After Wade Barrett was kicked out of the Nexus by new leader CM Punk, he moved to the SmackDown brand from Raw. While under CM Punk, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater refused to perform their initiation to stay in the group and left the Nexus. On the January 14, 2011 episode of SmackDown, Gabriel and Slater interfered during Barrett's match with Big Show, attacking Show. They were joined by Ezekiel Jackson who continued the attack by body-slamming Big Show. Big Show continued to feud with the group throughout its existence. On the January 21 episode of SmackDown, the group named themselves "The Corre" and announced that the Corre would be leaderless as all the members were equals. They all competed in the Royal Rumble, but were all eliminated by different wrestlers (in order) (Gabriel by Daniel Bryan, Slater by John Cena, Jackson by Kane, and Barrett by Randy Orton) with Jackson eliminating Big Show and Barrett eliminating Rey Mysterio and Diesel, and making it to the final four.
Throughout its tenure, the Corre often employed interference during matches and frequent post-match attacks. Tensions between the members of the Corre and the Nexus led to two brawls between the groups on Raw and before the Royal Rumble match at Royal Rumble. At Elimination Chamber, Gabriel and Slater became the first to gain a championship within the Corre. They won the WWE Tag Team Championship by beating Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov.
This began Gabriel and Slater's second reign as WWE Tag Team Champions after their first reign as part of the Nexus. At the same event, Barrett received his first opportunity at the World Heavyweight Championship when he took part in the SmackDown Elimination Chamber match, but failed to win the championship, being eliminated by the Corre's nemesis, Big Show. The following night on Raw, Gabriel and Slater lost the championship to John Cena and WWE Champion, The Miz. However, Gabriel and Slater immediately invoked their rematch clause and won the rematch and the championship to start their third reign as tag team champions. On the March 25 episode of SmackDown, Barrett added to the Corre's championship titles when he defeated Kofi Kingston to win his first singles title, the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
Things took a turn for the worse for the Corre when the group was soundly beaten at WrestleMania XXVII in a 8-man tag team match against Marella, Kingston, Big Show, and Kane in under 2 minutes. One day later, hoping to make a statement, the Corre attacked John Cena and The Rock, but the duo overwhelmed them. On the April 22 episode of SmackDown, the Corre endured further misery when Big Show and Kane won the championship from Gabriel and Slater. The Corre failed to regain the tag titles despite Gabriel and Slater, as well as Barrett and Jackson challenging Big Show and Kane on the April 29 episode of SmackDown and at Extreme Rules respectively.
Tensions within the group began to flare due to failed interference in each other's matches. On the May 6 episode of SmackDown, Ezekiel Jackson refused to celebrate with the rest of the Corre when he defeated Big Show, instead choosing to walk out on them after his match. In return, Barrett, Gabriel and Slater attacked him backstage and removed him from the group. This started a feud between Barrett and Jackson. Jackson challenged Barrett for the Intercontinental Championship twice, but failed to win the title since he won the bouts at Over the Limit by disqualification and on the June 3 episode of SmackDown by count-out instead of a pinfall or a submission.
On the June 10 episode of SmackDown, Barrett, fleeing from Jackson, walked out on Gabriel and Slater in a 6-man tag team match against Jackson and the Usos, leaving them handicapped and causing them to lose the match. Gabriel and Slater confronted Barrett after the match to declare the dissolution of the Corre.