Corey Graves Recalls Correcting Michael Cole During The Undertaker’s Final Farewell And Being Wrong

Corey Graves reflects on a moment he wishes he could have back.

In December 2014, Graves announced his retirement from in-ring competition. From there, he slid into a role on the NXT commentary team. Not even two years later, he had graduated to Raw and has been a staple at the booth ever since.

Appearing on a recent episode of Out of Character with Ryan Satin, Graves opened up about calls he regrets or feels could have been better. He noted that he tries to stay away from dates and statistics as he’s watched so much wrestling that it’s hard to remember exacts. 

“Probably every week. I never go out there to do anybody any harm, there are a lot of times I just put my foot in my mouth, naturally. Sometimes I speak more than I think and sometimes my tongue moves faster than my brain does. I’m sure there are plenty of times…more often than not, what actually bothers me, 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 anything. I watch so much wrestling it all kind of meshes together. Once in a while, I think I beat myself worse if I go, ‘Oh yeah, in 1999, this happened,’ and of course, Twitter corrects me instantly like, ‘No, you idiot, it was 2000, you suck, you should never have a microphone ever again. I can’t believe this loser didn’t know it was the third match of the fifth pay-per-view in the ninth month of the second year of this reign.’ I’ll go put my head in the sand, I’m sorry. Usually, if I say something like that, I’m just ill-informed,” Graves said.

At Survivor Series 2020, WWE held a final farewell to the Undertaker. Corey, working at the Kick-Off desk ahead of the PPV, shared the story of mistakenly correcting Michael Cole and how he should have just trusted the boss. He said the following:

“I do remember a specific instance, it was when Undertaker did his retirement ceremony, the official ceremony. Michael Cole and I were back at the kick-off desk doing the voiceover for whatever was happening in the ring. They were talking about 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 wasn’t the year that it happened. Then, I was like, ‘Oh no, we’re live, I just said that, and I just realized that I’m wrong.’ Twitter, of course, 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. I looked at Cole like, ‘Cole, you idiot, that wasn’t the year.’ Then I realized, it’s Michael Cole, he’s usually not wrong about these things. I should have just trusted the boss in that instance. That one, I wish I could take back, but I think they edited it out, so not the end of the world.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Corey Graves spoke about a recent commentary call he made about Dana Brooke’s lack of accolades. Read more here.

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