10 Most Controversial Wrestlers On The Planet Right Now
8. Baron Corbin
"You're meant to hate the heel."
Baron Corbin is a heel, certainly. Loathed by some fans for a level of workrate deemed well below the modern standard, Corbin wrestles at a more deliberate pace and stalls, with verbal tirades and rest holds, on the beg for boos. It's easy to see why WWE likes him so much: he's never injured, he's safe, he's solid, he's tall, and he can cut an obnoxious-as-hell heel promo.
But you're meant to love to hate the heel, and those boos rarely materialise because there's no real ingenuity nor danger to his work. Corbin's pace doesn't invigorate crowds. His lack of energy is reciprocal; he drains the crowd of it just like he drains his opponents of it in long, repeated rest hold spots. He doesn't so much cheat as smugly luxuriate in the boredom of the people. It's loathsome, but not entertaining.
But maybe, increasingly, all of that is in the past tense.
Author's take: In trading rest holds for a neat spot in which he smashes the heads of his opponents against the ring post, Corbin has traded groans for winces, tweaking the in-ring aspect of his character to become a nastier proposition.
If King Corbin can prove himself against opponents that aren't great, long may he reign.