Former WWE ring announcer Samantha Irvin has spoken about her time in the company, including the emotional ending to WrestleMania 40.
A part of the company for 3 years, Irvin began her career as a backstage interviewer before becoming a ring announcer. A part of weekly TV and the biggest Premium Live Events of the year, many fans were extremely complimentary of Irvin’s unique style, especially when it came to introducing the likes of Chelsea Green and Ludwig Kaiser.
In a shocking update in 2024, Samatha Irvin made the announcement that she was leaving WWE to explore new opportunities. Although Irvin was very well received by the fans for breathing new life into the entrances, the former announcer stated that it was not a role that she enjoyed. Additionally, Irvin was met with a considerable amount of backlash from online fans following the announcement with many posting incorrect theories behind her decision to leave, such as wanting to go to AEW.
Appearing on Busted Open Radio, Irvin elaborated on her prior comments:
“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.”
Samantha Irvin Belives WrestleMania Announcement Was Unprofessional
The main event of WrestleMania 40 saw Cody Rhodes defeat Roman Reigns to finish his story and win the Undisputed Championship. As Rhodes and a packed Philadelphia stadium celebrated the victory, an emotional Irvin announced Rhodes as the new champion while attempting to hold back the tears. Looking back at that moment, Irvin admitted she was not proud of it and felt that as the moment where she had to leave:
“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.”
Irvin also spoke about other ambitions in WWE, noting that at one point she pitched to be a referee:
“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.”
H/t to Post Wrestling.
Featured image: WWE
