Why WrestleMania Was The Beginning Of The End For Samantha Irvin In WWE
Samantha Irvin’s fiancé, Ricochet, has given more insight into her decision to leave WWE.
After four years, Samantha Irvin announced that she was leaving WWE ahead of the October 21st edition of Raw. The move came soon after Ricochet left WWE to sign with AEW, sparking speculation that Irvin would be following in his footsteps.
However, since her departure, Irvin has revealed that she made the decision as she didn’t like her role as a ring announcer, saying the role was supposed to be her “way in” to the company. While she had ambitions to become an onscreen manager, WWE seemingly didn’t see a future for her outside of announcing.
During an appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Ricochet said Irvin had been talking about leaving “for a while,” and believes she made the decision at WrestleMania 40.
“She’s been talking about that for a while. Even before my stuff was up. I think it happened at WrestleMania (40). For her, announcing was only supposed to be the way into WWE. She, first and foremost, is a fan. She grew up with it. Her dad and brothers watched it.
“Of course, she’s a performer, so her time performing and traveling the world performing got her to a position to where Mark Henry found her and said, ‘This girl is amazing, we need her for something.'”
The AEW star went on to explain that Irvin “wanted to be a character.” saying she has been a stage performer her whole life.
“I think ring announcing was only supposed to be the way in. She wanted to be a character. That’s what she’s been her whole life. She’s been stage performing her whole life. Drama club, stage performing, traveling the world and doing stage performance. That’s what what she hoped. Once WrestleMania happened, she was like, ‘That’s the highest I’m going to get.’ She’s a performer. It’s hard to explain. When you’re just a performer announcing, she’s getting hate because she said she didn’t enjoy announcing. She enjoyed making the WWE Universe feel emotions and using her voice to help promote and move the company forward. This is just my example, it’s like having Mariah Carey, but she’s just a ring announcer.”
“At the end of the day, she loves and respects the position and loves and respects wrestling, but she wanted to be like Paul Heyman, a manager or something. I feel like she broke tradition, and I think that’s why people are upset. How long was Fink [Howard Finkel] doing it? Lilian (Garcia), Justin Roberts. The fact that she only did it for four years and she found out, ‘this isn’t what I was born to do. This isn’t what I love to do.'”
Speaking about her natural announcing ability, Ricochet said she was always trying to tie things together. He gave the example that she made a “little jingle” when announcing Cody Rhodes to the ring.
“She said, ‘Honestly, that’s my fault. I don’t know how to change that part.’ I’m using these names, these are my examples, we had Whitney Houston, but she’s just a ring announcer. She was making little jingles. ‘American Nightmare Cody Rhodes.’ She was trying to time it with the song and beat. She was trying to tie it all together because she’s an artist and musician, that’s what she naturally does. She’s not just an announcer. It’s no disrespect to that, just because it’s not what you were born to do and love to do.”
In the end, Ricochet reiterated Irvin’s desire to do more than ring announcing.
“At the end of the day, she wants to do other stuff than just ring announcing. She just didn’t want to be labeled as a ring announcer. Being able to do the National Anthem and stuff, it helped give her a platform to show other talents, but it’s the stage performing. She’s been doing it her whole life. Whether that’s here or a movie or a TV show, she feels one day that’s what she wants to be doing.”
WWE Unhappy With Samantha Irvin Following Departure
It has been reported that WWE was unhappy with Samantha Irvin’s actions following her departure. The star has used her newfound freedom to go back and forth with fans on social media and respond to criticism that comes her way. Seemingly, while respecting her decision to leave, some in WWE didn’t like her responses to fans.
H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.