Baron Corbin had nothing but praise for pal Travis Kelce‘s girlfriend, Taylor Swift, while recalling their first encounter at a Kansas City Chiefs game.
“Travis Kelce’s a buddy of mine and so he invited us out to the game,” Corbin, 39, said during an interview at WWE Summerslam media day on Friday, August 2. “He’s just a friend so you don’t think, ‘Hey, is Taylor going to be there?’ You don’t want to ask or anything like that.”
Corbin (real name Thomas Pestock), a professional wrestler who previously played for the Indianapolis Colts, noted that he “assumed she wouldn’t be” in attendance, but was pleasantly surprised when his brother, Danny Pestock, informed him that Swift, 34, had walked into the room.
“[She’s] obviously one of the biggest stars on the planet and when you meet her, you’re like, ‘Oh she’s so nice, so down to earth,’” he said. “If you lived under a rock and had no idea who Taylor Swift was you would just think she’s an awesome person.”
Corbin called Swift “welcoming,” adding, “The moment she meets you, she gives you a hug.” Corbin noted that Swift is there to “have a good time and have a drink” and “can hang with the boys.”
“It’s rare to find someone like that on that level of stardom be so humble and cool that you would never know,” he said. “Other than the fact that you’re like, ‘Oh, she obviously is important, does something,’ if you had no idea, but you’re like, ‘She’s so nice.’”
After their interaction, Corbin recalled someone texting his brother and asking what the Eras Tour performer smelled like. “I was like, ‘Your friends are weird, man,’” Corbin joked.
Corbin called it a “fun night” meeting Swift, which included a Christmas party after the big game. “She got to just hang out and it was fun like that,” he gushed.
Travis, 34, and Swift’s love story began last summer, when the Chiefs tight end revealed on his and brother Jason Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast that he tried to give the pop star a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it.
“I was a little butthurt I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her,” Travis said at the time.
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Despite his failed attempt, Travis and Swift connected and began dating weeks later. In the fall, Swift attended her first NFL game to cheer on Travis — which many fans speculated was their first date.
“I think some people think that they saw our first date at the game?” Swift said in her December 2023 TIME Person of the Year cover story. “We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.”
While remaining tight-lipped about the exact timeline of their romance, Swift gushed that their relationship “started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell.”
