When watching professional wrestling, naturally the first people to come to mind will be the actual wrestlers putting their bodies on the line for our entertainment. But it’s not just the wrestlers themselves that make a successful wrestling show. One of the important groups that may not come to mind is the Ring Announcers, as a good ring announcer can elevate the program altogether and help in getting the crowd even more excited for the matches they are about to see. In the last few years, Samantha Irvin has been doing a fantastic job at exactly this for WWE, to the point where she was even often mentioned in the conversation alongside the likes of Tony Chimmel & Howard Finkel “The Fink” as being the greatest ring announcer of all time.
So fans were left shocked when suddenly on Monday, October 21st, Samantha announced that she was going to be leaving the WWE altogether, news which left many upset as Samantha had garnered a large fanbase for how well she did her job as a ring announcer. Samantha got her start in WWE as a ring announcer for the former “205 Live” in 2021 following a failed trial at WWE’s performance center. From there she moved onto NXT, then up to Smackdown in January 2022 and then Raw in February 2023.
Samantha received huge praise for her performance as ring announcer for Wrestlemania 40 where she announced 14 matches across the 2 nights, culminating with many praising her emotional announcement of Cody Rhodes defeating Roman Reigns and finishing the story. Even legendary announcer Michael Buffer gave his praise for Samantha’s performance, which in the world of sports announcers there arguably is no one higher in that regard to offer their praise, which says it all of how great Samantha was in her time at WWE.
In her announcement on Twitter/X, Samantha did not say what was next for her after leaving WWE. Many’s first assumption was that she would end up crossing over to AEW to be able to spend more time with her fiance Ricochet, however he has since stated this is not the case. As well as being a ring announcer, Samantha is generally an extremely talented woman, being able to play the flute and being a fantastic singer, having reached the semi-finals of America’s Got Talent in 2015, and recently having sung the National Anthem at an NFL game for the Las Vegas Raiders. So regardless of what’s next for her, Samantha will likely have several options.
As for the WWE, they very quickly arranged a replacement as Lillian Garcia returned to Announce for Monday Night Raw the night Samantha announced her departure and will be the new full time ring announcer for Monday Nights, at least for the foreseeable future. Long term fans will recognise/remember Garcia well, as she was a ring announcer for WWE for a long time across two periods, first of all between 1999 – 2009, and again from 2011 – 2019. Lillian Garcia is another announcer regarded as one of the best of all time within WWE, so of the potential replacements for Samantha, WWE must have counted themselves so lucky that they were able to quickly call on Garcia to return as she is one of if not the best already known person to replace Samantha.
In closing, Samantha Irvin had quickly built a reputation as one of the best in the business in her 3 years with WWE, and no doubt her presence will be greatly missed. Which again, considering she was replaced by Lillian Garcia, perfectly showcases her legacy.
