Samantha Irvin (@samanthairvinwwe) is a singer and ring announcer with WWE. She joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios in Las Vegas to talk about her original tryout to be a wrestler that lead to her becoming a WWE ring announcer, growing up as a wrestling fan, who her favorite wrestler was, how she met her fiancé Ricochet and their crazy first date, meeting Lilian Garcia and getting feedback from her, borrowing techniques from Howard Finkel, her approach to her ring announcing style, memorizing all of the superstar’s stats, how her background as a musician influences her style, her preshow vocal warmups, why she announces Chelsea Green’s name in the unique way she does, her memories of announcing the main event at WrestleMania 39 and much more!
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Quote I’m thinking about:
Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. – Maria Robinson
On Mark Henry scouting Samantha Irvin:
“He just started tweeting me and was like, You should be in wrestling. Have you ever thought of WWE, WWE is calling. And I was like, I slid in his DMS. I said sir, yes. What can I do? And he said, Well, you’d have to do like a tryout like a real physical tryout. That’s what he would be able to do. I was like, I’m not an athlete. I’ve never stepped foot in a ring. Never played a sport. Nothing. But I was like, Well, if that’s what I have to do, I’ll go there and and do it. I had a tryout. I did the tryout, like, like with collegiate athletes taking bumps, running the ropes. Yes, I did the actual tryout.”
On transitioning from wrestling to announcing:
“I think that in the process of the tryout, I obviously wasn’t the fastest or the strongest or anything impressive. But we did cut promos, I did have a chance to announce a couple of matches and just kind of show my personality. And Mark Henry did tell me he’s like just get in there and let them know what you think you’d be good at doing. So they saw that I wasn’t athletic. But they thought that I was good at some other stuff. So luckily, I was able to connect with Michael Cole from there and get the ball rolling.”
On advice given prior to announcing:
“Oh, man, the first piece of advice. When I got the offer, Mark Henry called me right away. And he said, listen to the greats, listen to the legends. And I said, dawg, you already know, like Howard Finkel, Lillian, love them. They are the sound like, they’re just my childhood. Like, I just know their voices. I know how I felt when I listened to them. So just educating myself on what the role has been and how the fans have connected to that role in the past. That was the first real bit of advice that I got.”
On finding her unique style:
“Well, I think that probably kind of from the beginning, I think I came in at a time where things were changing. We were in the pandemic. And live audiences were starting to come back 205 Live was turning into Level Up, NXT was turning into NXT 2.0. There were just a lot of things shifting at that time. And Michael Cole just gave me the go-ahead. He was like, I want you to do your ideas, whatever your ideas are, I know you know, this is what we always have done. But if something moves you he’s always been very supportive and given me a lot of credit. Like, I know you’re a performer. You have a lot of time in doing this. So he gave me his trust. And that gave me the confidence to, you know, if Michael Cole says Go ahead, you are like alright, Michel Cole said go ahead. So yeah, it was great.”
On announcing some of the legends of WWE:
“Okay, so I’ve had a few. The first one that pops to my mind is Edge, The Rated R Superstar because that was such an iconic announcement from Tony Chimel. Everybody knows that. And I would never want to like jack that announcement or copy it, but you always want to, like, still capture the essence. I got to announce him at Clash at the Castle. That’s actually the only time I think that I’ve announced him, and it was crazy. But I said I’m gonna go for something different. I’m just gonna go for what I interpret him as, what we know now, Edge, he’s returned. We never thought we would see Edge again. And now he’s just killing it. Who is Edge right now? And it was the Rated R Superstar! And it just happened and he liked it. And that meant everything to me. And he came up to me like I saw him a couple of months after that. And he was like, Hey, I’ve been meaning to tell you. You know, I really liked what you did. He’s like Superstar! and I was like, okay, good. He liked it. So him Shawn Michaels I got to announce Shawn and I just basically said it the way I probably would have said it when I was seven. I was like Shawn Michaels! You know, Triple H, you know, I just whatever they make me feel and I do take a lot from Howard if it’s an older announcement or something I take a lot from him because I still want that. That nostalgia, a ring of nostalgia to be there for the people who know.”
On announcing during commercial breaks:
“We got a whole lot going on you know. We got t-shirts to tell the people about, we have cameras that we like to put on the crowd and people like to put their signs up and show off their dance moves. We do the DX cam, you know, we teach the kids all the good stuff that they need to know. We got the people’s eyebrow cam, we do the you can’t see me cam. We were in North Carolina, we did the woo cam, the Ric Flair woo cam. So yeah, you know, we have a lot going on, like to get the people up on the screen as well.”
