A look back at JoJo’s time in WWE.
At 19 years old, JoJo Offerman ventured into WWE and joined the cast of the company’s E! Network reality show, Total Divas.
Offerman looked back at that experience as she was doing a virtual signing for Southern Wrestling Autographs. She explained why she feels she was never able to truly be herself on the program. She later added that she has thought about starting a podcast.
No (I have not been asked to do another reality show). Not since Total Divas. Once I left Total Divas, I’ve not been reapproached with that so, I haven’t. I’ve never even thought about it, honestly. I was so young in Total Divas that it was like… Just turned 19. Yeah. I just turned 19 so, fresh out of high school. I hadn’t even gone to college. I don’t even think they really got the full me because I like to think of myself as like a fun, funny, really — I don’t know. I get along with everyone, I have a great time all the time and I don’t think they ever got that because they got a scared, timid girl who’s gone from home for the first time and can’t even fully have a great time because it’s like, well first of all, if everyone’s drinking and I’m over here 19, I can’t be — not that I need it, but it’s like, everyone’s drunk and I’m sitting there like, ‘What is going on?’ Not that it was ever a horrible situation like that but I just don’t think I was able to fully be myself because I didn’t even know who I was at the time. I was still a child in my mind.
Yeah, hopefully. Thank you. I appreciate you saying that (people would be interested to hear what I’d have to say via a podcast). I’ve thought about it and I don’t know. I’ve got a lot of stuff to say though. Who knows? (She laughed)
I’d always be open to it. I’d be open. Until something completely puts me off, I’m open to opportunities for me to kind of put myself back out there in the entertainment world so, yeah. Not everything.
After transitioning out of the ring, Offerman took on the ring announcer role and she held that position for over five years. She shared minor mistakes she made in the position such as introducing Sami Zayn to the theme music of Miro (Rusev).
There was an occasion when she introduced J.B.L. (John Bradshaw Layfield) incorrectly. Offerman said she received flack for that for a long time afterwards and it almost made her not want to return to announcing.
Oh my God, yes, yes (I made mistakes as a ring announcer) and it wasn’t even on TV which is hilarious. I’m sure there’s a lot of mistakes that I’ve made. But they were like, you know, minor or if I — there’s a couple actually now that I’m thinking about it… So, funny story, the first one that ever happened, I wasn’t even a ring announcer yet. It was back in NXT days. We were still at the FCW building. They would throw all the newbies to go in rotation to ring announce shows. So, I wasn’t even thinking about being a ring announcer at that time. It was just my week to announce and I think it was Sami Zayn was supposed to be the guy that came out for the entrance and it ended up being Rusev, or something. But I didn’t know any of the music because I was brand new. So I announced Sami Zayn to Rusev’s music and Rusev’s sitting there and gave me the hardest time. So that was like the first trauma. I don’t know why I would go into announcing after that but apparently, I did. One of my first shows, it was in Dallas I believe and I announced J.B.L. wrong. I can’t remember what I said but I announced his name wrong when announcing the announcers to the table so it wasn’t televised but I got a lot of crap for it, for a long time after that and I almost didn’t wanna go back. It was my first show ever. I think it was my first SmackDown. Oh my goodness. That’ll haunt me.
Elsewhere in the signing, Offerman opened up about The Wyatt Sicks, a potential WWE Hall of Fame induction for the late Windham Rotunda (Bray Wyatt) and her own personal interest in a return to wrestling. To read more, click here.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Southern Wrestling Autographs with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
