Corey Graves On No Longer Calling Raw Matches At PPVs, If He Has Advice For Dio Maddin
Corey Graves pulled double duty as an announcer for both Raw and SmackDown for a year before moving strictly to SmackDown. That means he's not quite as busy on pay-per-views as now he just calls the SmackDown matches instead of both brands.
Graves talked about taking a step back as an announcer when he joined Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast.
"It's cool to be able to get that perspective as a fan again and be sort of removed a little bit and not have that audio aspect of it and just listen to the crowd. It was at Hell in a Cell and being able to watch Sasha Banks vs Becky Lynch basically as a fan from a great front-row seat. It was awesome. It was amazing how much you can enjoy this business when you can remove yourself from it a little bit," said Graves.
Dio Maddin has replaced Graves as color commentator on Raw and he was asked if he's given Maddin any advice for the role.
"I can't sympathize with him because he literally went from, 'I'm going to learn how to do commentary' to 'I'm doing Monday Night Raw.' I did NXT for two years before being called up. I have talked to him and chatted with him. I get along with him great," stated Graves. "I think he has a good future it's just a matter of reps, man. There's no substitute for experience. He will get it. It could be a blessing to be thrown into the fire so you'll either succeed or die."
Everyone reaches their comfort level at different points and Graves revealed when he finally became comfortable in his commentating role.
"It was a while to get to that point. But as far as reaching a level of comfort it was towards the time when DIY and The Revival, their series and had their TakeOver match in Toronto," said Graves. I don't know what year that was, but I remember that kind of being one of the matches where I was like, okay, I got this now. I can be myself and be over the top a little bit to an extent and do what I do. That always stands out to me where I see it as, okay, I got this now."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.