CMWaters
Ozymandius
Rolled a Seven, Beat the Ads.
Bald and busy
Posts: 63,071
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Post by CMWaters on Feb 23, 2017 11:39:59 GMT -5
While Corey Graves is making a good living being WWE announcer right now, as well as doing the various odds and ends video here and there for WWE, let's not forget the reason that he's in that role is because his wrestling career was tragically cut short.
But let's say that it wasn't. Let's say that he didn't suffer the injuries that ended his career prematurely. Where do you think he would be in the long run of WWE? Would he be a major player on either Raw or Smackdown by this point? Would he have been NXT Champion at one point?
Just something I thought about with Kassius Ohno coming back, and thinking about that time of NXT.
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Post by DiBiase is Good on Feb 23, 2017 11:44:49 GMT -5
I'm not that familiar with his career but from what I saw, I think he would have went about as far as he actually did. Maybe a call-up to the main roster but I could see him getting lost in the pre-draft days and eventually leaving.
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Post by The Kevstaaa on Feb 23, 2017 11:49:15 GMT -5
He was always solid but unspectacular in the ring to me. His look stood out thought and he could cut a solid promo. I'd like to think he'd have carved out a solid spot in the midcard. A tag team with Baron Corbin would've been cool too.
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Push R Truth
Patti Mayonnaise
Unique and Special Snowflake, and a pants-less heathen.
Perpetually Constipated
Posts: 39,290
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Post by Push R Truth on Feb 23, 2017 11:49:19 GMT -5
Probably most of his matches would be on Main Event/Superstars and his best chance at being on Mania would be one of the guys that's in the Andre Battle Royale but they don't play your entrance music.
My honest opinion? His tragedy probably "improved" his career if you are strictly talking about money/exposure/influence/impact. He's pretty darn good at what he does now, in my opinion.
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Reflecto
Hank Scorpio
The Sorceress' Knight
Posts: 6,847
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Post by Reflecto on Feb 23, 2017 11:50:37 GMT -5
As a wrestler, probably the best thing that could have happened to Corey Graves would have been CM Punk leaving in 2014. It was right at the peak of Graves's popularity in NXT, and Graves's weakness was that throughout his career, he was always kind of the poor man's CM Punk so he would have filled an immediate role.
With that in mind, I'd say that Graves probably could be a solid midcarder in the US at best. At worst, he probably could have bounced back in Lucha Underground (between his own notoriety and "fit" in NXT, Sami Callihan latching on with them, and his brother's notoriety in Mexico.)
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Dragonfly
Samurai Cop
...is no Barry Windham.
Posts: 2,486
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Post by Dragonfly on Feb 23, 2017 12:12:27 GMT -5
It depends on how the WWE would have booked him. If they him his own character, I'd say upper midcarder. At best, he'd be at the Dolph Ziggler/Christian level. If they would have went the "CM Punk 2.0" route*, he would have been buried/let go years ago.
*Where the "Graves=Punk, but cheaper" thing came from, aside from their real life friendship: In early 2004, IWC in Pittsburgh ran an angle where Punk became then-champ Sterling James Keenan's (Graves) protege. Despite how it sounds now, it was actually a great storyline. About a year or so later, then-IWC color commentator Kingdom James became the booker of UK's 1PW. SJK came with him, and got a fairly big push. After 1PW, he was pretty much typecast as "I can't believe he's not CM Punk." (Save for Pittsburgh, that is. Towards the end, he was booked as a more metal version of Hulk Hogan.)
Edit: Punk's heel turn that started the angle:
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Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Feb 23, 2017 12:12:33 GMT -5
I think he would of eventually found his way to the announcers table. It's sad his career as a wrestler had to end in order for him to find his "true calling" in wrestling. He's the color announcer for this and the next generation
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Post by Mc Mc Mannequin on Feb 23, 2017 12:13:08 GMT -5
Multi time IC/US champion, maybe some tag team gold
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Post by froggyfrog on Feb 23, 2017 12:13:12 GMT -5
IC/US title range
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Post by lionelp on Feb 23, 2017 12:21:36 GMT -5
The problem is he would have got totally lost in the Zayn/Owens/Balor shuffle, those guys were always going to get ahead of him.
But if Tyler Breeze and Apollo Crews can get called up without seemingly achieving anything but being semi-over, then there is no reason Graves wouldn't have been given a run on the main roster.
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Post by Susan "Poison" Candy on Feb 23, 2017 12:31:50 GMT -5
I really wanted him to come up and when Paul Heyman started the "Stay Down" promos against Punk and when it was revealed to be Ryback I was mad as hell.
He could have been multi-IC/US or Tag Champion by now but this brand split might have been a work wonders for him especially if he would be on Smackdown
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Feb 23, 2017 14:32:06 GMT -5
I didn't watch NXT at the time but he got a lot of criticism on here for being a CM Punk biter.
I think the earlier poster said it better - it is a tragedy that Graves can no longer wrestle, but he has become one of the best announcers of the modern age by being forced to do it instead of anything else.
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Post by Adam Black on Feb 24, 2017 6:43:58 GMT -5
Not far he was very unspectacular as said above. His best match was with Neville and even that was just passable. His true calling was commentating.
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mrbananagrabber
King Koopa
Paul Heyman's unofficial joke writer
Posts: 11,799
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Post by mrbananagrabber on Feb 24, 2017 7:33:53 GMT -5
As NXT filled up with bigger and better talents I think he'd have been lost in the shuffle somewhat, maybe even released in a spring clean.
Terrible what happened to him, but the dude is absolutely set for life now, still tours the world and still gets to hang out with the boys. It really couldn't have worked out better considering what happened.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Feb 24, 2017 12:52:11 GMT -5
As NXT filled up with bigger and better talents I think he'd have been lost in the shuffle somewhat, maybe even released in a spring clean. Terrible what happened to him, but the dude is absolutely set for life now, still tours the world and still gets to hang out with the boys. It really couldn't have worked out better considering what happened. Weirdly his job is probably more secure as a commentator than it was as a wrestler.
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Feb 24, 2017 12:56:19 GMT -5
He really came off like a cut rate CM Punk a lot of the time.
If they debuted him on main TV after Punk left I guarantee he'd be getting CM Punk chants during all of his matches.
other than that... he was alright... not terrible not great... could probably have a decent career as a mid-carder but he wasn't going to set the world on fire.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2017 12:59:02 GMT -5
Honestly I never really thought he was very good. I could pretty much see him being a filler midcard heel at best on th emain roster.
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Post by Slanted and Enchanted on Feb 24, 2017 13:10:26 GMT -5
Eh...he might have been the IC/US champion or he might have been lost in the shuffle. Who knows. He had a terrible belly button tattoo and it would definitely have been the butt of many jokes though.
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Post by xCompackx on Feb 24, 2017 13:35:35 GMT -5
I don't know, Graves had a good look and, from the little I saw, he could play a heel very well. He probably wouldn't have fared as well as, say, Seth Rollins, but he might've had a good heel run on Raw or something. Commentating is definitely his calling, though.
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Post by This Player Hating Mothman on Feb 24, 2017 14:26:24 GMT -5
A good look and mic skills don't mean shit if you end up being called up with a level of f***s given that, say, The Vaudevillains got. Without some major indie hype and a huge office commitment behind someone, NXT call-ups are still spotty at best and he's the kind of guy they could easily f*** up. Especially if, like so many main roster talents, he's never given a mic to actually cut a promo and show off his character. I feel like he could have had a decent midcard shelf life, but the problem is he wasn't really so good that you had a guaranteed "cream rises to the top" situation with him.
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