WWE announcer Corey Graves recently appeared on an episode of the Kurt Angle Show podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including how he came up with his wrestling name.
Graves said, “When we used to get signed to FCW, the standard protocol was unless you had a big name from outside of WWE, which very few people did, you would have to submit lists of names that would be approved and you could be that character’s name. I remember having a really hard time with a first name because there was just nothing that came to mind that I felt fit. I submitted the last names, Ness and Graves and Ness was from Mike Ness from Social Distortion and Graves was the singer of The Misfits at the time. I thought, Okay, I’ll borrow one of their names much like Seth Rollins, you know, he borrowed that last name. Corey, ironically enough, came from Bray Wyatt In practice one day, and he was singing Sunglasses at Night by Corey Hart. I don’t know why that song was being discussed. I’m sure there was a reason at the time, but he goes, ‘There’s your name, Corey Graves.’ Personally I hated it, but I didn’t submit anything different in time and one of the guys that worked in the office was like ‘Well, the office approved Corey Graves’, and I said, ‘All right, well, I guess I’m Corey Graves’, so here I am.”
The difference between Seth Rollins in NXT and the main roster:
“It’s not necessarily unique to Seth because I could give you the same answer regarding a lot of guys who I’ve come up with. When you come into this game, into the business at first, especially on the independent, it’s you versus the world. You have to have a chip on your shoulder, or you’re not going to succeed. And I think a lot of us carry that, too, and into NXT. And that’s I think that’s why NXT became as red hot as it did at the time, because you had a bunch of guys who were stuck in the warehouse in Tampa who didn’t think anyone was paying attention, and we said, you know what? We’re going to do it our way. And you had Dusty [Rhodes], who was just so cavalier that Dusty believed in us, and NXT caught fire. And, of course, you had individual stars that broke out. Seth is one of them, and Seth still has a massive chip on his shoulder. That’s how the dude lives his life. But Seth is now more mature. He’s a dad now. He’s a husband. He looks at things differently. He’s concerned, not concerned, but he’s interested in the health of the overall business and the future of the business. And he’s the guy now, Kurt, like, I remember it used to be John Cena for years. You walk out through Gorilla, and one of the top guys is sitting there watching the monitor. After every live event match or every segment of the TV set, that guy now sits, and he doesn’t. He is overstepping his boundaries, and he won’t give you advice if you don’t ask for it. But it’s one of those deals where you go. I should probably ask that guy. He’s done a few things in the game. Maybe he knows, but yeah, I mean, Seth is the same guy at heart who he always was, that sort of rebellious sort of punk rock mentality. But he’s just a little more mature, and he looks at things a little more carefully now. And I think that’s probably going to add to his longevity in the business.”
His dream match to call in the WWE:
“Off the top of my head. And this changes basically depending on the day. You can ask me the same question tomorrow. I’ll give you a different answer. The one that I think I speak for myself and most of the wrestling fandom in the world right now, I don’t think we ever got to see. And I feel like we were kind of robbed and never got to see. Kurt Angle vs. Bret Hart. And on the other side of that, Brock Lesnar vs. anybody. Brock Lesnar makes my job easy. And I’ll tell you why because I believe in Brock Lesnar. I mean, God, Kurt, you know better than anybody. I mean the WrestleMania [19] match. But what a freak of an athlete. He’s a real deal man. He is human. Kurt, have we confirmed that he is in fact human? I would say, I mean, Brock Lesnar, Bret Hart sounds like it might be kind of fun.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
