What’s the story behind Bishop Dyer’s surprise AEW debut at AEW Dynamite on Wednesday night at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Florida?
Let’s find out!
The former WWE Superstar known as Baron Corbin appeared on Off The Ropes with Jonathan Coachman for an interview, during which he shared the full story.
Featured below are some of the highlights.
On how giving Paul Wight (Big Show) a ride played into his AEW debut: “The highlight of my day was not only being in the ring, with that crowd, because the crowd was just f*cking awesome through and through. But, the whole thing started because I went to pick up Big Show to take Big Show up to Orlando for the show and to just see my people, and they ended up switching their shows last night and adding Collision post-Dynamite, because there’s supposed to be a snowstorm… So they did it last night and we stayed through the end. So we didn’t leave Orlando till like 12:20, 12:30 at night. Drove back to Tampa, got to Odessa, dropped the big man off… Great time, great stories. I love that man to death.”
On how another WWE legend, Billy Gunn, played a role in his AEW debut: “Oh yeah. Oh my God, yes (I got a ‘high’ from competing in front of the AEW crowd). I’ll kind of give the rundown of how it came about and stuff… I think any wrestler on the planet knows the rule: Always bring your gear. Just always bring it, and so I threw it in the truck and brought it with me, and I got there and saw my man Billy Gunn, who’s like a dad to me. He’s always been my guy that I’ve leaned on through a lot of stuff in the wrestling world. They had the dark matches because he was working with his son, Austin (Gunn), and he’s like, ‘Hey man, do you wanna be in this dark match with us?’ And I was like, ‘Dude, if it gets OK’d, I’m sold. Let’s do it,’ and he’s like, ‘You got your gear, right?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m a professional, dude. Always.’ So they put it through Papa T.K., and it was okay and I did the physical and all that stuff and… when I walked out, it was pretty awesome. When I got into the light — me watching thousands of people there, it’s the first time I’ve been in front of a crowd that size in a while, and seeing them come out of their seats and stand up and cheer and I’m used to a career of boos, and so when you get that kind of pop, and it was funny because the guys I was working with too, a couple of them are in wrestling school out there and we put them with me and then, Danny Burch was a guy that we were together in NXT who I think is awesome, and the two young dudes were like, ‘Oh my God! Thank you! Thank you!’ They were part of that great reaction, and so I made them feel good and step their energy up, and then having the opportunity to get in the ring with Billy and Austin, dude, they’re so good. Like, let’s be real. Billy Gunn, at 62 years old, and looks unbelievable. I’m like, man, I need to go on some serious diet and workout all day long to hopefully look like that but, hard transition when you used to be 330 pounds… When we were putting the match together, Billy and I are like, ‘Well, let’s have a face-to-face. Let’s face off in the middle of your comeback,’ and he’s like, ‘They should react.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know if they’re gonna react. I don’t know if they’re not gonna care,’ whatever it is. But when I slid in, and went face-to-face with Billy and like, again, (John) Cena’s taught me everything I know about listening to the crowd, and Roman (Reigns) as well. You watch them at the same time too because you can see the reactions, and we slide face-to-face and I just see, out of my peripherals, the audience standing up, and you get that, ‘Ohhh!’ Billy and I both just smiled ear to ear at each other because we’re like, oh yeah. That’s it, that’s why we’re here.”
On what AEW President Tony Khan thought of his debut: “I know Tony (Khan) told me afterwards, he was like, ‘The match was so fun. I enjoyed it,’ and obviously, he’s working his ass off back there. I’m not gonna bother him with anything other than, ‘Thank you for allowing me to do that with Billy and Austin’ so that was the extent of our conversation.”
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes.)
