Corey Graves Talks WWE “Old Regime” Restrictions, Says TKO Is More Open to Outside Opportunities

Corey Graves says WWE’s stance on outside projects has noticeably changed since the company came under TKO Group Holdings. According to the WWE commentator, getting approval for non-wrestling work is now faster and far less complicated.

Speaking on the Steel City Sunday, Graves explained that opportunities now move quickly. He contrasted the current setup with the “old regime” of earlier years, seemingly under Vince McMahon, when approvals could take significant effort.

Graves shared a recent example tied to teaching. He proposed leading a broadcasting-focused class at Point Park University. The course centers on media skills, not professional wrestling. After discussing it with his manager, the approval process moved smoothly. WWE went a step further. Corey Graves said the company offered support by suggesting guest appearances. That included possible Zoom sessions with WWE talent, broadcasters, or production staff.

“WWE is really, really cool and that’s been one of the nicer things about having TKO as opposed to the old regime is that TKO is seemingly a lot more open to collaboration and allowing talent to step outside of WWE. It was a lot of times pulling teeth trying to get it. I think anybody who works for WWE has had an opportunity of some sort that they’ve had cancel on or turn down because they couldn’t get permission or it was a conflict of interest or whatever. This, again, this isn’t really, this isn’t a wrestling class. It’s a broadcasting class. So it wasn’t really a much of an uphill battle. I took it to my manager and explained what what I was looking to do. And they seem to be very supportive, they’ve offered me, you know, if I want to have different talents or broadcasters or production members do a Zoom call or something to help really flesh this class out. They’ve been really, really open about it.”

For Graves, the shift fits his career path. As a longtime play-by-play voice, he sees value in sharing broadcast knowledge outside WWE programming.

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