In the past few weeks, Baron Corbin went from an almost surefire future WWE champion to the rare man who lost a Money in the Bank briefcase cash-in opportunity.
Then he was beaten quickly in the opening match of SummerSlam by John Cena.
This lead to a couple different rumors about why management had soured on The Lone Wolf. One said Cena told Vince McMahon Corbin wasn’t ready. Another said his interactions with fans on Twitter was seen as a problem. Both rumors were dismissed by Wrestling Observer, but there’d been no confirmation of what the source of Baron’s heat was beyond “an entirely different situation outside the ring that happened a few weeks ago.”
A report from PWInsider published today (Sept. 4) may reveal what that situation was.
Multiple sources told Mike Johnson the incident occurred in a talent meeting where WWE’s Medical Director, Dr. Joseph Maroon, was brought in for a session on concussion-related injuries and the importance of wrestlers reporting symptoms to management immediately. Maroon’s presentation allegedly “downplayed” a recent Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) study which found 99% of deceased National Football League players’ brains’ available for research showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Corbin - who played in the NFL under his real name, Tom Pestock - was said to have “cut off” Maroon to challenge him. He revealed he is part of a concussion-related lawsuit against the League, and stated “he knew Maroon was against CTE” - an apparent reference to how the doctor was presented as being in the NFL’s pocket in the 2015 Will Smith film, Concussion, about Dr. Bennet Omalu, the first person to discover and publish on the existence of CTE.
After stating that the movie’s depiction of him was incorrect, Maroon argued that while CTE is a problem, the study doesn’t mean 99% of all football players have it. Corbin disagreed, and the two argued for several minutes.
Three sources told PWInsider the situation was “awkward”. Another said that while Baron wasn’t yelling or being belligerent, it was seen as “the wrong time and the wrong place” for the discussion, and he would have been better served pulling Maroon aside after the meeting rather than taking attention away from its purpose of educating the locker room.
Some who were present told Insider they were impressed Corbin spoke out, as pushing back, especially in front of management, is not something many wrestlers would do.
And, while The Lone Wolf remains on television and is even looking like part of the United States title picture, his resulting de-push may send a signal that questioning a company official in that setting isn’t something anyone else should try again in the future.