Vic Joseph Reacts To Corey Graves-WWE Drama, Stephanie Vaquer Blasts CMLL, Sonya Deville Continues To Speak Out
On January 13, Corey Graves took to Twitter to express his frustration about his career, mentioning that he was told he could no longer pursue his dream of wrestling. In a now-deleted tweet, Graves wrote:
“Imagine chasing your dream. Then being TOLD (not deciding) that you’re no longer physically able to pursue your dream. Then you dedicate your life to something “dream adjacent” and being pretty f**king awesome at it. And then, when it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labor, being told you’re not famous enough for your own job. Just in case you’ve wondered where I’ve been.”
Graves had been moved from WWE’s main roster commentary to NXT commentary following the shift of WWE RAW to Netflix. He appeared on commentary for NXT’s New Year’s Evil but missed the following week before returning shortly after.
While appearing on the “Getting Over” podcast, Vic Joseph commented on Graves’ return to the WWE NXT brand. He said,
“I think he had to have a new set of eyes and take a deep breath. Stuff we used to talk about when we’d travel in the car together was, ‘Hey man, it’d be cool to call the shows together one day.’ Once he and I had the talk, ‘Dude, this is what we’ve always talked about.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ I always wore a bow tie every WrestleMania, Corey Graves gave me that as a gift at my very first WrestleMania. We have that personal connection. I think the difficulty of it for Corey, and I think this is where you’re starting to see that seamless transition now, he doesn’t have to do as much. He can take a deep breath and a step back and understand that it is three of us. Three unique individuals and distinct personalities for one goal for one show. It’s been getting better each and every week. It’s only going to get better. All three of us are stoked to be in New York on Tuesday. It’s a chance for not only the brand, but us as a broadcast team to take that next step together and start looking at our first WrestleMania weekend in Las Vegas.”
During a recent appearance on the “Busted Open Radio” podcast, Stephanie Vaquer commented on her time working in CMLL to working in WWE as part of the NXT brand. She said,
“CMLL. Because in CMLL, when you’re new, they say, okay, you’re new…good luck. See you in the ring. You’re so nervous…[but] now I feel really good because here in WWE is a teamwork. I can ask, and I can take, you can help me. I can ask. But in CMLL, nobody help you. You’re alone. No teamwork. If you know wrestling, yeah, wrestle, and nobody’s…training, ‘Oh, you can teach me.’ No. You can say nothing, you can do nothing. You can ask nothing. Yeah, [it was] scary all the time. I cried every day, and I’m training every day. The first year, so difficult for me because I’m the new…I cry every day after the training. I cry every day because you can ask, you can, ‘Please help me,’ [but] no help.“
Sonya Deville spent most of 2021 in an authority figure role alongside Adam Pearce, acting as an assistant manager who wasn’t afraid to wield her power. She took on this role after losing a “Loser Leaves WWE” match to Mandy Rose at SummerSlam 2020.
When asked about missing wrestling during 2021 in an interview with Ariel Helwani on “The Ariel Helwani Show,” Deville reflected on her time away from the ring. She said,
“I missed wrestling, but I liked that role. I just wanted the role to have a little more depth and personality. I wanted her to be a little more puppeteering and manipulative and I was hoping the angle that I got into after the GM thing was something big and meaningful because I had so much heat. People hated me because I was abusing my power to an extent. I was really hoping the angle coming out of that role would propel me into that top of the card female.”
She continued, “People have said they dropped the ball creatively. I’m never one to blame creative because you are in control of your own destiny to an extent. I don’t know. I don’t think they were ready to put me there yet. I don’t think they were ready to put me at the top of the card yet. There was such a good built in story there. I had been nagging (as a character), the stuff with Naomi and then Bianca [Belair]. It was so good. The heat was there, but then we didn’t get the opportunity to have the big angle coming out of it.”
(h/t – Fightful)
