Booker T has claimed that his recent removal from commentary duties on Monday Night RAW was the fault of Corey Graves.
Speaking on the Heated Conversations podcast that he hosts with Brad Gilmore, the former WCW and WWE World Heavyweight Champion made it clear that not only did he and Graves have heat with one another, but it was the primary reason that he was relieved of his role on WWE’s flagship Monday night show.
Booker was recently replaced at the desk by the returning Jonathan Coachman and returned to his regular slot as a panel member on pay-per-view kickoff shows.
“He’s the reason that I’m not on Monday Night RAW right now,” said Booker, stating clearly that many in WWE felt that the one-time King Of The Ring would come into physical conflict with the former NXT prodigy.
“If I got Corey Graves into a fisticuffs I would beat him down…I would be whooping his ass all day long” continued Booker, before adding helpfully, “I’m a nice guy”.
Happy to mine this rich vein of anger and hostility, Booker threatened to “do something to him” if he were to ever “catch Corey Graves on the street” before threatening to “rearrange” his “bouffant hairdo”
Graves – who was forced to retire as an in-ring performer in 2014 after two serious concussions in three months – has quickly positioned himself as a key face and voice of WWE.
His turn of phrase, good looks and enthusiasm have found him working both RAW and SmackDown Live, and until recently was the voice of both NXT and 205 Live.
Booker T is no stranger to conflict with his fellow employees, having engaged in a fight with Batista in 2006, which saw the former Harlem Heat man come out very much the victor.
Barbed comments passed back and forth between the two, in which an increasingly irritated Booker is needled by the smug sarcasm of Graves, has become the subject of debate between fans, who feel the bad blood between the pair is more than just entertainment.
Some comments have evidently stuck with Booker, who focused on Graves’ “vernacular” and “college education”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOSLKrXfrLk
Of course, it remains to be seen whether this is a work. Making threats against colleagues on a public forum is not exactly best for business, and if Booker has stepped out of line then he may find his role at the company reduced even further in light of his comments.
Mentioning WrestleMania specifically, Booker made a challenge of sorts to Graves.
“There’s room for one more match. Right now, on my show, Heated Conversations, Sports Radio 610, I’m calling Corey Graves out to a fight. Not a match. Not a pre-show posedown or anything like that. I’m calling Corey Graves out to a fight.”
Having alluded to Graves’ concussion issues as well as namedropping his own backstage brawl with Batista, it is currently difficult to tell where the work ends and the shoot begins.
If it is a work then one must question the use of time and resources toward creating a feud between a 52-year-old retired Booker T and a man forced to retire through injury.
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