In a recent interview with “Awful Announcing,” Michael Cole stated that operations in WWE are “looser” under the new TKO regime and called Corey Graves the “heir apparent” of commentary.
Graves recently stated that Triple H’s production style for commentators in WWE is more relaxed than what things were under Vince McMahon.
Graves currently serves as the commentator for WWE SmackDown alongside Wade Barrett while Cole and Pat McAfee commentate RAW.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On Corey Graves moving to play-by-play: “We had tried some people. What we do from a play-by-play standpoint, and even an analysis standpoint, is so much different from every other sport out there. [It was] a matter of giving him the opportunity to sit side by side for many years, to watch, learn, study, and see how I do things. And at the end of the day, when we gave him the shot? He’s been killing it. I believe he’s the heir apparent.”
On realizing Graves was good at PBP when testing out new people: “Corey was the veteran in the booth. What happened was as they were learning how to do the role on live TV, Corey naturally just began to morph into doing some play-by-play. Handling some of the traffic, doing some of the stuff a normal play-by-play guy would do. He just started doing it more and more and more to the point where, a few months ago, we said, ‘Wait. We may not be doing the right thing and doing us a disservice. We may have the person right here under our nose. And I think that’s how it came out. It’s like a lightbulb went off.”
On how things are different now: “It’s a different world. Corey came in at a good time. Under the new regime now, things are looser. The direction’s different. There’s a lot more trust in commentators now than there was before. We are having the opportunity to be ourselves. Open up, develop character, call pro wrestling, sports entertainment, the way we want to. Corey was able to jump in under this new regime, and it was the perfect chance to make a switch. This was the time to do it.”
