ESPN Denies Coachman Hire
Friday, May 09, 2008
One of the big stories regarding the "Leader" last week was the signing of WWE announcer Jonathan Coachman. Well according to Canoe.com those rumors are false....
In a statement to SLAM! Wrestling, Dave Nagle, Manager of Media Relations for ESPN's Communications Department, stated that "all I can say is that these 'rumors' are untrue...we do not have a signed deal. There is nothing more to say."Saying that they do not "have a signed deal" doesn't really deny the fact that they are interested I guess, but it appears all of the Wrestling sites last week were wrong. Most of you said the guy is pretty good on broadcasts outside of the WWE, so hopefully you're right and ESPN gets that contract signed.
The rumours on Coachman's departure began soon after his seemingly final Smackdown broadcast on April 26, 2008. As of the Backlash pay-per-view April 28, Coachman had been replaced by Mick Foley as the Smackdown colour commentator alongside play-by-play man Michael Cole.
ESPN denies Coachman signing (Canoe)
6 Comments:
Close..it was that other Asian-American sportscaster Charlie Minn, not Michael Kim.
I believe Minn is on one of the numerous NYC-area sports networks; beign a midwest guy, the only time I saw him post-WWF was on a "Sopranos" episode doing a sports news broadcast a character was watching. I chortled heartily.
The Rock will layeth the smacketh down on Coach's candy ass !!
I'm waiting for Vince to come on SC and yell "YOU"RRRRRRRRRRRR FIIIIIIIIIIAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!" for no reason to no one in particular. Maybe to Stephen A Smith. That would be cool.
thats right... Charlie minn from Portland 12. Good catch. My bad.
For my fellow AA'ers, Coach has been hosting "MSG, NY" on MSG for the better part of this year. He was an OK anchor on a shit program.
First time reader and poster... fun blog!
I believe ESPN may already have a former WWE announcer. I believe Michael Kim was with the organization back in the 90's doing local promos for upcoming events.
Also, Max Bretos and Todd Grisham are announcing on Fox Soccer Channel in addition to doing WWE work,
Sean Mooney went on to be a successful news anchor in NY as well as a current reporter/producer in Arizona.
As a former wrestling announcer who went mainstream, if the quality of your work can overshadow your past, you can still make it.
Coachman crossed the line into storylines as a character, which may mean it will take more time to lose the personna, but I believe he will do just fine.
You guys rank on the softball or minor sports as being not of the same level as other sports, but if you take into consideration that it takes a lot more effort and doing a lot more homework to sound like you know what you are talking about... then you get to realize how good the announcer really is.