Booker T vs Corey Graves?

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

Ever since WWE paired Cole/Graves/Booker T on the commentary booth on Raw, Booker has gotten the Saxton treatment from Cole/Graves. Cole would throw playful jabs at Booker's mistakes and Cory would downright make fun of him on a weekly basis. Some nights you can hear Booker get seriously heated at Corey. Now that Booker has been pulled back to PPV panel commentating he's been vocal about fighting Corey in a fist fight, blaming him for getting yanked on Raw.

So do you think this is a kayfabe thing where WWE is pulling a little wool sweater over our eyes trying to blur the line between reality and kayfabe? Or do you think it's legit and we're going to see Corey show up to work with a black eye one of these weeks?

I'm calling Booker T vs Corey Graves street fight at the pre show for Wrestlemania.

 

[Hyorinmaru]

Corey had his career cut short due to concussions.

Somehow I don't see this happening.

He was probably only saying what he was told to say anyway. I doubt Vince would let Corey go off script

 

[Hakushi]

Graves is done... if there would have been an option for him to return, it wouldn't have been against Booker.

 

[Rulk25]

I dont think Graves is at fault ....you can blame the writing and or Vince.....They liked Corey wailing on Saxton so much that they decided to do the same thing again with Booker as they saw the two as interchangeable...I sadly will not be suprised if we see the same thing happen with Coach (although maybe if we are lucky Coach and Graves will team up on Cole)

 

[Messiah]

It's a work. Everything in wrestling is.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Booker made comments on his podcast recently that he blames Graves for him no longer being Raw commentator, taking issue with all the various jabs he's endured, saying he'd kick his ass if he saw him outside of the job, etc..

I don't take any of it seriously, though I suppose it's always possible that Booker could be serious. Still, I'm 95% certain its all a work. By the slim chance that it isn't, it's not Corey Graves' fault that Booker T spouts nonsensical, contradictory gibberish 90% of the time. Again, just on the slight chance that Booker has legit heat with Graves, Booker should've stuck to his "shucky-ducky, quack-quack" stuff instead of trying to be some sort of serious analyst.

 

[HORRORHOLIC]

Cole was starting to make fun of Booker too. It started off as little jabs, but by the end he was doing it just as much as Graves.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

Booker T was just plain bad on the mic. I would rather have JBL again then him there and can understand if Corey and Cole got irritated by him. Not that both of them are "cream of the crop" themselves but still I can at least stand them.

Dont think it would be a match if you dont count crazy Booker maybe trying to kick Graves ass outside of WWE.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

This is a way for Booker to "escape with his dignity" from the situation. If it's remotely legit, he is released tomorrow... you can't legit threaten a fellow worker in the media, especially one with known concussion issues. If anything ever did happen, Booker would be down for basically attacking a disabled person... he'd be back inside.

Much as Foley was able to use that he had his moment with Vince where he told him "you will never talk to me that way again..." to cover what in effect is an embarrassing demotion/firing. This is Book trying to rebuild some credibility for the same. In truth, Corey probably COULD take a much older man... but he'd be smart enough not to get involved.

I do find it interesting that the JBL Out people didn't point out that Graves was kind of doing it to Booker...

At best it's a work to boost his ego with Corey's blessing, at worst, Corey...he's coming for you....

 

[OYDK]

I'm not sure what the whole point of this is unless Booker is being 100% serious, which I highly doubt. Graves can't get into the ring again, that's a pretty well known fact so again... what's the point? I don't know if Booker and Graves came together and said "let's get something going so we can make a push towards a Mania match," or Booker's just going into business for himself but the situation is strange.

If this was a shoot, Booker would be gone tomorrow. You can't publicly threaten an employee and you sure as hell can't say you're going to whoop his ass if you see him "on the street." But again, shit's a work. A work that has no endgame as far as I can tell.

 

[#hamler]

Work or not, Corey Graves is much more of an asset to the company than Booker T at this point in his career. Corey just recently called nearly 20 hours of WWE programming through the Rumble weekend while Booker T hasn't been relevant since 2011. I can't see this being anymore than Booker T going off the rails one more time for old times sake like he used to on commentary every Monday night; just spouting nonsense without actually thinking about what's he's talking about.

 

[Vanilla Midget]

Let’s see if he feud makes it on to Raw tonight before speculating on its authenticity.

If it is a work, what does it lead to? A commentary feud? Corey Graves is only a commentator due to his concussion issues and subsequent early retirement. This isn’t like King, Cole, or hell even JR where they could flub a match.

Has any commentary angle between non-wrestlers truly provided any value to the product?

If it’s not a work, what is Booker doing? He’s risking his job gunning for the higher quality commentator. Booker T was a star, the operative word being was. Corey is he best colour commentator in WWE today, Booker is not.

Threatening violence on a guy who’s retired due to brain injury is pretty grim, which lends a lot of credence to his being worked.

I enjoyed when they were doing cunning and conniving Corey last summer during the Big Cass and Jason Jordan angles, both of which never really saw any major payoff for Graves. His involvement with Jordan was spelled out, but did they ever reveal what as really going on between Graves and Cass?

The challenge with all this is there can never be any payoff physically in a Booker/Graves feud. They could film something backstage and use camera tricks and implied physicality, ie Bryan and Kane last fall. Ultimately, only Booker could suffer any physical comeuppance which would make him the defacto heel.

Whatever the case, Booker did add a humour element to commentary on Raw, but that humour was at the expense of Booker T. Booker said a lot of random silly crap and if he made a mistake, he’d try to still be right somehow instead of owning up to it. Booker isn’t in on the joke that is his calls, is this fair? Is this unintentional humour good for he product, and good for Booker?

The other frustrating aspect of the Graves and Booker commentary pairing was their alignment. Who was heel and who was face? With Saxton, it’s more clear cut. With Booker, he’s poking fun at the ring shape of Titus (a face) but also running down the heels.

Graves hated Enzo (regardless of alignment) he loves Titus Worldwide (faces) but he also loves The Miz (heels). It’s not the worst thing, but also a bit confusing. Personally l miss the days of heel King or heel Heenan backing the bad guys no matter what, but this reflects something closer to the no heels or faces world we’re supposedly living in.

If this is a shoot, be careful Book. If this is a work, what’s the point?

 

[ilapierre]

Funny how WWE phases out an absolute legend in Booker T but force feeds on its dumbass audience perhaps the worst commentator of all time Michael Cole. I mean how does this guy even have a job? He has absolutely no personality. As for Corey Graves, he's an absolute no name know nothing. He did nothing memorable in his abbreviated wrestling career and he's done nothing memorable as an announcer. He's just a heavily tattooed jabroni who carries himself like those pointless tattoos give him some sort of credibility. The guy is simply just another script regurgitator like 95 percent of WWE's roster.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

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So yeah, it was just a work with no real payoff other than Booker and Corey having a laugh. They're entertainers and they entertained themselves. It's also worth pointing out that a good reason why they screwed around the way they did was what Booker said close to the end about fake news. A sobering lesson about how easy it is to make something look legit without really trying.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

I already miss Booker T contradicting himself and getting picked on by Cole and Graves. Now there's nobody to pick on and it's just three guys again. I enjoy Cole as a commentator and Coach with Graves are fine. But I think there's too many Monsoon's to one Ventura if you catch what I'm throwing. Booker T was something a little different, most people hated his commentary but I found it stupidly entertaining at times. Ah well.