McKenzie Mitchell (@mckenzienmitchell) is a broadcaster and TV host who is known for her time in WWE and IMPACT Wrestling. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Orlando, FL to talk about being released by WWE, what she wants to do next, her jewelry brand “Headline by MM”, how she started her broadcasting career, getting hired by IMPACT Wrestling, how she landed her job with WWE, favorite moments in NXT, meeting her husband Vic Joseph in WWE, his love for the Cleveland Browns and much more.
Find out more about Headline By MM here: https://www.headlinebymm.com/
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On being released from WWE:
“I’m good. You know, I think once the dust has settled, it’s been really, it’s a blessing. I think that there are so many new beginnings, and I’m excited to see what’s to come in the future. The outreach, and the support that I’ve gotten from friends, family, coworkers, colleagues, production, staff executives in WWE, the fans most importantly, it’s been insane. That’s what made me emotional when I got released was being able to hear from everyone how much I impacted their opinion in when watching WWE and when watching NXT. That’s what made me emotional was hearing from all of the people their favourite moments in my career and the favourite interviews that I’ve done and the magic that was created on screen like that made it made such a big impact on me to see what I made on them.”
On processing the release:
“I think it’s like I said, I think this is a way to say there’s a new beginning and everything and just kind of like Okay, what’s next? I know, like I said, I have my jewellery business. And so I’ve been putting all my efforts into that into my creativity there. That’s almost my full-time. My husband still works within the company, obviously. So that’s really interesting that he’s still there, I’m not. I don’t know if people know but we were the first couple on the announce team. Like genuinely like that our announcer and announcer that are married. So we kind of like really figured it out there but I’m of course still supportive of WWE and NXT and I still watch him and I still text him good luck before every show. I’ve still obviously all my friends are still there. So I’m still supportive.”
On being the only release:
“And I think it’s interesting. And I think there’s still, I know a lot of people in wrestling. I think people say I just needed to take a break. When they leave WWE, and they go and do something else, or they leave AEW, and they just need a break sometimes because wrestling is 24/7. It’s 365. For me, like working in WWE, I was fully ingrained. I’m watching Raw on Monday, I’m watching SmackDown on Friday. I’m there at NXT on Tuesday, I’m doing the live events on Saturday and Sunday, it’s a full immersed, you’re submerged, I guess I should say, into the business. So for me, it’s like some people, say that they just need a break. But I never got that opportunity to really say I needed a break. I was in it. I was like ready to conquer whatever came at me next. But like I said, there were so many people that reached out and I am endlessly grateful and thankful for all of that from the fans online and messages I still get today. I mean, we’re doing this, what three, four weeks later, at the end of the month. This happened December 1 and I’m still getting messages and people reaching out. Probably the most surprising of people who messaged me that really took me back I got a personal phone call from Terry Taylor, which he made me cry and tear up because he’s had such nice things to say about me, not about my work, but about my character and my person. And that really spoke to me because it meant that I had an impact on him and other people in the Performance Center and in WWE. And then Becky Lynch sent me like a three paragraph text message. And that was really cool, because Becky is someone that I think she’s such a role model to so many people in WWE and just who are a fan of wrestling and that are not a fan of wrestling. And so to hear that the really kind words from her, and how highly she thought of me was really awesome. That’s another thing is Shawn Michaels I respect to the ends of the earth, Shawn Michaels and Triple H I think there’s such amazing humans. And so for Shawn to say that in the media presser that they had going on was just that was another thought of like, wow, this, this is really cool.”
On possibly returning:
“Never say never. I know that people say that. And it kind of sounds cliche. But it’s true. Like I didn’t get to have my goodbye in WWE. I didn’t get to choose to leave. And that’s where I was saying I think it’s, some people need to take a break, I didn’t get that opportunity to say like, I’m ready to take a break. I was ready to keep on going and go to WrestleMania and do the Royal Rumble and all of those things. So it was really awesome to hear Shawn say those things and never say never.”
On goals that were never accomplished:
“I really always wanted to have my WrestleMania moment, just as the Superstars do. They want to have their moment of having all their hard work that’s built up to this moment, to this match to this exact, huge capstone experience. I didn’t get to have that WrestleMania interview or host a kickoff show. That was something I did for NXT. But I didn’t get to do that on a larger scale with the WWE main roster. So that’s something I’ve always really wanted to do and to have the Royal Rumbles and go on the road and say, Hey, I made it to Raw to SmackDown so that was a bummer. That’s a bummer to say like, I wanted to do those things. And I wanted to do WrestleMania.”
