Get to know: Corey Graves

Corey Graves at an NXT show

Hey everyone and welcome back to my blog; As you all know October is NXT month here on Talk Wrestling world, and so far I have bombarded you with Get to know's, top fives and opinion based post witch I hope you have all enjoyed so far. Today I have for you yet another Get to know. I would love to know what you would like to see next so leave a comment letting me know or even a tweet at @TezangiVictoria, Links to any recent post will also be bellow.

Today we are taking a looking at Corey Graves. I wasn't sure weather to include Graves in my NXT month due to he's current situation. As some of you, if not all, will know that Graves is currently out of wrestling action and their is word he wont be retuning to the ring, however he is still going to live shows with the NXT roster and the WWE currently looking for something for him to do in the company. So I thought I would do the post anyway and I know Graves has a strong fan base. From the moment I started watching NXT Corey was the first person I watched and was automatically gripped. Everything about him was just right. He's one of those rare superstars who simply have it all; good looks, attitude, good mic skills, strong wrestling background, and amazing wrestling ability. There's something truly entertaining and intresting about Graves, he screams potential and if it wasn't for the problems he's currently going though he would of easily been on the main roster by now, I don't doubt that for a single second. Every match he was in was great to watch and he always brought something different, leaving you just wanting to see more from him. There are plenty of words that have been used to describe Corey but the one word that never comes out of anyone's mouth is boring. The girl's wanna be with him and the guy's wanna be him. He has a confidence in the ring that is something you can't teach someone and without even knowing him you can tell that the wrestling ring is he's home and he's comfortable in-between those ropes. I honestly do hope that he does get to return to the ring at some point, and with the Royal Rumble around the corner (40 man royal rumble at that) a girl can simply only hope.

Before Corey Graves...
Matt Polinsky was born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania on the 24th of February 1984 (making him thirty years old). What some of you may not know is that Matt is a professional piercer, at the request of a friend who needed a piercer in he's tattoo shop, after training as an apprentice he began working in the shop. He would work in the shop Naughty Vibrations in Greensburg Pennsylvania and another shop named True Image in New Kensington Pennsylvania. Polinsky is known for he's tattoos an had two before he was eighteen with he's parents' permission and once he turnt eighteen he got sleeves on both of he's arms. He also has a tattoo on he's neck and "Stay down" across he's knuckles. He also attended college and got a degree in marketing.

Independent Promotions...
After he's first professional wrestling match Polinsky choose he's ring name and picked " Sterling James Keenan as a tribute to he's favourite American Footballer as a child, Sterling Sharpe and  Maynard James Keenan from the band Tool.
He debuted on March 22 2000 as Keenan and throughout the next year he would appear in various promotions including Dory Funk Jr's "Funkin Conservatory" where he competed with the likes of Paul London, Adam Windsor and Onyx. In 2002 Keenan won the Funkin Conservatory tag team championships teaming up with Chris Cage to defeat London and Windsor.
He also made appearances for NWA Upstate, Independent Wrestling Association Mid- South, Cleveland All- Pro wrestling and Full Throttle Wrestling. He won the NWA east tag team champions on April 26 2002 when he teamed up with Mad Mike. Keenan was also apart of  Union of independent professional wrestlers promotion in both of its incarnations. He won the UIPW Keystone cruiserweight championship and in 2005 he began to appear regularly for Far North Wrestling (FNW) and on November second 2007 he won a battle royal to become the FNW Heavyweight champion. On February 24,  2008 Keenan won Absolute Intense wrestling's heavyweight championship by winning a 30- man gauntlet match.

Graves and Ambrose tag teaming 

Keenan also competed for Pro  Wrestling Zero 1 and has previously won the zero-one heavyweight championship on two occasions. He has also made several appearances for Ring Of Honour (ROH), he made he's debut at Round Robin Challenge II on the 25th of April 2003 in tag team action. He would go on to make several appearances for the promotion throughout he's career where he would face the likes of Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli and Jimmy Rave.

International Wrestling Cartel...
On October 19, 2002 Keenan debuted for International Wrestling Cartel (IWC) defeating Troy Lords. The following night he would go one to pick up a win over CM Punk before losing to Shirley Doe on two separate occasions. He was also unsuccessful in capturing the tag team championships with Dustin Ardine. At IWC's Revengeance show in September, Keenan defeated AI B to earn a match for the IWC Heavyweight championships. On November 1, 2003 he got he's championship match and won the title from Dennis Gregory. He made successful title defences against the likes of Gregory and Punk. On the fourth of August 2007, Keenan lost another match for the championship witch he had been chasing all year, this time it was once again to long- term rival Denis Gregory, this would be he's last match in company.

