Corey Graves On His WWE Raw Commentary Role: "I'm Trying To Achieve Sympathy For The Devil"

Corey Graves believes the era of fully-heel commentators has gone from WWE but believes his role is to 'achieve sympathy for the devil' from the audience.

Graves has made the role of being the 'heel' commentator his own at the WWE Monday Night Raw announce desk, often looking at things from the bad guy's perspective and offering a unique view of what is happening in the ring.

Graves says he tries to help the audience understand the heel's point of view in most feuds, while also opening up on how superstars can use commentators to get their point across during their storylines.

Speaking to Ryan Satin on Out of Character, Graves said: "William Regal actually used to instill in us, back in the NXT day, that commentators are a great tool for a superstar. We can tell your story better than you can. Oftentimes, if something goes wrong, I'm the last line of defense and can clean things up sometimes or explain why something didn't go so perfectly.

"Regal used to tell us all the time, 'if you don't utilize the commentators, then you're doing yourself a disservice.' He would tell the story, 'Hey, I want to convey this emotion, this storyline we're trying to get across or this is what we're trying to tell in the ring,' he would go out of his way to enhance that as a commentator, which is the same goal I have.

"He would also be very open that if you don't utilize us and you don't talk to us or tell us what your character is attempting to accomplish, a lot of times, we're just flying blind and we're going to do what we want with it or just entertain yourself. If you don't tell me anything and something goes wrong, maybe I'm having a bad day or I just flew halfway across the earth and my brain is not as sharp or I'm in a bad mood, you never actually know what you're going to get.

"There's never any actual malice because I would be doing myself a disservice because my job, ultimately, is to enhance everything. I do it in a very unique way because it's unique to my perspective as a 'bad guy,' but I'm trying to achieve sympathy for the devil from a viewer's perspective like, 'here's why this person did this underhand thing.' It's no unique because a lot of people think in 2021 that the full-blown heel commentator are passé. I think, to an extent, it is.

"Could you imagine Bobby Heenan? He wouldn't exist in 2021. He would be fired, canceled, tarred and feather publicly because that's the way the world has changed. I try to be a little more villainous mean than full-blown bad guy, justifying and only rooting for the bad guys and the good guys are wrong. I try to adapt, but I grew up on Bobby Heenan and Jesse Venture. Deep inside me, that's who I'm a fan of, so when it comes time to do what I'm doing, I just fall back on what I was a fan of. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't."

H/T Fightful