Samantha Irvin shoots down rumor from numerous reports on her ...

Fans were certainly caught off guard by Samantha Irvin’s announcement yesterday (Oct. 21) that she was leaving her job as WWE Raw ring announcer. A rumor making the rounds after her announcement claimed that her employers were also caught off-guard, as Irvin only told them hours before last night’s show. But in her first and only post since she shared the news of her exit, Irvin refuted that claim and corrected it to say she told WWE “months” earlier.

It’s far from the only report on the wrestle web this morning about the split between WWE and Irvin, arguably their most popular ring announcer since Howard Finkel.

WrestleVotes corroborated Fightful’s report (covered in today’s Rumor Roundup) that Irvin’s news “genuinely shocked” a lot of people backstage at Raw yesterday. PWInsider says the “vast majority” of people at WWE found out about Irvin’s decision yesterday, but “a very tiny group... were aware prior to yesterday the departure was likely coming.” There were “several factors” behind Irvin’s decision to leave, per another PWInsider story. One of those was also covered in Fightful’s report: that WWE’s road schedule was causing her to spend too much time away from her family, specifically her young daughter from a previous relationship. The fact her current partner Ricochet is now with AEW likely also contributed. Insider says there were discussions about Irvin working a reduced schedule for WWE, “but it never came to pass”. Insider also says that the demands of a WWE schedule were impacting Irvin’s ability to take outside projects, which were increasingly being offered to her as her WWE fame grew. She’s expected to now primarily focus on her music career (the latest reports, and fiance Ricochet, say Irvin doesn’t currently plan to join AEW). On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer backed that up and added that Irvin has been talking about dedicating herself to the pursuit of a music career “for a long, long time and finally pulled the trigger on it.” He said Irvin’s “actually been thinking about it for about a year.” Bryan Alvarez added Irvin and WWE “couldn’t come to terms” on an arrangement that would allow her to pursue outside projects. In an Instagram post about her latest return to WWE, Irvin’s replacement Lillian Garcia (who also left ring announcing in 2009 to focus on singing) wished Irvin well in her music career. Insider also notes that WWE owns the name “Samantha Irvin”, so she may return to performing under her real name Samantha Johnson. They also say it’s believed she was a full WWE employee and not an independent contractor, and not under any kind of non-compete agreement.

More as we have it.