Corey Graves

[8.0] "I think Corey Graves has been killing it as of lately. I will say, I wasn't the biggest fan of him at first but over the last few years he's been growing on me more and more. He does his job as a heel commentator so well, imo."

[7.0] "He is a good and versatile commentator, knowledgeable enough to be a play-by-play commentator and distinctive enough to be a colour commentator. Personally I like his out of the blue OTT heel moments when he's a colour commentator, but I understand some people don't like him for the same reason."

[7.0] "Corey Graves has had a unique journey in pro wrestling--while his in-ring career was cut short due to injury, he reinvented himself successfully as a color commentator and now play-by-play announcer. His work behind the desk has been polarizing to some, but undeniably he's brought personality, knowledge, and consistent effort to WWE programming over the past decade. As a wrestler, his "Iron City Hardcore" persona had cult appeal on the indies, and his NXT run was solid before it ended prematurely. Not a legendary performer in the ring, but a valuable figure in the WWE machine overall."

"This is for his work on commentary not wrestling. His recent work on AAA showcase shows how versatile he is. He cares about what he does every time. Puts so many people over without feeling worked. Can be paired with even Konnan and still make him look good. WWE needs to pair him with Cole permanently for PPV's."

[7.0] "It is a pity that such a wrestler ended his career. He's good at absolutely everything. He ended his career without even starting it(... Very sad."

[3.0] "Was a solid play-by-play commentator when he first moved into that role in NXT but completely bottomed out when attempting to get over as a heel. From the moment he leaned into his real relationship drama for heat, he has been insufferable not for playing the heel but for being so corny and half-assed at it. Falling back on regurgitated Ventura and Heenanisms and regularly trawling the dregs of Roganverse comedy for insults, Graves lacks any wit or timing, and it feels like some sort of cosmic punishment for Michael Cole that he's finally been allowed to blossom three decades into his career, only to have to carry this dead weight."

[9.0] "Fantastic color commentator with a real style and presence on the mic, and also has the ability to carry the announce time via his play by play skills. Deserves more love than hate, and his ability to identify moves and spots are top tier. One weakness he has involves being somewhat reserved on bigger spots but that is relatively minor"

[4.0] "Not familiar with his in ring work, so this is only off of his commentary work. I cannot stand Corey as a commentator, I can't tell you how sick to my stomach I get when I hear him blatantly copy Jesse Ventura on commentary, but minus what made him great. Hearing him trying to be a "savage" when he roasts Byron Saxton or Kevin Patrick is super cringe, so forced and obvious he doesn't mean any of it that he feels like he's a pretend heel instead."

[2.0] "He's impressively bad on commentary, he is the reason I watch every WWE PLE on mute, he is absolutely abhorrent. His voice is so monotone it sounds like A.I. He constantly sneaks in weird comments (Like when Sami Zayn came out at a Saudi show wearing a keffiyeh and Corey said he was virtue signaling). His in-ring work was mediocre (and that's being nice). He tries too hard to be a delusional heel-type commentator like Jesse Ventura, Bobby Heenan, JBL, or Jerry Lawler, but he isn't nearly as funny, interesting, or charismatic as any of them."

[9.0] "Same as Michael Cole, I don't understand the hate about him and his commentary style. I think he is cool, I like to watch and hear him. Very strong identity, real personality. His heel persona was good, I don't have anything bad to say about him....."

[2.0] "Genuinely up there for being the worst commentator in modern wrestling, actively takes me out of matches with just how difficult he is to listen too, frustrating from the start of the event to the end on just about every show he's on, an insufferable commentator in just about every sense of the word and his in-ring work prior to his commentary was also subpar at the absolute best, this feels friendly but I'll give him a 2/10 cuz there was a time where he wasn't unbearable, but now is very much not that time."

[6.0] "Has gotten better over the years. Not at all my favorite though. Thought he was better as a wrestler but as a commentator, he is just average. I don't hate him like I do some commentators but he is nothing to be proud of. A six out of ten is just where he belongs imo. He does a better job as play-by-play than color."

[5.0] "solid career but his major work unfortunately is having no resistance to whatever line Vince is feeding him. Even as a heel commentator he's not good particularly."

[4.0] "Good wrestler, better commentator in NXT and his early career on the main roster. At this point he's a caricature of himself but he has gotten better since Vince is gone which is no coincidence. I still don't prefer him to any other announcer working today but he's sufficient for WWE."

