Corey Graves Absent From WWE NXT

Following a tweet in which he expressed his unhappiness about being moved from Friday Night SmackDown to WWE NXT, Corey Graves was absent from Tuesday night's episode of NXT at the WWE Performance Center. The show operated with a two-man booth of Vic Joseph and Booker T.

The situation with Graves initially appeared to be part of a storyline, especially after Graves tweeted that he would have a lot to say on WWE NXT earlier on Tuesday. Those close to Graves have claimed to Fightful Select, however, that the situation was real. Fightful Select's Corey Brennan has also noted that Graves was legitimately frustrated about being moved to WWE NXT.

Graves was originally planned to work WWE NXT but PWInsider reported that he was spotted going through TSA to leave Orlando Airport on Tuesday. Graves resides in the Pittsburgh area, Fightful stated.

Corey Graves has been a commentator on WWE programming since his in-ring retirement in 2014. He transitioned to the main roster in 2016 and had been ever-present on either Raw or SmackDown over the past several years, even serving as the play-by-play commentator on SmackDown for a spell in 2024 before WWE brought in Joe Tessitore.

WWE carried out a commentary shake-up for Raw's debut on Netflix earlier this month. This left Graves without a spot on the main roster as the Raw announce team became Michael Cole and Pat McAfee, while SmackDown has Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett.

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