WWE Raw: Don’t let Brock Lesnar overshadow Baron Corbin

WWE Super ShowDown is set to feature Baron Corbin vs Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship, but you would never guess from the build-up strictly focusing on Brock Lesnar.

Last week on WWE Raw, Baron Corbin defeated The Miz, Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley in an Elimination Fatal Four Way match. Well, at least it was announced as a Fatal Four Way and commentary treated it as such right up until it suddenly wasn’t elimination style when the bell rang. I digress, as that’s neither here nor there. The point is that by winning the match, Baron Corbin became the #1 contender for Seth Rollins’s Universal Championship.

Their title match is set to take place this Friday at WWE Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia. However, you may have forgotten that fact considering that the #1 contender has been overshadowed entirely in this build-up by Mr. Money in the Bank, Brock Lesnar.

If you saw Raw last night, you know that a large bulk of the show focused on Brock Lesnar’s “Will he? Won’t he?” scenario on cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase and on Rollins goading The Beast to cash-in. Meanwhile, WWE did the absolute bare minimum to remind us that it was Corbin facing Rollins for the title this Friday.

All Corbin got was a couple minutes worth of brawl time with the Universal Champion before dropping him with End of Days. While that is an effective way to build a challenger, it’s minimal time compared to the time dedicated to the Lesnar-Rollins program. Even worse, Corbin dropping the World Champion was completely forgotten about mere seconds later by time Brock came out to decimate Rollins and tease a cash-in.

The conversation quickly deterred from “Baron Corbin dropped the champion and might have a shot at winning the title” to “Brock is destroying the champion and might cash in.” Much like how the selling point of the Universal Title match at WWE Super ShowDown is now “Will Brock Lesnar cash-in his briefcase during/after the match?” instead of “Will Baron Corbin defeat Seth Rollins?” Corbin has completely become an afterthought in this angle.

On some level, I get it. I get the impression that WWE understand that the controversy surrounding the Saudi Arabia show has eclipsed the show – and most importantly, their central title match – completely. As a result, they may want the suspense of Corbin potentially winning the Universal Championship to mean something. It doesn’t mean anything now because most of the PPV convo isn’t even about the pay-per-view itself, but about the backstage politics of the show.

At the same time, I can’t help but think that Baron Corbin should be treated better – booking wise – than to just be an afterthought in a bigger planned angle between Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar. Lesnar may be the bigger star with a briefcase, but Corbin has been bringing his A-game for an entire year now.

As of this writing, it was exactly a year ago today that Baron Corbin was appointed the Constable of Monday Night Raw. With that new position, he completely changed his look – going bald and trading his heavy metal jeans for a suit ensemble – and stepped up his mic work. In some regards, he even stepped up in the ring when met with more formidable opponents like Kurt Angle and Roman Reigns.

I’ll admit, I’m not the biggest stan for Baron Corbin, but I’ll be lying if I didn’t recognize that he’s done a heck of a job over the past year. Particularly in 2018. As Constable and then – eventually and briefly – Raw GM, Corbin was positioned as the top heel on Monday nights with then-Universal Champion Brock Lesnar M.I.A. for the most part. WWE gave the former Lone Wolf a big ball to run with, but he ran with it and passed any test thrown at him with flying colors.

Now, he’s taking a backseat to the same aforementioned part timer when he should be in an actual PPV feud with the red brand’s World Champion.

Corbin’s current situation gives me bad flashbacks to The Miz’s program with John Cena heading into WrestleMania 27. The Miz was the WWE Champion and for the last year or so – like Corbin – had brought his A-game as both a competitor and a character. The Miz was delivering the best work of his career on a consistent basis. Yet, he had been overshadowed in his own main event Mania program by the bigger story between John Cena and The Rock.

Miz deserved better at that point in time and, honestly, so does Baron Corbin right now.

Hopefully, WWE realize their error in booking Corbin as an afterthought for Super ShowDown and work hard to restore his momentum to prominence after Friday.