Corey Graves Is Impressed With Samoa Joe On The WWE RAW Announce Team
Corey Graves was a long-time commentator on RAW along with Renee Young and Michael Cole. He would also provide commentary on SmackDown before the blue brand moved to the FOX Network in October.
Since the WWE Draft, the commentary teams in WWE have been shuffled and now Graves is exclusively on SmackDown along with Cole, while the RAW team was changed to Vic Joseph, Jerry Lawler and Dio Maddin.
Samoa Joe, who is currently out of action recovering from a thumb injury, has been recently used as a commentator on RAW after Brock Lesnar attacked Maddin a month ago.
Graves has been impressed by Joe on commentary. During the latest episode of After The Bell, he stated that it was the one thing which has stood out to him on RAW in the past few weeks, saying the injured star was "freakin'" awesome at his job.
"He was awesome," Graves said. "It is surprisingly hard for a lot of superstars to transition into commentary because it goes against what you're taught.
"It's sort of a selfish business where you're about promoting yourself and talking everything relating to yourself and your point of view. So to be able to break that in basically two nights on commentary – Samoa Joe could be the WWE's answer to Tony Romo – everyone is in love with his perspective – I think it's refreshing."
On WWE Backstage this past Tuesday, it was revealed that Joe will continue to commentate on RAW until he is cleared for in-ring competition. Maddin will be heading back to the WWE Performance Center in Florida to train to become a wrestler. Graves noted that he does not believe that Joe's move to the announce booth is permanent, and would like to see Joe have a run at the World title before ending his in-ring career.
"Samoa Joe is great, personally, as one of my long time friends – he is one of the most talented human beings that I know," Graves admitted. "He's entertaining and incredibly smart. Not to mention a complete bad ass in the ring. Selfishly I'm hoping Samoa Joe gets a world championship run at least before he decides to step out of the ring for good.
"I don't believe there is a transition in the works, but damn it, if Joe needed to prove to anybody he's done so in an emphatic way! Samoa Joe on commentary, one day, I hope to verbally spar with the dude. Physically he has beat me up enough in the past."
If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit After The Bell with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.