It was a role that Beth thoroughly enjoyed.
Since stepping away from in-ring competition full-time, WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix has wrestled in 11 matches, two of which were Royal Rumbles, she competed at WrestleMania 35 and most recently wrestled at the 2023 Elimination Chamber event.
Phoenix was also a member of the NXT commentary team and in December 2021, she opted to step back from the role to spend more time with her family.
She further reflected on that role while chatting with John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) and Gerald Brisco on their Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw show. She discussed how difficult the transition to commentary was but added that she loved the experience.
Oh man, that was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done in my life (transitioning to NXT commentary). Mainly because I was not known as being a good talker in my wrestling career and it was kind of something that terrified, it intimidated me and I just never thought that would be something I would be asked to do, number one, and number two, I didn’t have confidence in myself at all and I struggled hard. I struggled hard in the beginning. I had wonderful partners that were elevating me and helping me and Michael Cole was helping me, Tom (Hannifan) was helping me, Nigel (McGuinness), Mauro (Ranallo). Everybody was working to fill the gaps for me but it took a long time to really kind of figure out what the job actually is and then I also learned as I went to, one of the challenges, which I felt I transitioned well on is I’d been on commentary as a wrestler and all you have to do is talk about yourself and your own story which is easy, right? But being a commentator, you gotta know everybody’s story, you gotta have backstories and you have to bring forward and highlight everybody on the show. So it becomes a really kind of selfless job. You can no longer have that big, it’s all about me ego. You gotta start to realize I’m a part of building this entire brand and helping build these characters and so you have to be able to put on a different hat in that role and then the other thing is, it took a long time for me to, number one, get used to the traffic in the ears. There’s so many people talking at the same time but also, really trying to figure out a way to put someone else’s vision in my own words… We know, okay, here’s the story that has come forth or here’s where we have to go so we as commentators have to bring forward these stories that are written in creative but also not give anything away and use our own voice so it was just so many things going on and I think some wrestlers are cut out for it and some, like myself, it takes a lot longer.
Phoenix went on to state that while she was on commentary, she felt like she had unfinished business in the ring. She followed up by saying she was able to get that out of her system.
So full transparency, I felt like that (I had more to do in the ring while doing NXT commentary), because I had done a Royal Rumble, a little Royal Rumble match and then Randy (Orton) had RKO’d me so I’d done a couple things on-camera and I had the self awareness that I had a little unfinished business in my heart and I loved commentary and I actually really loved the role because I was kind of like auntie, auntie Beth. I feel like the younger generation looked at me like a comforting voice and I love that role. It’s very motherly for me, very matronly. But I definitely felt like I still had a little unfinished business in my heart on the performance side of things and I’m really happy that I’ve gotten to kind of get that out of my system and have some fun. But I don’t discount doing something like that in the future. I just take it one day at a time, I don’t have lofty plans. Our world has changed so much in the last few years that I just kind of take things, I roll with it.
At Elimination Chamber, Phoenix and Edge defeated Finn Balor and Rhea Ripley. Edge invited Balor to appear on next week’s Monday Night Raw to address the WrestleMania challenge that is on the table.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit ‘Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw’ with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
