Baron Corbin and Concussions

Corbin was a referee of a different sorts in a backstage meeting and it might've gotten him in trouble Photo Credit: WWE.com

So, Baron Corbin failing in his cash-in of Money in the Bank was greeted with mixed reviews. At the time, I thought it was a great way to build heat for his SummerSlam match against John Cena and an appropriate thing to do to make Carmella's eventual cash-in feel a little more special. As fate would have it, Corbin's failure at cashing in had more sinister backstage reasons, because in WWE, how you act backstage is way more important than whether your story makes sense. I don't know if it's the most insane way for a company that deals in storytelling to operate or the most perfect metaphor for how business in the modern world works, but either way, it stinks for Corbin.

The first word was that the decision to have him lose his cash-in was due to a heated argument he had with Dr. Joseph Maroon during a meeting where Maroon was allegedly downplaying the link between concussions and CTE. Corbin was interrupting and challenging him during the whole time, which he should have been doing because Maroon is a quack and a stooge. Corbin was standing up for himself and his coworkers, and of course, that sort of thing is frowned upon by Vince McMahon, who wants his top stars to rat out anyone trying to unionize or what have you. As it turns out, Corbin had good reason to contradict Maroon's downplaying, because he's part of the ongoing concussion lawsuit against the National Football League. Corbin, who played for the league between 2009 and 2011, is one of the plaintiffs, and according to the Wrestling Observer newsletter, WWE didn't find out about that until recently.

Of course, Corbin is entering a high-profile feud with AJ Styles for the United States Championship, so "the feeling₁" is he's not going to be affected long term over this stuff, but at the same time, fire almost always accompanies smoke. WWE itself is the defendant in its own concussion lawsuit. Either Corbin will continue to fight the good fight and end up punished, or he'll "wise up" and not rock the boat anymore, which will be fine for his career but a disservice to himeslf and his peers. It is a perfect description of the fascist helltrap that WWE has become. Speak out for your own good and you get punished. Shut up, and you can keep the status quo. Then again, what if the NFL concussion suit turns out bad for the league, who's to say Corbin won't get punished, especially if that domino knocks down the WWE's concussion lawsuit defense?

A lot of this story is based in speculation and trying to read tea leaves. It could end up being a whole lot of nothing, but at the same time, it's distressing to hear about head trauma still being treated in such a glib manner. In all honesty, Corbin's push is probably the least important aspect in all this; the fact that he had to speak up because WWE's doctor continues to poo-poo the effect that concussions has on CTE is distressing and not a good sign for the future of professional wrestling, not WWE, but professional wrestling. I'd say that it would take something catastrophic for WWE to start taking this shit seriously, but man, shouldn't [REDACTED] have been the wakeup call? To paraphrase this Dan Hodges Tweet, "In retrospect Chris Benoit marked the end of the wrestling CTE debate. Once Vince McMahon decided double-murder/suicide was bearable, it was over."

1 - "The Feeling" is Dave Meltzer's/dirtsheet writers' favorite way of reporting on something from backstage in WWE without ever naming a source.