Corey Graves didn’t like it when WWE replaced him on the SmackDown commentary team with Pat McAfee years ago.
During his recent appearance on The Kurt Angle Show podcast, the longtime WWE commentator spoke about the topic at length.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on this topic with his thoughts.
On how he took it personally when WWE replaced him with Pat McAfee on the SmackDown commentary team years ago: “Believe it or not, I’m blowing up my own stuff here. I think the world of Pat. He is such a strong persona, it is easy for me to play off of, rib him, and get under his skin. I was a little upset, professionally, that I found out, you’re going from Friday Night SmackDown on FOX, the network show that you’ve kicked off with Michael Cole, I took it a little personally.”
On how he wasn’t mad at McAfee but more so with WWE because he felt like he paid his dues, as well as how Michael Cole helped him get over it: “Not because Pat, but I’ve paid my dues here. I’m the guy who shows up week after week, I’m the guy who did both Raw and SmackDown for two years straight, never complained, and this is how you do me. I remember talking to my wife and going, ‘this isn’t right, I have to do something about this, this isn’t fair.’ I really took it hard. It had nothing to do with Pat being Pat, it was just the professional issue. She talked me off the ledge, I had a few conversations with Cole. Michael Cole is my boss/therapist, he talked me off a ledge as well. Looking back, it’s business. Sometimes you have to do the stuff you don’t want to do so you can do the stuff you do.”
Check out the complete interview via the YouTube player embedded below.
