An extensive chat with Irvin.
From 2021-2024, Samantha Irvin was a part of WWE. She started out as an interviewer/backstage correspondent and then transitioned to the ring announcer role. She served as a ring announcer for 205 Live, NXT, SmackDown and Monday Night Raw throughout her time in the company.
She exited WWE in the fall of 2024. Irvin joined Busted Open and gave an extensive interview about her time there and started off by expressing gratitude to WWE for giving her creative freedom with her ring announcements.
Yes, they did, and that’s why I thank them so much, because that was my opportunity (Irvin said about WWE giving her freedom to express her creativity through ring announcing). When I first got to wrestling, everyone was like, ‘What are you doing going to wrestling!?’ Like, ‘You’re a singer, you’re a stage performer.’ This is what I’ve always done so, people are very, very surprised but for me, I looked at it like, well, WWE wants me to use my voice. They want me to. There’s no catch here. They just let me go and I was so grateful for that. Michael Cole was my boss when I came up to the main roster and he literally said, ‘Be you. Just go out, try it, be you’ and luckily, most things worked. So, yes, I credit them very much. They gave me creative freedom to play and have fun and that was like mixing being a professional stage performer and vocalist and being a fan that they never should have let in (she laughed). I should have never been close, you know? Because I just really did all that — over emotion and all that was certainly real and that was 100 percent a loss of professionalism in those moments.
After departing WWE, Irvin responded to fan comments online and shared that she did not like ring announcing. She added that it was only supposed to be a way for her to get her foot in the door.
She expanded on those comments and said she is just realizing why there was pushback on what she noted.
You know… (Irvin paused when she was asked to come back to ring announcing). No, no, really. It’s so crazy because you can’t say anything. I can’t say anything anymore. I can’t just say anything. Everything is a big thing now, so that’s lame. I don’t really say much about it but, I just wanted to have an opportunity to challenge if maybe it wasn’t just the ring announcing people loved. I just wanted the opportunity to challenge that notion. Give me a chance to see if maybe it’s just Samantha. Put me in some other positions. I really do talk to the girls backstage. We really are in the locker room together. We really are helping each other out and let me be in a backstage, let me speak, you know? I never spoke, not one time. Except for when I said, ‘Thank you Lilian’ when she hugged me in the ring. But I’ve never said a free word. I wanted an opportunity and I know it’s hard to believe and like I said, I had so much time to reflect. So when I said, ‘I don’t like announcing. That’s not really what I want to do.’ It’s hard. It’s like, you gotta memorize. It’s a real job, people. It’s not just the craziness that I’m doing. It’s a real job that I’m honestly not good at because I’m gonna cry if Shawn Michaels comes out so, I’m not good at this… I know (that’s what made me good at it) and I honestly didn’t understand why people were so upset until like two days ago. Really. Because I was like, let me just be quiet and try to understand and then, I read something that Key and Peele, they don’t talk. They don’t talk anymore. I don’t know if this is true but I read that, and I was so upset and it just hit me. I said, ‘That’s like me saying I don’t like announcing.’ That’s like Key and Peele not being friends and I really do feel bad for anybody that I upset with sharing that. I actually thought we were all, like, really close. I thought people knew. I thought for sure they were like, ‘Oh, she definitely… this b*tch thinks she’s Paul Heyman.’ I thought people already knew. But yes, I really loved my time there. I loved every single moment and for me, Samantha Irvin always had a plan, she always was thinking about how she was gonna get out of that chair and get on the other side of things.
Irvin was critical of her announcing and specifically brought up being emotional while announcing Cody Rhodes as the new Undisputed WWE Champion in the main event of WrestleMania XL night two. She stated that she felt terrible about it because she prioritized being a fan over her job.
So, I actually started crying (during the main event of WrestleMania XL night two) before the finish. I started crying when The Undertaker came out — well, first, I started punching all the people that were in the general vicinity, including War and Treaty who were right behind me who sang God Bless America that day. They were right behind me so I started punching them. They were like, ‘Ahhh!’ Everybody was going crazy and then I think 36 years of just payoff, it all just came crashing down. Every sad thing, every crazy thing, all the stuff in wrestling that you can’t talk about. All the freaking everything that you hold on to if you’re a fan. It just all just came out in that moment and then Cody (Rhodes) winning, just the way that they told that — everything, and we didn’t even really get to see Seth Rollins; crawling up. He was right by me. He was crawling. I was like, ‘Aww, God.’ Everything was just insane, and in that moment… I was not there for work. I was literally there, like, just as me, just Sammie. I was at WrestleMania 14 in Boston. I was in the nosebleeds and now I’m here at WrestleMania 40. All my idols are right there and I just lost my ish. I really, really lost it and I felt absolutely terrible. I felt so bad in that moment and I said — I had a whole thing in my head — I said, okay, I have to leave now, obviously. I’m done. Because I’m a terrible announcer. Because I prioritized being a fan in that moment and I realized then I will always prioritize being a fan and I hope fans understand you have the best part. You have the best role in the company. Just understand that, as a fan, and I lost my ish and Cody was all crusty and it was crazy. The whole thing was insane and it was the best moment and I’m sure, God willing, if I’m an old lady, dying on my deathbed, that will be the moment that I hear. Seriously. It’s, like, such an important (moment). In my career? Yes. But more so just as a fan. I am more of a fan than a ring announcer and employee.
There were other roles that Irvin was looking to find herself. She was asked what her dream role was and went on to share that the only person who asked her that question in WWE was Michael Hayes.
At one point, Irvin pitched to be a referee. She added that before the ring announcing gig was officially offered to her, she had been interviewing with another department at WWE.
Um, no (I was not asked what my dream role in wrestling was). The only person that spoke to me about it was Michael Hayes. He did say — he’s like, ‘You wanna learn everything don’t ya?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah’ and he said, ‘You wanna book? You wanna be a booker?’ And I was like, ‘I wanna learn everything.’ So he definitely saw that in me, because I was always just… around. Just observing. Now I think my dream role is different because when I first came into it, I wanted to do everything. I mean, at one point, I asked if I could referee, and they were like, ‘No!’ But now that the ring announcing got so popular, I kind of can’t do certain things now. The truth is that I would have loved to try every single thing. That’s the truth. But really, I would like to write and when I got the job, I was actually interviewing with another department at WWE. I was on an interview with another department in WWE when the announce team called me and said, ‘Are you interviewing with another department?’ And I said, ‘Yeah’ and they said, ‘We wanna offer you a job’ and I was like, ‘Okay!’ And then I finished up but then I accepted that job so I wanna be an old lady, an old, smart lady who knows everything and makes sh*t happen. That’s it. However the journey happens. But Paul Heyman is absolutely a big inspiration to me. I really admire what Eric Bischoff was able to do at WCW and he got things popping off. I like risk-takers.
On February 14th, Irvin is going to be releasing a music single titled ‘Make Me.’
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Busted Open with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
