Baron Corbin Talks Lil Yachty, Pat McAfee, Josh Allen and Super Bowl Prediction

I don't wanna take the ability to feed his family away permanently.

I just wanna make it so he never wants to step in the ring ever again.

Welcome to the Pin Down the pro wrestling show at Sports Illustrated.

I'm Kent Brown joined by United States champion Baron Corbin here with us, and Baron Corbin is going to be in what will be, I think it's pretty safe to say, the true main event on Sunday night at Sunday night's main event in Atlanta, Georgia against Atlanta's own Lil Yachty.

Barron, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Absolutely.

It will be a short main event with little Yachty, because we'll see how long he can survive, uh, in the ring with me, that's for sure.

Yeah, if he lasts 5 minutes, then your nemesis right now, Trick Williams will get a rematch.

You've already defeated him a couple of times.

You took his US title.

So first things first, you're in Atlanta.

You're up against an Atlanta native.

Do you love the fact that it's not just one on one, but it's basically gonna be you against 15 or 20,000 people against you in State Farm Arena.

I absolutely love it because, uh, the more people that I can irritate and the more people that I can make angry, and the more people I can frustrate, the happier of a person I am.

So in front of your hometown, it's like, when I beat up Carmelo in Boston, the city of Boston was furious, you know.

And, and now getting to do that with Yadi, his friends will be there, his family will be there, everybody that loves his music in Atlanta will be there, and they're all just gonna leave tears in their eyes.

We had hope, Yadi was gonna do so good.

We thought it would last longer, but in 3 minutes, he was just absolutely beaten to a pulp.

So you mentioned his family is gonna be there.

Obviously, he wants it to be a celebration.

It sounds like you want to make this more of a funeral.

Absolutely.

I mean, I think.

You know, he truly believes, like, you know, this is gonna be an amazing experience, and, you know, he's training for it.

He's moved to Orlando to train at the PC for a couple of months, and I just, I really wanna make it a miserable experience, so he never wants to do it again.

I could beat him at the end of days in like 5 seconds.

It takes me 2 to hit it, 123, it's over.

But I think that would leave him wanting more, right?

He would wanna step into the ring and have that experience again.

I wanna make it 4 minutes uh of just Misery, so that he never wants to do it again.

So when Hunter's like, hey, do you ever wanna have another match again?

He's like, No, man, give me the microphone.

I'll introduce Trick.

I'll stay on the outside of the ring where it's safe, and people like Corbin can't beat the life out of me.

And then, like, it, it's just so great because I also get to add Trick's disappointment to it as well, you know, he's fighting for Trick to get an opportunity to get his US title back, his big furry title.

And I, I just can't wait to stomp those hopes and dreams into nothing.

And, and it's just gonna be special.

And, and when they go to dinner afterwards, you know, Yadi will be at the hospital FaceTiming from his hospital bed when they're like, hey man, we gotta put a, a cast on this ankle.

Um, when Corbin stomped on it, it shattered.

Um, here's some ice packs for the lumps, uh, above your eyebrows where he punched you.

Um, there's a giant bruise across your chest from a clothesline, like all of those things.

I just, they'll, they'll deliver him some tapioca pudding in the hospital, and, and he'll have a great night there with his friends and family.

Now, how many end of days do you realistically think you could put him in if you just picked him up, finished him off, did it 5, 1015 times?

How many times do you think in 4 or 5 minutes you'd actually be able to do if you really wanted to?

Obviously, you could do it Sunday night, but how many realistically could you pull off?

I mean, when you look at the end of days and how many people it's.

Kurt Angle, Roman Reigns, John Cena, Finn Ballard, Seth Rollins, like the list goes on and on and on.

So, if one of those hits Yachty, a guy who doesn't do this for a living, you can imagine what it's gonna do.

But if we put 3 or 4 or 5, it might end his music career as well.

So, I, I don't wanna do that.

I don't wanna take the ability to feed his family away permanently.

I just wanna make it so he never wants to step in the ring ever again.

You mentioned about giving the US title a haircut.

