Ricochet revealed that Samantha Irvin was considering leaving WWE even before his contract was up.
The former WWE star debuted for AEW at All In this year as part of the Casino Battle Royal. He has embarked on matches against Will Ospreay and Konosuke Takeshita since then, hitting the ground running in the new promotion.
Ricochet was followed out the door by her fiancé Samantha Irvin. The WWE ring announcer left the company two weeks ago, revealing that she didn’t want to be a ring announcer anymore.
Ricochet discussed Samantha Irvin’s WWE exit in a conversation with Chris Van Vliet. He revealed that she had planned to leave before Ricochet’s contract ran out. He added that she never wanted to be a ring announcer, but was brought in by Mark Henry just to get her foot in the door of the WWE.
“She’s been talking about that for a while, even before my stuff was up. I think it happened at WrestleMania. I think year’s WrestleMania [40] was for her, because, especially for her announcing was only supposed to be like the way into WWE. Because she, first and foremost, is a fan. Before all of that, she grew up with it. Her dad watched it and her brothers grew up with it. So, of course, yes, she’s a performer. “
“So her time performing and travelling the world performing got her to a position to where Mark Henry found her and said, Oh, this girl is amazing. We need her for something. Again, like I was telling you earlier, the pandemic happened. She used to live in Vegas and did Cirque du Soleil, and she did Vegas and she did stage shows. So when the pandemic happened, luckily Mark Henry got a hold of her during that. She actually did the full tryout, because they didn’t know she was going to be a ring announcer. Mark Henry said, we just need this girl for something. She’s so talented, we need her!”
Ricochet: Samantha Irvin Wants To Be A Stage Performer
Ricochet continued, speaking about Samantha Irvin’s ambition to sing on stage instead of being a ring announcer.
“She wants to be a stage performer. It’s hard to sing, and it’s funny, because a lot of that stuff she was like, I’m so nervous. I don’t even want to do this, because it’s so nerve-wracking, especially the national anthem. Singing the national anthem is the hardest song you can sing. Especially just the pressure of singing the national anthem when you’re on a pay-per-view, or you’re at Allegiant Stadium, and all the fans are watching, it’s the hardest song to sing, and you gotta pick your breaths properly.”
“But again, at the end of the day, she loves and respects the position, and she loves and respects wrestling, but she wanted to be like Paul Heyman, like a manager or something. But at the end of the day, it’s like me, for example. I loved WWE, and I loved my time there, and I loved everything that I did. But at the end of the day, it’s a huge production. It’s the biggest production in entertainment, it travels, it’s huge.”
“It’s the biggest show on earth. I think in that production, people kind of have their roles, and this is what I was telling her, I feel like she broke tradition. That’s why people are kind of upset. Because, again, how long was Fink doing it? How long did Lillian do it? Justin Roberts still doing it. The fact that she only did for four years and then she found out this isn’t what I was born to do.”