“Tommy Dreamer would book all the extra talent, and he called me and said, ‘Hey, we want you Monday and Tuesday in Cleveland and Pittsburgh,'” Graves recalled. “And I was like, ‘I could absolutely use an extra 500 bucks each day, to bring home to the baby and feed my family.’ That’s the only reason I said ‘Yes.’ I had absolutely no expectations that I was going get signed or they even had any interest.”

To Graves’ surprise, he had fruitful conversations with WWE executives while working as an enhancement talent, and six weeks later, landed a developmental contract with the company, getting assigned to the FCW system where others such as Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Bray Wyatt, Charlotte Flair, and Jon Moxley were also being trained. During his time in FCW, Graves struck up a friendship with Wyatt, whom he credits for helping him coin his “Corey Graves” wrestling name. Thereafter, Graves had a brief stint in “NXT,” but a series of concussions derailed him from becoming a WWE Superstar. Yet, Graves found a lane for himself in announcing, something he credits his father for.

“[Wrestling] is quite literally the fabric of all my childhood memories,” Graves said. “My dad is a big fan, to this day … I grew up in the golden era with Hulkamania running wild. I don’t think it was ever a choice that I made, it was just something I was born into. Wrestling was constantly on in the house … my dad would talk about Ric Flair and The Road Warriors. I kinda had a crash course [on wrestling] even before I could do basic arithmetic.”