Happy Corbin Looks Back On His Run As ‘King’, Wishes He Got To Do More As The Man Who Retired Kurt Angle
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Everything’s coming up Corbin, as WWE SmackDown Superstar Happy Corbin is thriving on the blue brand right now.
Ahead of the debut of his new WWE talk show, “Happy Talk”, Corbin spoke with Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT about his recent success, which comes off the heels of a run where many fans had soured on his “King” gimmick. In the interview, Corbin acknowledged this reaction and pointed out that it’s his job to “irritate people” before he stated that it’s important to differentiate the reason fans complain about something.
“When people start to complain, you’ve got to define if they’re really complaining because it’s not good or are they complaining because it’s irritating them,” said Corbin. “That King of the Ring thing, I think it reached a point where people like ‘ah, is somebody else going to be king? I’m tired of it.’
“So it was one of those touchy things where it was like are we going too long? Or is this good because it’s irritating people? ”
The former King of the Ring then pointed to his feud with Shinsuke Nakamura, which culminated in the Battle for the Crown, as the natural catalyst for the road to his evolution into Happy Corbin.
“The story with Shinsuke [Nakamura] stealing the crown just kind of fell in and I think it sparked Vince’s creative with whatever it was – I was sad face when I lost the crown? I have no idea. But it was like ‘we’re going down in the dumps now.’
“Looking back, I’m thinking that’s the perfect thing. A lot of people wanted me out of it and wanted me to be miserable and it kind of rolled into that really well.”
Corbin also looked back on his memorable WrestleMania bout with Kurt Angle, where he defeated the WWE Hall of Famer in his retirement match. The SmackDown star noted that he wished he got the chance to do more with the storyline after this monumental victory, but he’s happy with where he is now/
“I wish, looking back, we always wish we could change or do more with something,” said Corbin. “But I would have loved to have gotten six months out of wearing a gold medal and just rubbing it in everyone’s face, but it was not the direction they had and we went a different way.
“I’m OK with it, we always find something else that works that’s good and fun and I love where I’m at now.”
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