Corey Graves – ‘I’m Willing To Bury The Hatchet With CM Punk’

Corey Graves says he’s more than willing to bury the hatchet with CM Punk if he returns to WWE.

Speaking on the latest episode of “The Kurt Angle Show,” the WWE SmackDown announcer commented on the possibility of CM Punk returning to WWE, their past issues, and more.

You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:

On Jon Huber: “Man, you would be hard-pressed to find two better dudes in the business in the world. Brodie, I knew when he was sort of breaking in in the Buffalo area. He’s from Rochester originally, and I would do independent shows and run into him all the time, and he was just always so happy go-lucky. And to look at him and then to know him, I mean, you got to know him a little bit, right? When you look at him, you think, ‘Oh my God, this hillbilly is going to attack me. He’s this psychopath.’ And then you get to talk to him, and you realize he was the most down-to-earth normal, just sort of nerdy guy. I mean, we just would laugh and joke, and we had these running gags in developmental where I would just try to — I would up my level of misery. I would be like, ‘Hey, Brodie, what are the odds? You take that weight rack over there, and you just tip it over, and I’ll get a couple of weeks off,’ and he’d go, ‘No,’ I’m absolutely like, ‘He didn’t find the humor in it.’ It was just gallows humor, but I remember when we first were in together, he and his family very early on came over to my family’s house for Thanksgiving because we were all the island of misfit toys. None of us had any family nearby. We were all from everywhere around the globe. And just just his laugh and his smile. And John was just such a sweetheart of a human being. It’s still surreal that he’s gone.”

On Bray Wyatt: “Windham, I got to know very early on in my WWE tenure because he had been up with the Nexus and got sent back down. Ordinarily, when you saw that happen, it wasn’t good. You were being sent back down to — you were being repackaged until they just decided that the next round of cuts was coming. And we saw that happen too many times to count. So, I think we all assumed he was on that same path. And I think Windham himself — and again, just like Brodie, when Windham, the loud mouth, hilarious. A Florida boy who just wants to hang out. He used to joke about how he and his brother were like The Dukes of Hazzard in real life. When Windham and Taylor [Bo Dallas] were together, and you wanted to be at that party or wherever they were going after the show, that’s where you wanted to be. Just because the vibe and the energy and the laughter were just constant with both of those guys.

“And then I remember being in the promo class the very first time Wyndham unveiled Bray, and you could have heard a pin drop. We all sat there, and sort of looked at each other, and everyone was watching Dusty, and I don’t think Dusty said anything for 30 seconds or a minute. No one had ever seen Windham do anything like that. Talk about how curt most of the guys that you interact with are. Their character isn’t that far of a stretch from who they are. Part of them, yeah, it is. It’s turned up to 11. The old adage is, ‘It’s me with my volume turned up.’ Windham was the antithesis of Bray Wyatt. And to see him disappear into a closet or an empty locker room before promo day, he would vanish for 20, 30 minutes, and then he would just walk in and walk right up in front of the camera and start to go. And the stuff that came out of his mouth, we were all sitting here going, what, what, what does this have to do with wrestling? What is happening right now? It was just so amazing and captivating that none of us understood what the hell he was talking about. But we didn’t want to. We didn’t want him to stop speaking because he was just great. It was just like — it was confusing, but it was interesting, and it was terrifying. And the way he just became Bray Wyatt. And just as fast as he would become Bray Wyatt if you’d see him outside of the ring. ‘Oh, baby boy, give me a big hug.’ And he did the brother’s handshake. He loved all that, man. He was the absolute best and so much fun to work with.”

On possible WWE return for CM Punk: “I’m amazed it took this long, it’s been a few months for someone to actually throw this question my way. Usually, I’m doing the hosting, so I’m asking everyone else. This is a fun turn of events. Listen, Punk was always great to me when I was coming up. We were really really close. Remember, I told the story of how I missed my son being born. Punk was in Pittsburgh at the time and was the first guy who held my son after he was born. We were tight. Fast forward a few years, and I don’t really know what happened. We sort of fell out for one reason or another. I said some disparaging things in a very public and unprofessional manner. We haven’t spoken since prior to then.

“At the end of the day, rather than sitting here and wasting everybody’s time. I’m a professional. I’m too old to hold grudges. I feel like whatever has happened is water under the bridge. I have a whole different life. I’m in a different place in my life than I was back when all that stuff went down. If it’s right for business, who am I to say no? I’m a pro at the end of the day. I would happily do whatever is needed, and I would shake the man’s hand and move on and see what life holds.“

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