year, Corbin felt like he had revitalized his career and hunger for pro wrestling.

“Then, when the conversation started to actually be like — hey man, we’re interested in bringing you back and then having a conversation with Hunter about what his plans were for me of taking me back to what I do best and that’s beat people up, that lone wolf kind of persona. Getting back to bringing legitimacy when I step in the ring and hurt people and the believability that I could win big matches was so important. Being gone that year and a half was so vital to revitalizing my career and the hunger in me. I explained in an interview that I did before this, that last year of my career in WWE before I left, it just kinda became, oh okay this is my job now, I’ll go do it blah blah blah. Now, I have that nervousness back. I have that, I’m gonna puke before I walk through this curtain. That energy where you’re just uncomfortable and get to unleash that on someone that’s standing in front of you. That is back and it’s back in full force. I think the sky is the limit for this run, I look at collecting as many titles. I never got that world title like [Nic Nemeth], so I need to accomplish that. We’re on a mission and that year and a half was so beneficial to getting me in the right direction being back home.”

Baron Corbin is set to face Lil Yachty at Sunday Night’s Main Event. Check out the current lineup for the show by clicking here.

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