It's been that furry title , Fitz Chris Williams.

What's the ideal look for the US title now that it's around your waist?

I mean, we, I tried to, to cut the hair off of it.

I don't know what kind of animal hair or where he got this stuff made, but it jammed up the barber's clippers, so now I gotta buy the barber new clippers because it destroyed it.

I don't know what that's made of.

Um, I think after.

You know, uh, I, like I said, tricks, hopes, and dreams of becoming champion again are gonna go up in smoke.

I think personally, maybe I should light that hair on fire, and then the title would look awesome.

It'd be all singed and melted and burned, um, or, you know , grabbing one of the motorcycles I get to do my entrance on, and just, you know, doing a burnout on it, and melting all that.

The hair off of that.

I think it needs to be just kind of tattered and weathered and destroyed.

I think that would be a cool look for it, or just take me back to the traditional, like, let's let that title shine through with the history that it's had.

Um, I always loved, you know, so many times when like Steamboat had this title, like the history behind this title is so amazing.

And it deserves better than being covered in fur and carried by Trick Williams.

Once you're finished on Sunday night and you get your victory, what's next for you?

Is it CM Punk that you're gonna come after?

Is it Roman Reigns?

Is it Cody Rhodes?

Who's next on Baron Corbin's list?

I mean, for me, it, it's everybody, like.

I look at this opportunity coming back after being gone for a year and a half, knowing that Um, I only have so many years left to do this, right?

Um, there's a lot of young, hungry talent that, that I enjoy beating up, but they're gonna be the successors in this story, you know, they're gonna be the guys 5 years from now that are carrying this company.

They won't do it while I'm here.

But I think there's a lot for me to accomplish in a finite amount of time.

Um, I, I signed a few year deal here, so I look at that as my last opportunity to accomplish the things that I felt.

Short on the first time I was here.

A money in the bank cashed in, that's successful.

Carrying that world title is something I've always wanted before I got to WWE in the first place.

Like, becoming world champion has always been the goal.

So this was step one.

I would love to get in that money in the bank match, and, and take that briefcase and successfully cash it in to right that wrong the first time when I failed.

Um, and then, yeah, CM Punk's holding that world title .

The target is on his back.

Uh.

It always has been, um, since the day he accomplished that.

I would love to step in the ring with Roman again.

There's guys I've never been in the ring with, uh, uh, uh, Gunther, uh, Cody Roach.

I, I've had one match with Cody, and it was a quick thing in Brooklyn, where we started fighting outside a gorilla, cause I was making fun of his dog.

Um, there's a lot of guys and a lot of opportunity, I think, right now, and I think that, um, with what WWE is doing and traveling the globe, uh, And it, it's grown so much in the year and a half that I was away with what it's accomplishing, the numbers it's hitting, the attendance it's hitting, the revenue it's making.

Like, I see all that as a huge opportunity for me to do a lot in a little bit of time.

And so, the target's on everybody's back, friend, foe, family, friends of friends, it doesn't matter.

Um, if you're in the way of something I wanna accomplish in this run, uh, you're getting put down.

It's pretty simple.

You are a former NFL player.

We are Sports Illustrated, so I want to just a couple of rapid-fire football questions for you here.

Which current NFL player would you most want to put the end of days finisher on?

Whoa, that.

So, this is gonna be a funky answer, and it's not because I dislike the person, um, Josh Allen, because I'm a massive, massive Chiefs fan.

And I think the Bills are kind of our archrival, especially in the playoffs.

Luckily, we've gotten the better of them.

But I think this year, especially the Bills are stacked.

They've got an offensive line for Josh Allen.

I'm an old-lineman.

I, I appreciate what they've done and what they're building around him.

Um, so I don't want to see him at 100% without a line against my Chiefs.

So, uh, putting him down at the end of days would be a fantastic opportunity for me.

And then, um, Man, I, look, the Rams D-line is gonna be disgusting this year.

So, I wouldn't mind giving the end of days to all of them just to keep them out of our way as well.

Um, uh, and it, it's all just to protect my Chiefs .

It's not out of ill will for anybody.