On doing the research:
“I was like, writing articles or doing my research to sound so silly, but I would have like a spiral notebook. And at the time in Impact, it was Bobby Lashley, Drew Galloway, which Drew McIntyre and so I was like, writing these guys out like, okay, Bobby does not like Drew and this is why. I was like, trying to compartmentalise it in my brain because there’s storylines, there are rivalries, it all go, it’s very intertwined. And so I just did the grunt work of just learning and like putting my head down and just getting to know the business. And I think there’s something cool about that now to take a look back and go, she knew nothing, absolutely nothing. And here we are, we made it to the majors, aka WWE. That wasn’t my goal. But then it became my goal, and it became my life.”
On applying to WWE:
“So I’m going to be very honest. When I applied to work with WWE, I had a tryout in 2017 I did not get hired. I applied in 2019. I was living in Los Angeles at the time and I applied online for my role. WWEcareers.com. I swear I was like, How does this happen? How am I applying? You think like the wrestling business is very small. So we all know each other. We all end up seeing each other down the line. If somebody gets released, or they go to a different company, we all still connect. We’re all still friends. And so I applied for the role online and started in Connecticut for the digital team. And then was there for six months and then got called to NXT. And so then I was on TV immediately for NXT which was always my goal. I wanted to do television I wanted to do interviewing. That’s what I had learned throughout the years.”
Day 1 on the job:
“The first thing I did was interviews. Well, let’s take it back a little bit further. I was doing WWE Now, it’s like a weekly news show for WWE on Mondays and Fridays, kind of giving the scoop the rundown of what you can see on the show that night. So I was doing that. And then once I got moved to television, I started doing the interviews. I remember very vividly, I actually think I remember my first interview in WWE. I think it was Austin Theory and Tyler Breeze. There was an interview that we did. There was a show that we did at the Performance Center. I think it was like a homecoming type thing before COVID happened and before we moved to the Performance Center, so we were still filming at Full Sail. I don’t remember but it was something like that. I did some kind of interview like that. And we had to do it a few times because there was a moment they took the camera and I think they said, take a picture, it’ll last longer, Theory said that to Breeze, but we kept screwing up the photo. And so it’s a moment I’ll have to go back and find the interview. But that was pretty fun. I remember that very vividly.”
What’s next?
“I don’t know. I think that’s okay sometimes to say, I don’t know. And I think sometimes it’s nice to take a break, and stop and change direction and go, What is it that I really want to do? Do I want to continue in wrestling? Do I want to do something in entertainment and in music and in media? So there’s a lot of question marks. But I also think, I don’t know. I’m excited to see what’s next. Vic and I have talked about having a baby.”
On wanting to return:
“I’d love to get back to WWE and finish, I’m not going to use Cody Rhodes’ line here, I was gonna say, finish the story not doing that. He wouldn’t care if I did. Anyways, I can say that I’ve known Cody and Brandi for so many years. But to get back in and continue to do interviews, but do it on a different stage. I think that’s a goal that I never got to check off. And I don’t know if I mentioned this, but somebody tagged me in a post. And I thought it was really, really nice and really beautiful. I always had this chemistry on camera with Wes Lee. And we would do the high fives I’ve known Wes since we worked at Impact together. And the high five was just so natural, because that’s just who we are as people. So a lot of what you saw on camera was so many of these talent was genuinely the feeling like of course you turn it up a notch when you’re on camera. But somebody had tagged me in the fact that the last thing you see of me on WWE television is Wes and I giving a high five. And he and I say good luck. And he goes alright, can you go girl, and then he goes off-screen. So I think that’s very poetic. I believe in those types of things. And I, when somebody mentioned that, to me, I was like, holy cow. That’s cool. That’s really a nice moment to have as your last moment seen on WWE television.”
On Vic Joseph calling the action on NXT:
“It’s really cool to see the dynamic between him and Booker. I absolutely love, I should say this too. I absolutely love Stu Bennett. What is the on-camera Wade Barrett? Yeah, Wade Barrett. I can only call him Stu. He’s like family to us. So when he was coming down to NXT and we were doing the shows together we would watch the Premium Live Events at our house and have like a pool day with Stu and so we had so much fun he’s like family truly. And then when Booker came along, it’s just interesting to see to see the different dynamic. But I love Book like he’s awesome. He always calls me M like hey M and Sharmell is amazing. And so she Booker will call Sharmell throughout the day, or we call Sharmell throughout the day. And she’s like, where’s my girl? And so I would jump on the phone and we talk fashion and, and purses and boots and all the things and so it’s really cool to see the dynamic between the two. And see how they come across on air and watch it from behind the scenes too.”
What is McKenzie Mitchell grateful for?
“My husband, my kids and my dogs.”
