There were theories WWE might be setting up the ultimate babyface turn for Baron Corbin after the former King of the Ring realized that losing his crown had left him financially destitute and emotionally broken. The belief was, if he was down enough on his luck, perhaps the fans would feel for him and cheer him.
Friday's SmackDown put a wrench in those theories.
With the introduction of the CorbinFund.com website -- a site introduced by Corbin to ask fans to help him get back on his feet by donating to his cause -- WWE turned Corbin's personal "catastrophe" into the potential for a full-fledged heel storyline. What could be more 'bad guy' than stealing from the fans?
While the website is live, you can't actually donate to it. That means there's no scenario where fans will actually lose their hard-earned money. Still, WWE can play this up, and at a time where the financial well-being of fans around the world should be a big concern for WWE.
The pandemic has been hard on a lot of people. As WWE goes back on the road and the WWE Universe starts to use their money to buy tickets to shows, wouldn't it be something if Corbin was faking the part of a homeless down-on-his luck charity case, only to never have lost anything at all? It would be an incredible swerve that WWE seemed to hint at with Corbin's segment alongside Kevin Owens.
Up until Friday, there was no sign Corbin was doing anything but feeling sorry for himself. It really looked like he was losing everything. Neither WWE, nor Corbin had tipped their hand as to where this character was going to go... that is, until he poked fun at Owens during their promo and started talking about all the first-world problems he was having because of his financial woes.
This was the first sign he wasn't dumping his heelish ways.
WWE Needs To Slow Play This
The smart play here might be to actually try and get fans to feel for Corbin. Don't hint that he's still a jerk. Make the WWE Universe understand that he's really in rough shape. Then, as soon as they begin to want him to turn things around, then you hit the crowd with the news he's been faking this the entire time.
It would be the most entertaining punch in the gut meant to make us hate one of the most dislikeable stars in WWE.