Corey Graves Talks Lack Of Focus On Characters Today, John Cena’s New WWE Evil Series
On the latest episode of WWE After the Bell, host Corey Graves spoke about John Cena being announced as the host for a new project on the WWE Network on Peacock called WWE Evil. According to Peacock, the show will be an "an entertaining psychological expose into the minds of the most diabolical antagonists in WWE history, and their impact on mainstream culture."
Graves mentioned his excitement for the show, saying it's awesome to see Cena come back to work with WWE after hitting superstardom in Hollywood. He also mentioned how being a villain at heart has made him excited for the show because they'll be doing a deep dive into characters he really enjoyed growing up.
"I saw that blurb and you need not see much more than John Cena, WWE, Peacock all working together," Graves said. "Anything new and fresh and different behind the scenes is always refreshing to me. I know there are a lot of things, not to give any secrets away, being worked on right now that I am personally intrigued about and you attach John Cena, at this status in his career, has transcended the WWE world.
"He's a bonafide celebrity and for Cena to be willing to lend his time and efforts to a new WWE project is exciting. From what I gather, the focus is going to be on some of the most villainous characters in WWE history, I could be dead wrong on that but based on the little news blurb I read, that's exciting. As a villain at heart I always look forward to understanding the psychology and why we had such disdain or loved to hate some of the best bad guys ever in the business. Definitely something to look forward to."
Cena stated how excited he is to highlight some of the bad guys in WWE's history. Graves mentioned that he misses the way WWE used to highlight characters more, but said that since the WWE Network is now available, that's the way you can see these characters come to life.
"The one way that the industry has changed as a whole is I feel like there's a lot less focus on characters these days," Graves said. "Right, wrong, or indifferent, everybody's got their flavor of ice cream, what they prefer, I always missed and loved being invested in the characters we see on RAW and on SmackDown and on NXT. I've said I would like to see more character pieces, however, it's almost more of an incentive to subscribe to WWE Network on Peacock to really dive into these specials, whether it be WWE 24 or Chronicles, to really get to know the person behind what you see on screen for a fraction of the show.
"There are so many awesome documentaries that our teams put together about all the superstars and beyond the superstars, the behind the scenes of some of the WrestleManias. I honestly don't think our documentary department gets enough love because what they put out, almost on a weekly basis at this point, is such an important, valuable companion to what we're seeing on RAW and SmackDown, and again, everyones got their own opinion. I would like to see more character driven content in the shows themselves, but now you just have to look a little bit further and expand it."
There is still no word on when WWE Evil will air on the WWE Network on Peacock, but we will keep you updated.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE After the Bell with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.