Samantha Irvin on her favorite Ricochet moment, the scariest ringside moment, more

On her unique announcing style:

“Well, I think that probably kind of from the beginning, I think I came in at a time where things were changing. We were in the pandemic and live audiences were starting to come back, 205 Live was turning into Level Up, and NXT was turning into NXT 2.0. There were just a lot of things shifting at that time and Michael Cole just gave me the go-ahead. He was like, I want you to do your ideas, whatever your ideas are, I know you know, this is what we always have done. But if something moves you he’s always been very supportive and given me a lot of credit. Like, I know you’re a performer. You have a lot of time in doing this. So he gave me his trust. And that gave me the confidence to, you know, if Michael Cole says, Go ahead, you are like alright, Michael Cole said go ahead. So yeah, it was great.”

On her favorite Ricochet moment:

“Favorite Ricochet moment? Ooh. Well, I loved it when he won the Intercontinental Championship. That was a great, great, great, great moment. And I was so happy I was able to announce that. But I also love the SmackDown World Cup. His match with Santos Escobar was crazy. But I honestly, he’s great. Ricochet is like, he’s the one you know that every match is going to be incredible. You know, he’s going to do everything in his power to try to win. So I love everything that I’ve seen him do. I’ve never seen him have a bad match.”

On the way Samantha Irvin announces Chelsea Green:

“It was just because of her, it’s just her. She came back, and her attitude and everything was just she was so sassy and I just loved it. And I just thought she’s not, you know [flatly] Chelsea Green like, no, she’s Chelsea Green! And it just, I did it one time. I think now it’s like obviously now it’s over the top but the first time I did it, I think I just was like Chelsea Green! And like some people noticed, you know, and then well now she will not let me say it any other way. She helped me fine-tune it perfectly for her.”

On the scariest ringside moment:

“I mean, Gable and Gunther had a crazy little situation over in my area a few weeks ago, but I was sitting right there when Big E got hurt. So a lot of times like I am scared honestly, like I am scared. What they’re doing is a big risk. And as a fan, you know, as long as I’ve been watching, I’m not stupid, things can happen. This is not like a guarantee, you know, so I am always just hoping. My one memory that pops in is the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match this year. I’m sitting there and Charles Robinson the ref is sitting there watching and he’s got tears in his eyes. Now I’m like just me and you, chilling. But honestly, they were doing some crazy stuff in that match. And we both were just watching and just it was emotional. Like you just, we want everyone to be okay. And you know, my reactions are genuine when some crazy stuff is going down.”