Corey Graves Recounts The Worst Experience He Has Ever Had On WWE Commentary
As a guest on the latest episode of the Out of Character Podcast with Ryan Satin, Corey Graves spoke about being a WWE commentator and the parts of his job he loves and hates. During the show, Graves also revealed he apologized to Dana Brooke following her match on a recent episode of Monday Night RAW where he criticized her. The RAW commentator spoke about how he regrets a lot of what he says on commentary but enjoys being a heel commentator.
"Probably every week," Graves said. "I never go out there to do anybody any harm, there's just a lot of times I put my foot in my mouth naturally. Sometimes I speak more than I think and sometimes my tongue moves way faster than my brain does. What actually bothers me is if you notice I try to stay away from statistics or dates or tangible things like that because I know things happen but when it comes to chronology or what pay per view or what year that was, I can't remember that. I've watched so much wrestling it all kind of meshes together. Once and a while I think I beat myself like a horse if I go 'In 1999, this happened,' and of course Twitter corrects me instantly. That actually gets on my nerves."
Graves spoke about the worst experience he's ever had on commentary during his time with the WWE. The 37-year-old said it was during The Undertaker's retirement ceremony where he thought he could correct Michael Cole on an error that ended up ultimately being a mistake.
"Michael Cole and I were back at the kickoff desk doing the voiceover for whatever was happening in the ring and they were talking about The Undertaker's history and I believe it was with Diesel when Kevin Nash came out. And Michael Cole said 'It was this WrestleMania... that this happened,' and I corrected Cole because I was so sure that that wasn't the year that it happened. And I went oh no, we're live, I said that and I just realized I'm wrong and Twitter let me know instantly that I was wrong. It was in that particular instance, just because of the admiration and respect I have for Undertaker that I wanted everything to be perfect. That's why I almost looked at Cole like Cole you idiot that wasn't the year, and then I realized it's Michael Cole, he's usually not wrong. I should've just trusted the boss in that instance but yeah, that one I wish I could take back but I think they edited it out so it's not the end of the world."
The former NXT superstar also spoke about his most memorable moment on commentary and why it came during his first WrestleMania. Graves spoke about his moment and how he had always been dreaming about wrestling at WrestleMania since he was a kid.
"My first WrestleMania," Graves said. "I think that was when it first became real to me. When I was doing commentary in Orlando at the first WrestleMania I called and I was sitting ringside and it was when the jets flew over the stadium. I had watched every WrestleMania my entire life. I had been the kid going 'Someday I'm going to be there,' and I remember going as a fan thinking like I'm in the building but I need to be in the ring and it needs to be about me. The official broadcast for WrestleMania began and the stadium started shaking and the airforce jets flew over and in that moment was when I went 'Oh my god, I'm about to call WrestleMania.' I got a lump in my throat, I got a little emotional for about 10 seconds until the countdown in my headset hit 1 and I went time to go, we're calling WrestleMania. There wasn't a whole lot of time to enjoy it but man, that sight I'll never forget. That moment, that feeling of all of these thousands of people and the air force jets flying over, it was just like wow, I'm here. I hope I never lose that feeling, I'm always trying to replicate that."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Out of Character with Ryan Satin with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.