WWE ring announcer Mark Nash appeared on today’s new episode of INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet for an interview.
The following are some of the highlights.
On how his Top Rope Boxing gig led to WWE: “Well, we all know Nick Khan is the president of WWE, they lost a ring announcer, and there was an opening. I got a text message out of the blue from Triple H, and I looked down at my phone, and it was right around the time of the election in last year. So I looked at it at first, and I don’t even know if he knows this, but I looked at it at first. I said, Oh, this has got to be a solicitation text for a candidate, right? It was just numbers, and it started out, ‘Hey, it’s Paul Levesque, Triple H with WWE.’ So it was like when you see that, you know they’re not really texting you. That’s a bot texting, right? Like ‘Hey, it’s Morgan Freeman. I want you to vote for me for the Screen Actors Guild’ or whatever. Yeah, that’s what I thought it was when I first glanced at it, and I looked down, whatever. But my phone, like many people have, is connected to my computer, and I was working on my computer and I could see the text message also pop up on my screen. I read the first bit, and I was like, Oh this is actually him. This isn’t somebody pretending to be Triple H. And I read the text, and it was like, ‘Hey, man, we’re big fans of your work over here. You got time for a call?’ Yeah, hold my beer. Of course I got time for a call. The greatest mind in wrestling of all time is texting me, and I’m like, wow. And that’s how it started. We started a conversation, and the timing was perfect. My contracts were up with Top Rank, and I graciously said, ‘Hey, I think I’m gonna move over here’, and I will say this about Top Rank. Brad Jacobs, who was my point, is probably one of the most incredible human beings on the planet. His words to me when I called him were, ‘It sucks for us. This is incredible for you. Congratulations.’ To this day, I have the utmost respect for Brad. And I’m sure, I don’t know for a fact, but I’m sure Nick had something to do with this when that vacancy presented itself. Because he’s the one who brought me over to boxing, and I’m sure he had something to do with bringing me over to the WWE. And you know, Joe Tessitore is with the WWE, and he was the voice of Top Rank forever. So we have a wonderful relationship. And I can say that Joe has been remarkable in holding my hand. Everybody has been. So again, kid in the candy store, humble as hell, grateful for everything.”
On his never-seen 17 John Cena introduction: “I’m gonna just say it. This [Stanley Cup] ring is pretty special, and that’s an iconic moment from the Stanley Cup. I don’t know that I will ever be a part of a moment. Let’s knock on wood that they keep happening as amazing, I don’t have another word for it, just unreal, amazing, incredible, as this last three months that I’ve had with John Cena. Again, what is life? He points at you and calls you into the ring and tells you, ‘Your announcement sucks. Read this instead.’ And then I’m like, okay. I get this elaborate ring announcement for John, and it goes bananas and viral, and everybody loves it. And I’ve had the privilege of now repeating it for three months, and you know that came to an end two weeks ago, his last appearance on SmackDown, and I had a moment with him where I just, I literally just looked him in the eyes, and I said, Thank you so much for this incredible opportunity. Again, I don’t even know that we’d be sitting here if it wasn’t for that, right? Because it propelled me in the WWE Universe in a pretty cool way.”
Check out the complete interview via the YouTube player embedded below.
