Jonathan Coachman Announces Kurt Angle For SportsCenter; Revels Vince's Reaction When He Left WWE For ESPN

Moments ago Jonathan Coachman tweeted out that the first entrant in to the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame class Kurt Angle will be his guest this Wednesday on ESPN’s Sportscenter:

This week is special. Our guest this Wed at 10p @SportsCenter will be the newest inductee into @wwe hall of fame- @RealKurtAngle.

— Jonathan Coachman (@TheCoachESPN) January 16, 2017

Coachman was the featured guest on the most recent episode of former WCW President Eric Bischoff’s podcast Bischoff on Wrestling.

During Coachman’s appearance on Bischoff on Wrestling this past Wednesday he spoke candidly about WWE’s reaction to him leaving the company for ESPN. You can find those quotes transcribed below.

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JC: ESPN says, “We’d like to bring you in for an audition and if it goes well we’d like to offer you an anchor position.” I went up on that Friday. They called me on the way home and offered me the deal. The next week… this is a big reason I still respect Kevin Dunn and Vince McMahon so much. It got out very quickly that I’d been at ESPN. So he (Dunn) calls me in the next week and says, “Listen, I just want to know. Are you talking to ESPN? Are you thinking about leaving? We want to do a new deal with you.” I was like, “Kev, I’ve got to go. I have to go. If I don’t go now I’ll never know if I’m good enough. I’ll never know if I’ll get another chance.” He said, “Then we’re taking you off the air.” I thought for a second, “Am I being punished?” It was almost like he read my mind. He said, “You’re not being punished. We respect you so much. We know you are pregnant with your first child. We want you to be there for that. We are going to put Mick Foley in to your spot so he can start a little bit sooner.” I was doing commentary at the time for Smackdown I believe. I stayed home. I was there was there for the birth of my daughter. He (Dunn) said, “We’ll call if we need you.” Then a month later in July before I start at ESPN I get a call, “Hey we need you to come tape something in studio.” I get over to the studio and there is this big tent set up in the parking lot of the TV studio. They threw me a surprise going away party. Two months after. I hadn’t seen them in two months and they called me in for a going away party. I thought that spoke volumes for our relationship. Spoke volumes of them. I always tell people if you treat people with respect they are going to respect you back. My relationship with everyone there to this day is as good as the day I left.

Bischoff’s guest this Wednesday on Bischoff on Wrestling will be WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross:

Next week on #BischoffOnWrestling: #WWE #WCW legend @JRsBBQ. Subscribe NOW on @iHeartRadio iTunes https://t.co/grAdVtZWiY pic.twitter.com/7HG8OswPDN

— Eric Bischoff (@EBischoff) January 14, 2017

Please cite WZ as the source if you use any of the above transcriptions. Thanks!

This week’s episode of Bischoff on Wrestling starts with Eric talking to Nick about their weird arm wrestling connection before telling Nick the story of how he broke his forearm.

Eric also takes a moment at the top of the show to comment on the recent sale of TNA to Anthem. He also offers an update on his current lawsuit with TNA.

Eric then welcomes his guest for the week his former WWE RAW GM Assistant and current ESPN personality Jonathan Coachman! Coachman speaks candidly to Eric about:

What his dream job was when he was a child
Growing up in a diverse family
His parents reaction to him working for WWE
Wanting to be an actor when he was in college
His brief job as a “Boyfriend In A Box”
What it was like covering Owen Hart’s passing while working as a local reporter in Kansas City
Who at WWE was the person that hired him
What his first few years with WWE were like
Learning to wrestle because he was getting so much heat
Why he was nervous to do his first physical thing ever in the ring
Tajiri’s tendency to mess with people
The effect The Rock leaving WWE had on his Hollywood career
Why he left WWE for ESPN and what that transition was like
The stigma of being a “wrestling guy” on ESPN
Ronda Rousey’s most recent loss
Who his “One Bad Cat” is
What’s something about him that we don’t know
More…