Baron Corbin shockingly returned to WWE screens during Friday’s episode of SmackDown. He left the live crowd stunned by putting a halt to a hot bout pitting Trick Williams vs. Carmelo Hayes. The old NXT friends turned enemies were starting to pull the people in when Corbin attacked.
The former King Of The Ring winner then posed with Trick’s new bespoke, fur-lined United States Title before leaving amidst cheers. It’s pretty clear that WWE wants Corbin to be a heel going forwards, but he was always going to receive a positive reaction due to the unexpected nature of his comeback here.
This also apparently puts to bed any notions of Baron playing Danhausen’s ‘Frankenstein’s monster’ bodyguard. That has been in the rumour mill for months, but it doesn’t look likely now. In fact, there’s no word on what WWE has planned for the role – Braun Strowman is still available, to be fair!
Corbin has other plans. He’ll lock horns with the likes of Williams and Hayes in the US Title hunt. There’s a decent chance he’ll also interact with Ricky Saints, because the former AEW man was shown watching SmackDown’s main event backstage before Baron’s big moment.
Ex-Raw authority figure Corbin was released by the company way back in November 2024. He’d since made a splash on the independent scene, wrestled a dark match for AEW and settled neatly into MLW before making this sudden comeback.
WWE filed a trademark for ‘Nomad’ before Baron’s return, but it remains to be seen if they’ll bang that drum on TV.
