WWE News: WWE NXT Commentator Corey Graves To Work On Main Roster Announce Team After Brand Split?

With the WWE Brand Split coming back, a lot of things will be changing for the company. Fans will get to see two live shows per week, as WWE SmackDown will go live on Tuesdays starting July 19. This not the first time the brand has had a live show, but they have not been live on a regular basis. WWE normally tapes SmackDown on Tuesdays, so it made total sense to air it live on this day.

Due to the brand split, WWE will be bringing back the WWE Draft, which is rumored to take place July 11 on WWE RAW. We aren’t sure just yet on who will end up where, but rumor states that Roman Reigns will be the lead man on WWE RAW, and John Cena will have the same position on WWE SmackDown. The draft will mostly affect the roster of talent, but WWE has contemplated what to do with the announce team.

According to the Wrestling Observer, WWE is considering the idea of having unique announce teams on both shows, which means Byron Saxton won’t be on both. While WWE is unlikely to move Jerry Lawler or Mauro Ranallo, it is likely that they get another person on the table while Saxton is unique to WWE RAW. According to Cageside Seats, WWE will be deciding on who goes where soon. On top of this, WWE NXT announcer Corey Graves actually teased a possible call-up, knowing there could be unique announce groups, and it is not out of the cards that he could come up.

Many are under the impression that Corey Graves will end up being brought up to work on WWE SmackDown, as will Lawler and Mauro. As previously mentioned, he did tease this sort of thing on the day of the brand split announcement — good timing on his part. Since then, the internet has been blowing up with the praise of Graves, where people would tell WWE that it needs to happen. They might listen, too.

For those who don’t know Graves from his NXT work, he has been getting a lot of praise since heading to the table. Many feel he is one of the best commentators in the business today, and that he very well could have been born for such things. Corey Graves was once a performer for the WWE in the NXT brand. He was even a former NXT Tag Team Champion with Neville. However, he sustained a few concussions throughout his career, both on the independent scene and with WWE.

Doctors felt that it would be best if Graves retired because medically speaking, he simply was not able to work. He could still get in the ring and probably do just fine, but concussions are no joke. WWE would not allow him to compete for them, but due to his tremendous promo ability, WWE felt it might be good to try him out in different areas of the company. He did so well initially that WWE offered him a good deal to work outside the ring, calling matches and even doing material for DVDs as well as the WWE Network.

Graves has excelled with everything WWE has given him, which makes many think he more than deserves to be brought up to the main roster to work on the announce table. With the possible need of a third man, it would make total sense to have Graves come up. However, the problem might come down to how they shuffle the teams around, if they do at all. Saxton has been working as the face announcer to JBL and Lawler’s heel.

Graves works best as the color commentator you see as more heelish than anything else. If he were to go to either show, he would have to change the way he works, or someone else would. It would be wrong to have two heel commentators to the lead announcer’s babyface. The reason the three man group works well now is because Saxton is a face color commentator. If WWE does bring Corey Graves up, it will be interesting to see how they use him on the table.

[Image via WWE]