Baron Corbin felt like he was 'drowning' before move to WWE NXT

Before his current stint in NXT, Baron Corbin felt like he was "drowning" on the WWE main roster.

Corbin was the guest on the latest episode of WWE's After the Bell podcast. During the interview, Corbin spoke about his pairing with JBL on the main roster. Corbin said they tried to make it work, but there were a few things going against them. Corbin said it felt like he was in a movie where they're stuck out in the ocean and waiting to get eaten by sharks.

Corbin recalled a promo where he knew there was nothing that was going to make it good. Corbin said that, before then, he had always been able to make things work.

There was a sense of panic there for me, because everything I had done up until then had worked. You know, I’d made things work. I had one promo in my career where I was in the ring in the middle of it going, ‘There is nothing that is going to make this good. We’re not saving it.’ It was a segment with multiple people, and I felt the crowd just going, ‘Dude. Like, this is not good.' And you feel it in your gut.

And then, when we got to the end of the JBL stuff, we were trying to make it work. I think there were a few things that went against us. Opportunity, timing, a few other things. And you could feel it. I felt like I was just in that movie where they’re stuck out in the ocean just waiting to get eaten by sharks. I was drowning, in a sense. And that’s when we had the conversation, and it was like, ‘Okay, well what do we do?'

Corbin was designated as a "free agent" in this year's WWE Draft, meaning he's able to appear on Raw, SmackDown, and NXT. He arrived on NXT this May, attacking NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes.

On After the Bell, Corbin said he saw NXT as a place where he could make some changes in himself and his career. Corbin said he thinks it's been a successful execution of that plan so far.

That's when this NXT opportunity came up and I was like, ‘Hell yes. Let’s go. Let’s go down there and do this.’ And it’s been a lot of fun because I got to come in the door and run with Carmelo [Hayes] for a little bit. And we had that Lone Wolf entrance, and that was special, man. You could feel the energy in the building when that music hit, and had the jean vest on, and it was a little nostalgia. I mean, social media numbers were off the charts on that, and it was just an entrance.

Then we had one hell of a match. I mean, Melo’s a special competitor, and I think he’s going to have a bright career. But that was a match where I think it had been a while since I’ve gotten to just go. Like, [Seth] Rollins and I have had some amazing matches, Roman [Reigns] and I, Braun [Strowman], Kurt [Angle] -- I’ve had these long matches with guys who are extremely talented, Kevin Owens, Sami [Zayn].

It had been a minute since I've had that opportunity, and I think we tore it down. And I reignited a little bit of fire in my gut that says, ‘I’m going to shove this down everybody’s face that kind of doubted me over the last year,’ or who said negative things in a sense -- inside our world and outside our world. It was an opportunity to go out there and go, ‘Man, I can hang with the best there is. I can go with anybody. I can run 30 minutes with Seth. I can run 30 minutes with Roman. I can run 30 minutes with Melo down in NXT. It doesn’t matter. When that bell rings, I can go in the ring.’ So now it was getting that attitude to match that in-ring ability and the emotion. Because the emotion is back full throttle right now. It reignited something in my gut to ‘burn the ships.’ Let’s take this mother down.

Corbin said he could still be competing "in the middle" on SmackDown where it's easy and comfortable, but he wanted to go back to NXT and restart.

Hayes retained the NXT Championship against Corbin at NXT Gold Rush last month. Since then, a series of vignettes have aired where Corbin has burned items from his past and prepared to face his future as his true self.