Booker T And Corey Graves Discuss Their Alleged Feud And Michael Cole Getting Worked
Corey Graves was the latest guest on Booker T's Heated Conversations podcast. Graves called in to clear the air about Booker's comments made on the previous show regarding calling him out for losing his position as a commentator on Raw. The two admitted that it was a work, and continued to go along with it to see how far it went.
"A lot of people don't know how hard I was smiling when [WWE] told me I was going to be moving back to my old position," said Booker regarding leaving his spot on the Raw commentary booth.
"I'm one of those people because I saw you walk in the locker room grinning ear to ear and I said what are you so happy about," said Graves. "That's why when all of this blew up and I heard it, I was getting phone calls and text messages. 'You gotta hear this, Booker said this.' And as soon as I heard it, knowing you like I know you, I was like, oh that's just Book working. So I figured, you know, just being in the old school mentality, I'm like oh let's have fun with this. Did it take off!"
Booker T then asked Corey how it feels to be covered by so many big media outlets when there is "real news" going on out there.
"First of all, like personally, I was entertained by how we were able to work the entire wrestling industry," said Graves. "Somehow, nobody bothered to call or anything, and it just took off like crazy. My Twitter was on non-stop refresh for like two days. Some of the fans were so mad, I was getting some terrible, terrible Twitter and Instagram messages and all that. And I'm laughing about it, [and I'm like], but what do we do with this?"
Graves even explained how Michael Cole was hooked finding more about the "beef" between the two and wanted to know what was going on.
"I told [Michael] Cole the other day after we talked on Monday, and he goes, 'so this thing with you and Book, it's cool?' I go, 'you know Book. We're just goofing around.' He goes, 'okay, well what's the end game? What are we trying to accomplish?' I said, 'we're not trying to accomplish anything! We're just having fun! We're just messing with each other like we do every day, constantly, and somehow, the world picked up on it."
Despite successfully working the media industry, with many believing that they had legitimate heat with each other, Graves admitted that he was concerned that this went so far without fact-checking first. Graves said that Big E was the first person to send him a link, and the first thing he thought was that they do that all the time with each other. Booker added that his wife Sharmell always tells him that he needs to go to Hollywood because he knows how to work a crowd. The two then discussed Graves' jab on Raw, and laughed about it, as well as the remarks made on SmackDown Live by the New Day, with Booker admitting that he did not watch SmackDown. Graves said The New Day's comments were based on Big E knowing by then that it was a work, and The New Day having the freedom to write their own stuff, so they decided to add to the story.
Booker T and his co-host stated that the topics of last week's show were done, and they had some time left with nothing to talk about. They decided to talk about the Corey Graves situation, because they figured that people were going to write stories about it. Booker and Graves stated that Michael Cole was even worked, because he was willing to step in the ring with Booker T as a payoff, since Graves cannot wrestle anymore.
If any of these quotes are used, be sure to H/T Heated Conversations via Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Heated Conversations
Gavin Horne and Super Klyph contributed to this article.