A Look Back On Corey Graves' Wrestling Career (Before He Became An Announcer)
While most fans know Cory Graves as one of WWE’s best commentators, Cory Graves actually has a long history as a professional wrestler himself. Graves made his wrestling debut all the way back in the year 2000. He wrestled under the name "Sterling James Keenan" as a tribute to Sterling Sharpe, Graves’ favorite American football player as a child, and Maynard James Keenan of the band Tool.
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Sterling James Keenan’s Independent Wrestling Career
Graves would wrestle for various independent promotions from the years 2000 to 2011, including Dory Funk Jr.'s "Funkin’ Conservatory,” NWA Upstate, Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South, Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling, Zero-1, 1PW, and Full Throttle Wrestling, winning many championships along the way. Perhaps his most notable appearances during this time however came in his sporadic appearances for Ring of Honor. Graves made his first appearance for ROH at Round Robin Challenge II on April 25, 2003, he appeared at Redemption 2005, wrestled Claudio Castagnoli (Cesaro) in 2005, and appeared at Tag Wars 2006 teaming with Ace Steel. Before joining WWE, Graves would regularly share the ring with big names of independent wrestling, names like Paul London, CM Punk, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Rikishi, The Briscoes, Colt Cabana, Chris Hero, D-Lo Brown, Necro Butcher, Jimmy Rave and bizarrely even Larry Zbyszko, among others.
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Cory Graves Joined WWE In 2011
Graves signed a developmental contract with WWE in 2011, though that wasn’t his first dealing with WWE. Before signing a contract with WWE, Graves had made several dark appearances for the company. On April 26, 2006, Graves and CM Punk lost a dark tag match to The Gymini prior to a SmackDown taping. On June 6, 2006, Graves teamed with Jon Bolen in a loss to Jamie Noble and Kid Kash. Graves appeared on an episode of WWE Heat that was taped on August 6, losing to Val Venis and Graves appeared on the August 10, 2007, episode of SmackDown, where he was easily squashed by Mark Henry.
Upon joining WWE’s developmental, he officially became known as Cory Graves. This was around the time WWE’s developmental was changing from FCW into the NXT we all know today. Graves appeared on the inaugural NXT tapings in June 2012 alongside his FCW tag partner Jake Carter.
As time when on though, Graves got a push as a singles heel, which was very successful. Graves had a great look as a rebel-looking CM Punk type, he was relatively large and was great on the mic. Many fans thought Graves was destined for big things in WWE.
Graves’ work as a heel was rewarded on January 2, 2013, as he was awarded an NXT Championship match against NXT Champion, Seth Rollins. This was towards the end of Seth Rollins' run in NXT and Graves actually won the match following a disqualification from Rollins’ Shield members.
Graves became a mainstay at the top of the card and turned face during the feud with The Shield. Graves would also feud with Bray Wyatt and the Wyatt Family and would win his only WWE Championship during this run, teaming with Neville to defeat Luke Harper and Eric Rowan to become the NXT Tag Team Champions.
Neville and Graves held the NXT Tag Titles for 3 months before losing them to The Ascension. Upon their defeat, Graves would turn on Neville, once again becoming a heel, a role many thought suited him much better.
His heel run would be short-lived however, during the feud with Neville, with both men trading victories, Graves would, unfortunately, suffer a concussion. This concussion was not his first and a combination of these concussion injuries would end his wrestling career at just 30 years old. Graves made an emotional retirement speech with tears in his eyes on the preshow panel for NXT R-Evolution.
Graves would go on to become a commentator in NXT before eventually being called up to the main roster where he would become WWE’s top heel commentator. In 2022 however, Graves shocked the wrestling world when he revealed that he has actually been cleared for in-ring competition. In an interview with The Athletic, Graves said, “I did WWE's' testing protocol, and they said, "You're' medically clear; you don't have any sort of issues that give us pause or worry." In the interview, Graves says that while returning to the ring isn’t an immediate goal, it is nice to know that it is a possibility should the opportunity ever arise.
