Baron Corbin recently spoke with Brian Fritz of Sporting News to promote the upcoming Greatest Royal Rumble event. Here are the highlights.
SN: WWE recently had WrestleMania 34 and now you have this huge event. Does this feel like another WrestleMania?
“ It definitely does. The magnitude of this is insane. It’s crazy to comprehend because I haven’t been over there yet to see the building, the arena, and the atmosphere of the people. When you get to WrestleMania and you’re walking around, you just feel that energy from the people in streets and in restaurants and buildings. Everywhere you go, everyone is on that energy level with you. They’re excited for the show and they’re excited for every part of it. I’m excited to get to Jeddah and experience that energy that the people are going to have. I think that elevates it and that makes it have that WrestleMania mentality. It’s unbelievable what we’re doing.
Then you look at the card — a 50-man Greatest Royal Rumble match — when you look at the magnitude of the matches. You have a Casket Match between ‘Taker and Rusev. Like, that’s crazy. When was the last time we had a Casket Match? It’s been a little while, so we’re breaking out a lot of big things for this. I can only imagine that it’s going to reach the level of WrestleMania.”
SN: You’re going to be part of the 50-man Royal Rumble match at the show. That’s the biggest Royal Rumble match ever. I can imagine it can be a bit tough navigating through a 30-man Royal Rumble match. What’s it going to be like with 50 people in it?
“(laughs) All I can really do is laugh because I have no idea. I have no idea how this is going to go. I was in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania and we started with 30 guys standing in the ring and I was like “holy moley, I can’t even move”. I just started swinging at everybody. I don’t know how the structure for this is going to be. Are we starting with guys in? Are we going every 60 seconds? 90 seconds? How close to the Royal Rumble are we going? I have no idea. I’m just going to have to have my head on a swivel and see what it throws at me and just but I know it’s going to be madness, that’s for sure.”
SN: You just got moved to “RAW” in part of the Superstar Shakeup. Were you hoping you’d be switching from “SmackDown” to “RAW”?
“You know, it was kind of bittersweet. I feel like we were really building something amazing at “SmackDown Live” and you get into a routine. My week has been completely screwed up this week because I keep thinking I’m a day ahead of what I actually am. I woke up this morning getting ready to take the trash out and I was like ah, it’s not Friday yet, it’s Thursday because I came home on Tuesday. My internal clock is out of whack. That’s taking some adjusting.
I think as far as my career, it’s the correct move for me. I think it’s the correct path, the correct place to go because you’ve got guys over there who will elevate you to a whole other level. AJ Styles is amazing and I think we’ve had some amazing matches, especially when I took the United States Championship off him. That was amazing and it did a lot for my career but I want to get over and mix it up with guys like Roman Reigns. He’s unbelievable. I’m looking forward to his Cage Match with Brock (Lesnar) in Saudi Arabia on Friday. It’s gonna be a war. If you saw what they did at ‘Mania, I can’t imagine how physical it’s going to get.
But I want to go and stand toe-to-toe with a guy like Roman or Brock or Seth Rollins. I think there’s unbelievable competitors on “RAW” and people look at “RAW” and say that’s the primetime, it’s the jewel of WWE. I want to be in those conversations — who are our top guys? Who’s the guy that can lead WWE into the future? I want my name in that conversation. I think “RAW” is a place I can solidify that.”