It's just to protect my Chiefs.

I need another Super Bowl.

I need, I went to the one in Miami when we won.

I want to get to another one and.

Another victory.

Um, now that I'm buds with a few guys on the team, like Travis and Creed, and, uh, you know, they're, they're such a, a, an amazing team.

Arrowhead is always the most incredible stadium.

I look forward to them building their new one.

So, so my end of days is not a rapid-fire answer for you, sorry, but it would just be to anybody who's affected my Chiefs run.

You heard it here first.

Aaron Donald and Miles Garrett, Baron Corbin is coming for you.

That's right.

I'm putting them down there, dude.

I mean, what is that not crazy?

It's insane.

Like, how did that happen?

Like a modern-day steel curtain, you know, I'm a Pittsburgh native.

Speaking of Pittsburghers, you were teammates with Pat McAfee, the legendary Pat McAfee.

Tell us your best Pat McAfee story.

Oh man, I mean, The, the funny thing is our rookie year in India, I, I wasn't, you know, I was like, full tilt on making the team, right?

So training, and so I wasn't a drinker, and it was always just so fun cause we would go to a bar called Howl at the Moon every night, and we would always have a good time there, because they didn't do like reservations, they didn't do anything.

So Pat, me and Pat, and a couple of the other guys, I'd always get to drive his Escalade that he bought with his um signing bonus, um, because I wasn't drinking.

But we would go out, and they didn't reserve tables there, but they always held one for us.

And so immediately we went in, everybody's like, oh man, these guys must be somebody.

So we would always have fun of like, what kind of stories we could make up of what we did for a living.

Like one night we were an amateur hockey team, one night we were uh professional badminton players getting ready for the Olympics.

Like, we would just make up these ridiculous stories .

Pat is so creative, um, And so that was always really fun for me.

And then him and I would get done with practice, and we'd always go play golf right after.

So, and plus he let me sleep on his couch a lot, which was great, you know, when we were living in apartments uh in India, I didn't make the team yet, so it's like you're living on that kind of look, that rookie.

Uh, paycheck, which isn't much when you're in training camp.

Uh, so he was great to let me stay there instead of the Candlewood Suites that extended stay hotel.

But also, man, Pittsburgh, Russ Grimm, uh, O-line coach when I was in Arizona, um, he brought, you know, Joey Porter came through there, like, those are Pittsburgh.

I was like Joey and I would start fighting at practice sometimes if it was dragging.

Joey would be like, hey, man, let's just get in a fight, just don't hurt me.

I'm like, no, I can't make any promises, but let's go.

Uh, you know, Clark Haggins, he, he's a Pittsburgh guy.

Um, it, it was a, we had a lot of kind of connections through the, uh, NFL world for, for Pittsburgh.

And they always let us work out there when we're in town, which is great.

What is your Super Bowl prediction?

You already said you're a Chiefs fan.

I assume they're gonna be one of the two teams.

So assuming the Chiefs are in, who do they beat in the Super Bowl?

Is it that Aaron Donald and Miles Garrett Rams-led team?

I'm terrified to say yes, but I think that's the answer.

Like, especially because Their defense is gonna be like, I was talking about this last night, cause we're doing our fantasy football draft this weekend, and it's like, who do you draft?

I'm like, well, you can't take Stafford because His D is gonna be so good.

Like how many points is he really gonna have to put up?

10 to win?

Like.

The defense is just gonna be disgusting.

And, you know, I think for Kansas City, especially last year, like our O-line got injured, we had a lot of injuries, and that's what that really hurt us, you know, Mahomes wasn't getting his time, he was having to run for his life.

Um, so now I'm just scared when you have a D-line like that, that late in the season, you know your O-line's gonna be banged up, um, they're gonna save those guys, that, that'll be one heck of a game, that's for sure.

Once again, Baron Corbin up against Lil Yachty on Sunday night's main event.

Again, it's Sunday night on Peacock at 8:00 p.m. in Atlanta.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Absolutely, my man.

I look forward to, uh, putting on a show for everybody to watch Yachty pay the price.