On the latest episode of his After the Bell podcast, Corey Graves apologized for his tweet criticizing Mauro Ranallo on Saturday, where he said, “Just for the record guys, I know you wouldn’t know it, but there’s actually a WWE Hall of Famer AND a former Ring of Honor Champion on commentary. I’d imagine they have a lot to offer. 🤷♂️” He then tweeted that Mauro was making “far, far too many” rap references.
That led to Mauro deactivating his Twitter account and missing Survivor Series. Additionally, he won’t be on tonight’s NXT episode.
Here’s Graves’ apology from his podcast today:
Before we go any further, on a personal note, I need to address something. This past Saturday during the TakeOver: WarGames event, I sent out a tweet. It was an unpopular opinion, as I often do, with the intention of just stirring up a little controversy, maybe have something fun to talk about on TV or here on the show. It was maybe not the most professional way to go about things and it was never meant to offend or disrespect or disparage anybody. That was never my intention. If it was taken as such, I apologize deeply. That was not my intention. I would never intentionally cause anybody any undue stress, especially a co-worker, so, I apologize.
The tweets were obviously publicly disparaging Mauro, so it seems bizarre to say that disparaging Mauro was “never his intention.”