1PW...
From 2005 to 2009 Keenan wrestled for the United Kingdom based 1 Pro Wrestling, making he's debut on October first 2005 at their inaugural show, A Cruel Twist of fate when he defeated D'Lo Brown. He would quickly form an alliance with Abyss, and the pair would defeat Sabu and  Ulf Herman in a hardcore tag team match on June 7th 2006. Keenan competed in a tournament to determine the inaugural 1PW Heavyweight championship, but was defeated by AJ Styles in a quarter finals match. He moved on to a feud with Spud, defeating him on May 2 at Know Your Enemy  Night One. At Fight Night 2 Keenan defeated Spud in a Iron City street fight. Three weeks later Keenan replaced Matt Hyson in a tag match where he and Spud challenged Jody Fleisch and Johnny Storm for the 1PW tag team championship. They were unsuccessful after Keenan attacked Spud  during the match. At Invincible in August, a tag team match featuring Keenan and Hyson VS Spud and  Teddy Hart ended in a no contest after several wrestlers got involved, witch led to a 10 man elimination tag team match, witch saw Keenan's team pick up the win.
At 2nd Anniversary show, Keenan defeated Herman to win the championship in a steel cage. He successfully defended he's championship against Dough Williams and then in a fatal four way against Martin Stone, Darren Burridge and Abyss. He eventually lost the championship to Martin Stone in 2008 and feud with him for several months. He made he's final appearance for  1PW at the 4th anniversary show in November of 2009.

World Wrestling Entertainment...
Some of you may not know that back on the 26th of April 2006, Keenan and CM Punk lost a dark match to The Gymini prior to the Smackdown taping. On June 6, 2006 Keenan teamed up with Jon Bolen in a loss to Jamie Noble and Kid Kash. On August 6, Keenan appeared on an episode of WWE Heat, loosing to Val Venis. On August 10, 2007 Keenan appeared on Smackdown in a squash match to Mark Henry.

In August 2011 it had been reported that Polinsky had signed a developmental contract with WWE, he would later announce he would be wrestling for WWE's developmental territory FCW under the ring name Corey Graves.He debuted on the September 25 taping, loosing to Erick Rowan. The following year, on March 17, Graves one  the FCW tag team championships with Jake Carter after defeating Bo Rotundo and Husky Harris. When WWE re-branded FCW into NXT, Graves and Carter participated in the inaugural tapeings in May 2012, They defeated CJ Parker and Nick Rogers in March, aired in April.

Graves entering NXT Match

On November 14 Graves was re-established as a singles wrestler with a win over Oliver Grey. After a submission victory over Yoshi Tatsu in December, Graves attacked the NXT champion Seth Rollins, and was awarded a shit at the championship on January 2, 2013 episode of NXT. Graves failed to capture the championship despite wining by DQ following from the interference from Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. He also worked tag team matches with Dean Ambrose in FCW and live shows for NXT. Graves would eventually go back to feuding with Seth and the rest of the Shield boys, where he had a lumberjack match with Rollins witch he lost once again because of the Shield. In May Graves began feuding with The Wyatt family. After being eliminated by Bray Wyatt in a battle Royal, Graves teamed up with Kassius Ohno to face Luke Harper and Erick Rowan for the tag team championships but was unsuccessful, they would then add Adrian Neville to the mix and the six guys where involved in a six man tag match but lot to the Wyatt family.After Wyatts injured Ohno in a storyline Neville and Graves would regularly team up, and on the July 18 episode of NXT the two defeated Harper and Rowan to capture the NXT Tag team championships. The two held the titles for three months before dropping the the championships to The Ascension. After they failed to regain the championships Graves turnt heel attacking Neville. They shared victories before Graves suffered a concussion leaving him out of action. He returned in January this year and began a feud with Sami Zayn, Graves then suffered a second concussion and is yet to return to action. As I mentioned earlier there is no word on weather or not Graves will return to action but the WWE are currently trying to find him something to do in the WWE. Personally I really do hop he get's to come back and compete in the ring again.

But what do you think of Graves? Let me know by leaving a comment bellow or dropping me a tweet at @TezangiVictoria.