Corey Graves Gives His Verdict On Samoa Joe’s Commentary

SmackDown analyst Corey Graves has given his opinion on the commentary of Samoa Joe who will be on the broadcast team on Raw until he returns from a broken thumb.

It was announced yesterday that Dio Maddin is permanently off the red brand’s announce team, reportedly because Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn weren’t fans of his work, and Joe will continue alongside Vic Joseph and Jerry Lawler until he returns to the ring.

On the After The Bell podcast, Graves said:

“He was awesome. It is surprisingly hard for a lot of superstars to transition into commentary because it goes against what you’re taught.

“It’s sort of a selfish business where you’re about promoting yourself and talking everything relating to yourself and your point of view. So to be able to break that in basically two nights on commentary – Samoa Joe could be the WWE’s answer to Tony Romo – everyone is in love with his perspective – I think it’s refreshing.”

Graves continued, giving his opinion on Joe as a person:

“Samoa Joe is great, personally, as one of my long time friends – he is one of the most talented human beings that I know. He’s entertaining and incredibly smart. Not to mention a complete bad ass in the ring. Selfishly I’m hoping Samoa Joe gets a world championship run at least before he decides to step out of the ring for good.

“I don’t believe there is a transition in the works, but damn it, if Joe needed to prove to anybody he’s done so in an emphatic way! Samoa Joe on commentary, one day, I hope to verbally spar with the dude. Physically he has beat me up enough in the past.”

Thanks to Wrestling Inc for the quotes