CHICAGO — It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. And the biggest underdog of them all stunned the baddest wolf in the woods at WWE Backlash.
Baron Corbin had grown so tired with Sami Zayn’s refusal to “stay down” during their rivalry on SmackDown LIVE that he warned The Underdog from the Underground against showing up to the SmackDown LIVE-exclusive event at all. Well, show up Zayn did, and not only did he bristle at the notion that he was a dead man walking against The Lone Wolf during a Backlash Kickoff interview in the Social Media Lounge, he came out of the blocks with an explosive run of offense that only stopped when he tweaked his lower back in the process.
The Underdog from the Underground clashes with the self-proclaimed "Lone Wolf": Courtesy of the award-winning WWE Network.
With a target exposed for him, Corbin went in on Zayn’s lumbar with merciless abandon, pulverizing it with trips into the turnbuckles, backbreakers and bear hugs that left Sami writhing in agony. His explosiveness taken away, Zayn attempted to claw his way back with short, high-impact maneuvers. Yet The Lone Wolf continued to treat Zayn like a human punching bag, pounding away at his back and turning him inside out with a clothesline.
Zayn, however, persisted, absorbing Corbin’s offense with such resilience that The Long Wolf took to flat-out stomping him against the ropes after Zayn kicked out of the Deep Six. In the end, Zayn used Corbin’s own aggression against him, dodging a charge that sent the big man tumbling through the ropes, booting him into the turnbuckle the second Corbin climbed back up and unleashing one last-gasp sprint into the Helluva Kick. And against all odds, at least for a three count on this night, it was Baron Corbin who stayed down.
CHICAGO — It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. And the biggest underdog of them all stunned the baddest wolf in the woods at WWE Backlash.
Baron Corbin had grown so tired with Sami Zayn’s refusal to “stay down” during their rivalry on SmackDown LIVE that he warned The Underdog from the Underground against showing up to the SmackDown LIVE-exclusive event at all. Well, show up Zayn did, and not only did he bristle at the notion that he was a dead man walking against The Lone Wolf during a Backlash Kickoff interview in the Social Media Lounge, he came out of the blocks with an explosive run of offense that only stopped when he tweaked his lower back in the process.
The Underdog from the Underground clashes with the self-proclaimed "Lone Wolf": Courtesy of the award-winning WWE Network.
With a target exposed for him, Corbin went in on Zayn’s lumbar with merciless abandon, pulverizing it with trips into the turnbuckles, backbreakers and bear hugs that left Sami writhing in agony. His explosiveness taken away, Zayn attempted to claw his way back with short, high-impact maneuvers. Yet The Lone Wolf continued to treat Zayn like a human punching bag, pounding away at his back and turning him inside out with a clothesline.
Zayn, however, persisted, absorbing Corbin’s offense with such resilience that The Long Wolf took to flat-out stomping him against the ropes after Zayn kicked out of the Deep Six. In the end, Zayn used Corbin’s own aggression against him, dodging a charge that sent the big man tumbling through the ropes, booting him into the turnbuckle the second Corbin climbed back up and unleashing one last-gasp sprint into the Helluva Kick. And against all odds, at least for a three count on this night, it was Baron Corbin who stayed down.
