The Real Reason WWE Are Pushing Baron Corbin
He's the next Shawn Michaels, in a way.
Following two consecutive PPV main-event matches, and the suggestion of at least one more to come, Baron Corbin is arguably positioned as WWE's top heel.
Despite a recent mild surge in popularity, this is a strange turn of events for a performer who didn't win a single PPV match in 2018. To find himself at the top of the card on Raw, and embroiled in a long-running title feud with the reigning Universal Champion, is not something anybody would have predicted for him this year.
WWE's reasons for their often bizarre post-WrestleMania pushes are often left to your imagination, but in a recent revelation on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer has suggested that the motivations behind Corbin's time in the spotlight are head-scratching in the extreme.
Rather than a belief in his wrestling ability, promo skills or even popularity with the audience, the suggestion is that Vince McMahon simply believes that "women swoon over him". Yep. Baron Corbin. A man who permanently looks like he's emptying the drip trays at 3am in a dive bar he only 'sort-of' manages. A man who looks like he has earnestly considered kicking his own cat to death.
Sex appeal isn't a commodity to be discounted in a wrestler of course. Shawn Michaels famously based a gimmick around it, and stars like The Rock and Randy Orton have routinely made World's Sexiest Men lists during their time in the main event. Vince clearly believes that Corbin, basically the bully from the first Toy Story film dressed as a manager from Applebees, is every inch the looker these men are.