[2.0] "I have never seen him wrestle and this review is based on his commentary. He knows what he is saying and is competent however I find him very unlikeable and not because of the heel persona more in that he lacks charisma and comes across almost like AI, also I don't find him amusing in the least but that could well be because I am English. I really wish his voice wasn't all over current WWE product! I am aware this is a taste thing but itis very safe to say that I really am not a fan in the very slightest"

[8.0] "As a wrestler he was a solid 6-7 out of 10. As a commentator he is a 9/10. He has been one of the better recent commentators and I appreciate how he is consistent despite being a heel. Basically what I mean is most heel commentators will praise heels and hate faces no matter what. One egregious example was JBL yelling "Not like this Edge" when Edge cashed in on a beaten Undertaker for the world title and the next weak lavished praised for Edge. Graves simps for Alexa Bliss and hates Sasha Banks no matter one. On top of that, because Kevin Patrick was as useful as a wet paper bag on commentator, Grave had to basically do play by play as well. It will be interesting when Graves makes the full transition to play by play with Patrick being fired and Wade Barrett moved back to Smackdown since Cole and McAfee are calling Raw for the foreseeable future. As for his in ring career, he was basically a Baron Corbin type guy. Cool look, lots of tattoos, average/generic in the ring but he was slightly better than Corbin on the mic. Ironically, his injury was probably the best thing to happen to him since it let him switch to commentary where he is doing MUCH better than he was on NXT."

[2.0] "With all due respect, he's terrible. Not funny, barely informative and can't put emotion in his comments not even if his life depends on it. I try my best to not make comparisons, cause each company have it's own style, but between AEW and ROH, WWE have, by far, the worst team of commentators."

[8.0] "I genuinely don't understand the hatred of his commentating, maybe it's just me but i know i can always count on Corey to make me laugh a couple times each show while delivering all the necessary normal commentating. As a wrestler in NXT he was quite good too."

[5.0] "I don't know anything about his wrestling career I must admit, I think I saw like one match of his in NXT right before his in ring retirement. So this is a rating for his announcing work. I agree with others that said he was pretty good in NXT, but main roster Corey Graves announcing is very annoying. He wants very badly to be a Jesse Ventura/ Bobby Heenan kind of announcer, but he's not nearly as funny as those two and isn't as good at getting heat. Still he's better than a lot of modern WWE commentators so I'll hand him that."

[4.0] "Mid in ring and mid on commentary. Gets a 4. Not much to say, many other commentators are more deserving of a spotlight than him."

[6.0] "Is a good commentator especially compared to some of the other's WWE has tried recently. Have seen a little of him in the ring in NXT and the indies. He was a good talent but nothing overly great."

[5.0] "Used to be horrendous. I mean just the worst, cringe-reading off a piece of paper, yelling catch phrases guy ever. Now, when he works a PPV with Cole he is part of the best team they have in WWE."

[5.0] "Corey was way better than his past colleagues on RAW but that's not saying much when the people you commentate alongside are either 0/10 or 1/10 commentators. My main problem with Graves is that he tries too hard at getting himself over. He sounds natural at least. I often enjoy his sense of humor."

[4.0] "At point he was a decent commentator with Tom in NXT. Nowadays he's annoying as hell in and out of the ring."

[2.0] "This is only my rating of him as a commentator because I have never seen a match of his before (thankfully). His commentary style is annoying, pretentious and overly smarky. Don't know why WWE keep him around when he adds nothing to the show."

[5.0] "Corey Graves, as a wrestler, is perfectly fine, although forgettable. As a commentator, he ranges from "occasionally good" to consistently bad."

[3.0] "Corey Graves was decent as a color Commentator for NXT. On RAW, he was better and less generic than Cole and Saxton. In fact, I loved hearing Graves' witty and snarky remarks before. But now, With Cole moving to SmackDown, He has become overjealous, selfish and tries so hard to bully his work through. On many occasions, he tries to undermine his fellow commentators. He is knowledgeable and witty but he is a bit of a bully and is constantly undermining Jimmy who is by far the best Commentator on RAW."

[9.0] "Really good announcer with heel tendencies. Cool voice and attitude; brings in-ring knowledge to the table."

[3.0] "Actively obnoxious on the mic. Even beyond the heel/face dynamic, it's not hard to see what this man is made of - pure, unadulterated ego. His mic skills aren't especially terrible ala an Ahmed Johnson or anything like that, but he seems to have the need to be ACTIVELY edgy for the sake of it. Occasionally has funny one-liners, such as the rib on Mike Kanellis. As a wrestler, there's hardly anything to really work with as he retired young due to concussion issues, but he seemed decent enough. Not the worst, but it's hard to enjoy his commentary."

[1.0] "Corey Graves can be a good commentator when he wants to. Alas, this is on rare occasions. Haven't seen enough from his wrestling days, so I can't comment on that, sorry if I'm missing something. He seems to have a very large ego, and just plays the generic heel commentator character, nothing original. A 1."

[7.0] "Great worker! He was exciting to watch and had exciting moves. Very technical. Unfortunately he retired very young. Too bad he didn't go into the WWE as a wrestler. not bad as an announcer."

[7.0] "Corey is a good commentator. I agree with others that he actually sounds like he knows what he is talking about. However, He can border on insufferable at times and not in the heel way either. He just never shuts the fuck up and when he's talking he's doing the cliche "durr hurr i'm playing devils advocate so i must be a heel! " Once he works on putting over the match and not himself then I will raise my rating."

[8.0] "I feel like he would be really great if he dialed the heel schtick back a few notches & wasn't so into himself. But that aside, he has a lot of upsides. He's very knowledgable & quick witted. He has credibility that someone like a Renee Young lacks. He's very much a "company man" which can get under my skin at times. One thing he's really great at is covering for a wrestler if they ever have a botch in the ring. He's a good personality overall, but would be better if someone reined him in."

[2.0] "Quite possibly the most overated commentator of all time. Firstly, Graves is no where near as funny as Heenan or Lawler. Even at their worst, they still had two or three laugh out loud lines, Graves struggle to get two in three hours. His analysis is can't compare to a more serious commentator like Ventura or McGuiness. He tries to play the middle of the Heenan funny man and the Ventura analysis but he's crap at both and as a result he's not enjoyable. The only reason people like him is because he's so much better than Booker or Coachman or Renee or Beth... You know what, maybe o just hold my commentators to too high a standard"

[2.0] "Corey Graves can be a good commentator when he tries to be. But, more often than not, Graves instead spends his time trying to get himself over at the expense of the other commentators and the match itself."

[9.0] ""Shut up Saxton! " xD Corey Graves is a genuine saving grace of WWE programming commentary in 2018."

[10.0] "Graves is quick-witted, knowledgeable, funny and articulate... long story short, he's an amazing commentator. He's my top choice to take over Michael Cole's spot once Cole retires."

[8.0] "Graves has to pick up the slack for the most boring and useless sports commentators in the galaxy, Coach and Saxton."

[8.0] "A lot of Graves' appeal is his unique look. That was his calling card, even as a decent wrestler. Injuries, however, lead him to a second and arguably more successful career as a color commentator -- where has exploded. Graves is a very good color commentator, he's witty, he plays well off his PBP guys and despite Booker T's insistence that he wants to kill him, he adds a lot to the color chair. The issue with Graves is he can sometimes be grating and inconsistent on his alignment. There are days he wants to be a full-blown heel commentator and then on the same show be championing for the babyface. Once he sticks to his shtick he can go down as an all-time color commentator."

[7.0] "I like Corey are a commentator, he is good at telling the story and getting the narrative across without it being forced. Has a good look, not traditional. Has just the right about of heel to not be annoying."

[9.0] "Best commentator in the world imo, good voice, good delivery, unlike some (yeah, Booker, I'm talking to you) he always sounds logical, can't really say anything bad about his announcing work."

[10.0] "He's easily the best commentator in WWE today, and if he keeps it up, he should definitely go down as one of the greatest commentators of all time. Consistently hilarious heel commentator who never ceases to make me laugh."

[9.0] "This rating is only for his commentator skills because I honestly never saw him fight. An awesome heel commentator that knows the discipline, knows how to annoy other face commentators, has a great voice. A pleasure to hear"

[10.0] "Not familiar with his in-ring stuff as he had already retired when I started watching NXT. So... I can only rate him based on his commentary, and is one of the best color commentators that the WWE have had in ages."

[8.0] "Graves is the 2nd best commentator in WWE today. He is a good heel announcer who can be an ass and call the match to perfection."

[7.0] "Corey Graves was actually not that bad in the ring. He had a nice move set, a good look, and a good entrance but due to injury he had to retire early (WAY EARLY). After he switched from wrestler to commentator/interviewer I can easily he is my favorite commentator. Hopefully he gets called up soon to the Main Roster and can commentate on Raw or SmackDown soon."

[8.0] "was constantly in the main event scene acting as a gatekeeper to new talent, unfortunate injury caused Retirement and he has became a very brilliant color commentator with natural act to cheer the heel guys enough but not cross the line"

[9.0] "Very fine color commentator. As for his wrestling career, he had a lot of stupendous potential which is a shame it ended. He needs to be the main color commentator of a main WWE weekly broadcast because he will be your key to getting your roster over on TV."

[7.0] "It's a shame that concussions have seemingly derailed his career, because I believe he is a very good wrestler with a unique look that could help him stand out from everybody else. He's not the greatest on the mic, but he's not terrible either. 7 seems about right for him."

[4.0] "An interesting look and decent character don't really place him as well as it could. His wrestling is very generic and seems somewhat unmotivated."