Beth Phoenix Reveals Why She Left WWE NXT Commentary
Beth Phoenix was a guest on Stories With Bradshaw and Brisco to discuss a wide range of topics.
During it, she discussed her time as a commentator for WWE NXT from May 2019 through September 2022. You can check out the highlights below:
Her departure:
“When I was traveling every week, it built up a lot of anxiety in the kids. Like, I ended up leaving the full-time job because Ruby asked Santa Claus if Mommy could stay home. And she didn’t ask for a toy. She sat on Santa’s lap and said, ‘I want my mommy to stay home.’” And so like if that if that didn’t kill me I don’t know what [would].
“So we we were kind of thinking about it anyways, just because it’s been tough on them, for Mom and Dad to be going. And so that was kind of the decision where I was like, ‘While they’re this little, I gotta be around more.’ And luckily we were able to do these sporadic things and still have some fun together, but for the most part I’m back in the semi-retired life.”
Making the transition to commentary:
“Oh man. That was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done in my life. Mainly because I was not known as being a good talker in my wrestling career. And it was kind of something that terrified, intimidated me. And I just never thought that would be something I would be asked to do, number one, and number two, I didn’t have confidence in myself at all and I struggled hard. I struggled hard in the beginning. I had wonderful partners that were elevating me and helping me. And Michael Cole was helping me, Tom [Hannifan] was helping me, Nigel [McGuinness], Mauro [Ranallo]. Everybody was working to fill the gaps for me. But it took a long time to really kind of figure out what the job actually is.”
The challenges of making that transition:
“I also learned as I went too, one of the challenges — which I felt I transitioned well on was — I’d been on commentary as a wrestler and all you have to do is talk about yourself and your own story. Which is easy, right? But being a commentator you gotta know everybody’s story, you gotta have backstories. And you have to bring forward and highlight everybody on the show. So it becomes a really kind of selfless job. You can no longer have that big, it’s all about me ego. You gotta start to realizem ‘I’m a part of building this entire brand, and helping build these characters.’ And so you have to be able to put on a different hat in that role.
“And then the other thing is, it took a long time for me to, number one, get used to the traffic in the ears. There’s so many people talking at the same time. But also, really trying to figure out a way to put someone else’s vision in my own words. Because we’re given, you know — we know, ‘Okay, here’s the story that has come forth,’ or ‘Here’s where we have to go.’ So we as commentators have to bring forward these stories that are written in creative, but also not give anything away and use our own voice. So it was just so many things going on, and I think some wrestlers are cut out for it and some, like myself, it takes a lot longer.”
Quotes via 411 Mania
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