Tom Pestock, formerly known as Baron Corbin in WWE, made an appearance on the latest episode of Insight With Chris Van Vliet to discuss a wide range of topics, including his future plans now that he’s gone from WWE.
Corbin made his first post-WWE appearance at The People vs. GCW last Sunday, losing to Josh Barnett. He previously filed a trademark for Bishop Dyer, his new in-ring name. Corbin was asked what his future holds in wrestling.
“I would love to go to New Japan, I think, for multiple reasons. And you know, the door never closes with WWE, either. And as far as AEW, their fans, they like that, AEW, in a sense, is, you know, its own entity and built from the ground up. And I don’t want to be if I went there out of respect for that world, I wouldn’t want to be just another WWE guy that that came there because they left WWE like, I would rather go and do like New Japan for a year or whatever, or more. Who knows, maybe that’s where I just love it, and I stayed there for the rest of my wrestling career. So if I ever did go that route, I would want to kind of clear that, ‘Oh, he’s just a WWE guy coming over. Like Baron Corbin is dead, as far as we know, like we’re dropping new name, new moniker, new character. I love wrestling. I love the creativeness of it. I love the freedom. I love performing in front of an audience and getting that live feedback in the moment. There’s nothing better than, you know, if I want to go into the movie world. I filmed a movie last week, and it’ll be out in 2026, so you have to wait for that. And I like that instant gratification of a wrestling audience, you know in the moment what they’re feeling and how they’re feeling about you. So nothing beats that. It’s like being a rock star. It’s so cool and so fun. And I mean, it’s what I love to do. And I think that too for me. You know, with my contract ending in WWE deciding not to renew, obviously that hurt and like lights a fire.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Insight With Chris Van Vliet with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.