Justin LaBar recently interviewed WWE Announcer Corey Graves about Daniel Bryan’s in-ring return and other related topics. Below are the highlights from the interview:
On how Daniel Bryan’s in-ring return resonates for him: “That day was tough for me. I didn’t know about it. Nobody gave me a heads up. For Bryan, I was stoked. He’s a friend. He’s incredible in the ring. That’s where he belongs. It caught me off guard. I started asking questions to myself, Should I? What if? I had a few conversations with few people [in WWE] who put it out there. If you want to pursue this maybe we can look into it. So I spent about a week and a half weighing the options. It was, do I become a wrestler again and what happens?”
On having to step down as a commentator if he returned to action: “Exactly. Again, this is all potential of would this work out, do I end up on the sidelines. I talked to my wife, talked to some friends. I think as much as I don’t believe in fate, this all kind of worked itself out so I think this is where I belong so why step out of it?”
On his first day as a commentator on RAW: “I always remember that. We stayed at the Marriott. I remember waking up looking out window seeing Pittsburgh, where I was born and raised. The journey has been so nuts as a wrestler and weird irony the first night would be in Pittsburgh. I looked out at the city and broke down with happy tears for 5 minutes. Then it’s, ‘Okay, it’s time to go to work.’ I’ve never looked back since. Weird irony the way the world works. Then I was bummed I didn’t have an entrance, had to sneak out in the dark ’cause I thought it would be cool with hometown boy coming out and big babyface pop but it didn’t happen.”
You can read the entire interview of Corey Graves by visiting this link.