Corey Graves addresses the situation where he was briefly moved to the WWE NXT brand in 2025

In early 2026, WWE announcer Corey Graves issued a public statement about his status with the company following his move back to the NXT brand. After missing a week of television, Graves returned to his commentary position for the January 21st 2025 show. Graves has since returned to main roster broadcasts.

While speaking to TVInsider.com, Graves addressed the situation…

“That whole period in my career I looked at it and thought, ‘This isn’t where I want to be. This isn’t what I want to be doing. I’m going to show them.’ This goes back to the outworked next guy. I will be the hardest worker in the room. I will say yes to stuff people don’t want to do. Sure, it gets me in trouble with my wife from time-to-time. I’ve missed a lot of events in life that I’m not super excited about. At the end of the day, this is what I have done with my life. This is my life’s work.

Yeah, when I got bounced so to speak, from that very first time, I intended to say, ‘I’m coming into NXT and will reinvent myself and show you guys I’m the best in the world at this.’ I kind of approached this with that mentality. It was very much a chip on my shoulder situation. I like to think I still have some of that chip on my shoulder because I’m still not quite back to where I want to be.”