You can find more info about the interview as well as some transcribed quotes below.
Subscribe to WrestleZone Radio on iTunes
On whether or not it made his commentary job difficult being produced through his headphones:
RB: Yeah. You have a director who is giving you time cues. It’s like any TV job. You have an earpiece in. You have a director telling you what’s coming up next or, “Hey, don’t go to this, go to this instead.” Then as far as the announcers actually being produced, yes, you are being fed things. I don’t know that it’s always as bad as some people make it out to be. In a lot of ways you are being produced to guide you to make sure you are getting to the right things. Can it be distracting at times? Can it be a little difficult to deal with at times? No doubt about it. Being produced isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
On who was producing him in his headphones:
RB: Usually I heard from Cole. Vince was there. Vince was in my ear a handful of times. For me, it was mostly Cole.
On whether the producers would ever try to make him crack while he was on camera:
RB: Oh yeah. No doubt about it. There’s definitely things that they will try to get you with. Usually they give the color guy something to try to get you with. Or they may tip off one of the wrestlers to come and do something.
In the rest of the interview Rich also discusses:
- What led to his WWE release and whether he was surprised
- Mauro Ranallo transitioning in to his role as WWE Smackdown commentator
- What it’s like to be produced via headphones while trying to commentate matches
- Who was producing him?
- WWE producers trying to get him to break on camera
- Not being allowed to use certain words and terms on WWE TV
- Having more freedom to call the action in NXT as opposed to Smackdown
- WWE NXT no longer be considered a developmental territory
- Whether the NXT Championship or the Intercontinental Championship is more important
- All of the NXT talent that has been called up to the main WWE roster
- Who he thinks he gelled with best on commentary
- Helping to get Corey Graves in to a commentary role
- Why the WWE is so mean to Byron Saxton on camera
- Some calls he made that riled up people on Twitter
- His plans for the future
- More…
You can listen to the full archives from WrestleZone Radio in the embedded audio player below:
