8 Ups And 4 Downs From WWE NXT Takeover: Unstoppable
7. Graves Has Bright Future
The concussions that ended Corey Graves in-ring career might turn out to be a blessing in disguise for him. After being forced to retire from the ring, Graves turned to the broadcast booth, where hes been for the past six months and hes damn good at it. Graves is somewhat reminiscent of another great color man, Jesse The Body Ventura. Thats not to say that hes on that level yet far from it but his style is unlike any other color man on WWE television right now. Maybe William Regal or JBL in his first run several years ago would compare. Maybe mentioning Ventura is too big of a stretch, but Corey definitely has a lot going for him on the mic. Graves seems to be a heel commentator, often siding with the bad guys and going along with their underhanded tactics. He has wrestlers he thoroughly dislikes, such as Becky Lynch and Enzo Amore. Hes knowledgeable about the craft and puts over all the performers, even the ones he doesnt like. Graves took time to call out Tyler Breeze for throwing a tantrum when he couldnt pin Finn Balor, saying that he was wasting time. Thats the kind of thing Jesse used to do, calling out heels when they did something stupid. Besides, a guy who will make a Fifth Element reference in relation to Becky Lynchs new hair color and outfit deserves some credit.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
