Back in 2015, WWE was forced to cancel an episode of Monday Night RAW due to a terrible snowstorm. Instead, WWE aired some backstage interviews with Superstars and matches from the Royal Rumble the night before.
Recently, WWE commentator Corey Graves took to his podcast, “After The Bell,” to reflect on that day, recollecting that it was also the first time he interacted with Brock Lesnar. Graves noted a compliment he paid Lesnar about a jacket he was wearing lead to a pleasant exchange between the pair.
“That night stands out to me because it was the first time I encountered Brock Lesnar in person. I found myself in a conference room sitting beside him, and there was an awkward silence. Neither of us knew each other or what to make of one another other than the fact that I was as terrified of him in person as I had been for years on television. So did what any reasonable human would do in that situation: I complimented ‘The Beast’ on his jacket which surprisingly led to a fun little exchange. A conversation with Brock Lesnar, who at that particular juncture, did not decide to tear me limb from limb. Lucky me.”
Graves went on to reveal that Lesnar actually paid a significant amount of money to keep the hotel bar open for his fellow Superstars to make sure they got the best of a bad situation, being trapped inside due to the storm.
“The show was very interesting. They re-aired the Royal Rumble match from the night before [and aired] a few backstage interviews with Roman, Brock and many others, and allegedly, [the] now WWE Champion paid a significant amount of money to keep the bar wide open for everybody to make sure they made the best of a crappy situation. I, of course, stayed in a completely different hotel, but it led to me finding the only open establishment in the scenic Stamford, CT where myself and two-thirds of The Shield made sure that none of the beers at said establishment went unattended. What a day. Not all bad things came from that snowstorm: fun memories, fun times but let’s hope RAW doesn’t get canceled ever again.”
(H/T IWNerd for the transcriptions)
