Corey Graves Says Raw Commentary Shakeup Fueled His Chip on His Shoulder

Summary

Corey Graves says being replaced by Pat McAfee on WWE Raw in January 2025 gave him extra motivation and left him working with a chip on his shoulder.

After the booth change, Graves moved to NXT. He later returned to Raw when McAfee stepped away in summer 2025, and Graves is now back alongside Michael Cole as Raw's lead color commentator.

Timeline of the Raw booth change

Pat McAfee was announced for the Raw commentary team with Michael Cole in January 2025, taking Graves out of that role. Graves later worked in NXT before returning to Raw after McAfee's departure from the desk in summer 2025.

Quote from Corey Graves

In an interview with Scott Fishman, Graves said the change did affect him:

"Definitely. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t. If anything else, 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,"

What Corey Graves' comments mean for WWE Raw

Graves tying this period to his work ethic points to a long-term effort to hold down his place on WWE's lead weekly broadcast. With Graves back in the Raw booth and also calling AAA events, WWE has his role re-established on Monday nights while he continues building his presence across multiple commentary assignments.

Sources

As reported by Fightful.