Matthew Polinsky[1] (born February 24, 1984)[2] is an American wrestling color commentator and retired professional wrestler.

He is signed to WWE, where he performs under the ring name Corey Graves as the color commentator on the NXT brand.

[7] Polinsky chose his ring name the night before his first professional wrestling match, and picked the name Sterling James Keenan as a tribute to Sterling Sharpe, Polinsky's favorite American football player as a child, and Maynard James Keenan of the band Tool.

[2] He defeated Samoa Joe and Rikishi by countout on August 23, 2007 to win the Ballpark Brawl Natural Heavyweight Title.

He returned to ROH over two years later at Redemption on August 12, 2005, where he participated in a Four Corner Survival match won by Ace Steel.

In May 2003, Keenan participated in IWC's Super Indy tournament, defeating B. J. Whitmer in the first round, but losing to Colt Cabana in the second.

That same night, McChesney won the Super Indy Tournament, winning the championship as part of his victory, despite having not beaten Keenan.

That September, Keenan was part of a tournament for the vacant IWC Heavyweight Championship, but was eliminated in the first round after losing to Ricky Reyes.

[14] Keenan made his debut for the United Kingdom-based 1 Pro Wrestling (1PW) at their inaugural show, A Cruel Twist of Fate, on October 1, 2005, defeating D'Lo Brown.

He quickly formed an alliance with Abyss, and the pair defeated Sabu and Ulf Herman in a hardcore tag team match on January 7, 2006.

In March, Keenan competed in a tournament to determine the inaugural 1PW Heavyweight Champion, but was defeated by AJ Styles in a quarter-final match.

[6][15][16] Keenan successfully defended the championship against Doug Williams on January 25, 2008, and Martin Stone, Darren Burridge and Abyss in a four-way match the following night.

[6][15] He continued to feud with Stone in an unsuccessful attempt to regain the championship throughout 2009, and made his final 1PW appearance at the 4th Anniversary Show in November.

On April 26, 2006, Keenan and CM Punk lost a dark match to The Gymini prior to the SmackDown taping.

Polinsky announced that he would be performing in WWE's developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), under the ring name Corey Graves.

[19] The following year, on March 17, 2012, Graves won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship with Jake Carter by defeating Bo Rotundo and Husky Harris.

[28][29][30][31] Graves transitioned into a feud with The Shield, challenging them to a match for costing him title opportunities, turning face in the process.

Graves returned on the NXT TakeOver: R Evolution pre-show on December 11, where he announced his official in-ring retirement due to his concussion issues.

On July 25, on the first post brand split episode of Raw, Graves began serving as a color commentator alongside Michael Cole and Byron Saxton.

[46] On November 29, Graves joined the commentary team for the Cruiserweight division's WWE Network exclusive show, 205 Live, alongside Mauro Ranallo and Austin Aries.

In turn, podcaster and radio show host Pat McAfee would replace Graves as the Friday Night SmackDown color commentator.

On the November 8 edition of Raw, Graves would pin Akira Tozawa at ringside to win the WWE 24/7 Championship, only to lose it immediately afterward to Byron Saxton.

[49] On February 2, 2024, Graves transitioned into the lead commentator role on SmackDown, serving alongside Wade Barrett who replaced Kevin Patrick.

[54] Polinsky, as Corey Graves, made his video game debut as a playable character in WWE 2K15, where on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game, he has his own path in the "Who Got NXT" mode, documenting his matches in NXT and on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions as an unlockable character through the MyCareer mode.

[56] From October 2015 to April 2016, Polinsky wrote a monthly column for Alternative Press entitled "Stay Loud."

His father Dan is a professional wrestling promoter, and his younger brother Sam is a professional wrestler best known under the ring name "Sam Adonis", and has notably competed in Mexico for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, and the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).

[66] The two were married on April 7, 2022.,[67] in October 31, 2022, his wife revealed in her instagram account, that she had an ectopic pregnancy, which caused a miscarriage.

[71] Fellow WWE commentator and broadcast colleague, Michael Cole has praised Graves stating "We gave him a chance and he really worked hard at it.

[74] Professional wrestling Legend and WWE Hall of Famer Arn Anderson, has also praised Graves stating "He obviously has the in-ring background, he has a cool look, it feels like he's 'inside baseball' enough and up on his stuff where 'smart fans' can enjoy his work, he checks Vince's boxes".

[75] "Just his appearance alone made you pay attention and he appealed to a younger crowd and I think you have to have a mix of different announcers that cover and check different boxes just like you have talent and Corey was a guy that was opinionated.