Corey Graves has opened up about a challenging period in his WWE career, reflecting on his temporary move back to WWE NXT and the mindset that fueled his return to the main roster.
Speaking with TVInsider.com, Graves described how the situation motivated him rather than discouraged him, using it as fuel to prove himself all over again:
“That whole period in my career I looked at it and thought, ‘This isn’t where I want to be. This isn’t what I want to be doing. I’m going to show them.’ This goes back to the outworked next guy. I will be the hardest worker in the room. I will say yes to stuff people don’t want to do. Sure, it gets me in trouble with my wife from time-to-time. I’ve missed a lot of events in life that I’m not super excited about. At the end of the day, this is what I have done with my life. This is my life’s work.”
Graves admitted that being “bounced,” as he put it, initially sparked a strong reaction, pushing him to approach his NXT return with a renewed sense of purpose:
“Yeah, when I got bounced so to speak, from that very first time, I intended to say, ‘I’m coming into NXT and will reinvent myself and show you guys I’m the best in the world at this.’ I kind of approached this with that mentality. It was very much a chip on my shoulder situation. I like to think I still have some of that chip on my shoulder because I’m still not quite back to where I want to be.”
After briefly missing time from television, Graves returned to commentary and has since re-established himself on WWE’s main roster broadcasts, continuing to carry that same driven mindset forward.
