The Illumnerdi recently conducted an interview with WWE star and color commentator Corey Graves, who spoke about a number of different topics, including whether there are any plans for an in-ring return and what advice he would give to his younger self. Highlights are below.
Says there are no plans for him to return to the ring just yet:
“There are no plans. I mean, I’m not going to spoil anything. I don’t have any sort of like immediate goals to accomplish. It was just something that I’ve wanted to do and I’ve accomplished so much in this role as a commentator, which is a role I never in a million years expected to have in the first place. So now I’m like, ‘Okay, I feel like I’ve got the commentary thing down. Now, what else can I do?’ I’m constantly — I mean, behind the scenes trying to learn and learn the business side of the wrestling business. I always want to have irons in different fires, just because otherwise I feel like when I get complacent, I get bored.
Advice he would give to his younger self:
“Slow down. Slow down. All the madness that I experienced on the indies prior to arriving in WWE? I wouldn’t have changed for the world. Stylistically speaking, [I would have changed] a little bit. I would have taken a little bit better care of myself. I felt like I was invincible. If I got a concussion? ‘That’s no big deal, I’ll be fine.’ Well, no, you need to take the week off. ‘What do you mean, I need to take the week off, I’m fine.’ I was so driven and goal-oriented that I had blinders on. The only thing I could focus on was making it to WWE, and I was right there. I think in hindsight if I had slowed down a little bit, taken a little bit better care of myself physically and mentally, maybe I wouldn’t have hit that roadblock when I did. Not to say it wouldn’t have come another year or two down the road, but at that time, I was burning the candle at both ends constantly. I was training trying to balance everything. Trying to make it and I think, a little bit older, wiser version of me, I would just tell myself to slow down and take it easy, because as we can see, I eventually got here in some capacity.”
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)