On learning all of the Superstars’ hometowns and weights:
“That process is whack. Okay, it is so much pressure. And you know, hey, I have a theatre background. So, you know, memorization has always kind of been my thing. It’s the hardest part, but it is something that I’m used to, you know, doing shows and having lines and all that kind of stuff, doing auditions for jobs that you never get, I’ve learned a lot of lines.”
On not coming to the aid of Richochet:
“Yes, it is. Yeah, it’s very nice. It’s nice to let the fans know because I do support him and I do care a lot about his journey and his goals and what he wants to accomplish. So I’m proud to support him. But of course, I have to do my job all the time and he knows that and I don’t think the fans understand that necessarily. Some of them don’t get it because they’re always like, how come you’re not helping him? And I’m like, What do you want me to do? Like I got a little skirt on, I’m about to go in here? I told you I can’t wrestle. Everybody wants me to wrestle. I’m like, why?”
On the aftermatch of SummerSlam:
“I was not happy. And definitely not happy to have a camera in my face while he’s saying that to me. So not my favourite. And it’s crazy because it’s such a rewatched replayed moment. And it’s like the wackest moment that I’ve had, but you know it’s fine. No matter what I was gonna get the announcement off no matter what. But I was not obviously I was in shock. I have not seen anyone assault my fiance with brass knuckles before so that was a first. It was just lazy, but I think we probably know what would have happened.”
On her favorite Ricochet moment:
“Favourite Ricochet moment? Ooh. Well, I loved it when he won the Intercontinental Championship. That was a great, great, great, great moment. And I was so happy I was able to announce that. But I also love the SmackDown World Cup. His match with Santos Escobar was crazy. But I honestly, he’s great. Ricochet is like, he’s the one for you know, you know that every match is going to be incredible. You know, he’s going to do everything in his power to try to win. So I love everything that I’ve seen him do. I’ve never seen him have a bad match.”
On the how Samantha Irvin announces Chelsea Green:
“It was just because of her, it’s just her. She came back, and her attitude and everything was just she was so sassy and I just loved it. And I just thought she’s not, you know [flatly] Chelsea Green like, no, she’s Chelsea Green! And it just, I did it one time. I think now it’s like obviously now it’s over the top but the first time I did it, I think I just was like Chelsea Green and like some people noticed, you know, and then well now she will not let me say it any other way. She helped me fine-tune it perfectly for her.”
On nerves and anxiety:
“I was nervous to come here and do this. So the nerves for me are always there. I have a lot of anxiety, a lot of performance anxiety that I just don’t think is ever gonna go away. I think about it all the time of how I can try to [reduce it]. People like you’ve done this, you’ve done this so much. Why are you still nervous? But I’m a perfectionist, and I want it to be great. The main thing with the vocals is when you have like, I had to check myself a couple of weeks ago because I was like, I lost Rhea’s announcement. I can’t do it. I told Ricochet, I told my brothers I’m like, I lost it. I can’t do it, my voice is tired. And they’re like, What do you mean, you lost it like you made it up. Like I made it up. Nobody told me I had to say it that way. So it’s like I hold myself to this standard and I just want to nail it every single time. So it is nerve-wracking, especially when things maybe have to change, you know, on the fly. Say, we had a match yesterday that kind of got swapped. So you know you got to you just kind of have to adapt. But I’m always nervous. There’s never ever a time where I’m not nervous.”
On the scariest ringside moment:
“I mean, Gable and Gunther had a crazy little situation over in my area a few weeks ago, but I was sitting right there when Big E got hurt. So a lot of times like I am scared honestly, like I’m I am scared. What they’re doing is a big risk. And it’s and as a fan, you know, as long as I’ve been watching, I’m not stupid, things can happen. This is not like a guarantee, you know, so I am always just hoping my one memory that pops in is the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match this year. I’m sitting, there Charles Robinson, the ref is sitting there watching and he’s got tears in his eyes. And we’re both and I hope he’s not there. No, I’m just now I’m just see. Now I’m like, Just me and you, chillin’. We’re just chilling. But honestly, he just, they were they were doing some crazy stuff in that match. And we both were just watching and just it was emotional. Like you just we want everyone to be okay. And you know, my reactions are genuine. When some crazy stuff is going down.”
What is Samantha Irvin grateful for:
“My daughter, my fiance, my siblings and my friends.”
