Corey Graves Says He Started Weighing His Options After Daniel Bryan’s Return

Corey Graves was interviewed by Justin LaBar about Daniel Bryan’s in-ring return and weighing his options about wrestling again. here are the highlights…

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 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.”