Fans watching WrestleMania surely heard Michael Cole make a critical mistake in the main event of Night 1. Bianca Belair successfully pinned Sasha Banks to win the championship but Michael Cole thought that Sasha Banks kicked out and called it on TV as if she had. Graves had to correct Cole and say that the match was over. You can see a clip of the moment below.
Pasó inadvertido el botch de Michael Cole diciendo que fue un kick-out ?#WrestleMania pic.twitter.com/VmNFTW5ZWE
— Jabroni (@Jaburoni) April 11, 2021
On the latest edition of ‘After The Bell’ with Corey Graves, Graves defended Michael Cole by saying “If there’s anybody that’s truly unshakable, it’s Michael Cole. Cole felt bad, he felt terrible but I can relate. I almost thought the same thing, from our vantage point, it was not crystal clear.”
Graves did not want to make excuses but mentioned that they were in a very different environment then they had been used to. Graves said, “I’m not making excuses cause it was what it is, it didn’t take anything away from the amazing moment, it was reality. It was a very genuine real reaction, take into consideration, yes we have the monitor, yes we have audio in our headphones, but we’re also in a stadium full of 20,000 people. Any wrestler’s book that you have ever read says being in a stadium is very different than an arena because it takes a second, the sound has to leave and come back before anybody can truly register. I myself, wasn’t sure.”
Finally, Graves mentioned that matches during WrestleMania, especially main event matches, very often have situations where wrestlers kick out of their opponent’s finisher numerous times. Graves said, “Hey, it’s the main event of WrestleMania, people have kicked out of each others finishers 35 times already tonight, why wouldn’t this be any different? It was a genuine shock after that so everyone, leave Michael Cole alone.”
Vic Joseph chimed in by also defending Cole, saying “I’m not gonna make an excuse for Michael Cole, he doesn’t need one. But here’s the hard lesson that I don’t understand. When wrestling fans go, ‘Oh well they don’t even care. They don’t sound excited. They don’t sound genuine.’ That was a genuine reaction. I wasn’t at the desk but I know the story because you both have told it to me. That was a genuine heartfelt reaction in the moment. So it added to it.”
You can listen to the entire episode below.
READ MORE: Michael Cole: I Came To WWE For TV Experience, But Fell In Love And The Rest Is History
