Gourt Home::Gourt :: Jonathan Coachman
Jonathan Coachman (born August 12, 1973 in Kansas City, Missouri) formerly known as "The Coach" is a former American professional wrestler, college wrestler, basketball player, and football play-by-play announcer and color commentator, as well an occasional wrestler working for World Wrestling Entertainment on the RAW brand. He is currently Vince McMahon's Executive Assistant.
Career
Before embarking on an announcing career in pro wrestling, Coachman was a highly touted basketball prospect. After two state basketball championships at McPherson High School, Coachman moved across town to continue playing for McPherson College. During his four years at McPherson, Coachman became the school's career scoring, rebounding and assists leader. He was also named McPherson's Athlete of the Year twice and was named conference Player of the Year twice.
While at McPherson, Coachman's interests included participating in theatre, serving as the sports editor for the school newspaper, and doing play-by-play and color commentary for the local football and basketball radio broadcasts.
Before embarking on a career in professional wrestling broadcasting, Jonathan Coachman starred in many instructional videos used for technical education classrooms of middle schools and high schools. One set of videos featured "Coach" instructing people on flight navigation and the basics of airplanes.
When Coachman first made his way into the WWF (now WWE) he was an interviewer, commentator, and presenter. His first appearance was at the 2000 Royal Rumble where he interviewed Linda McMahon live from the now defunct *WWF New York entertainment complex. From 2000 to 2003 he would become regarded as one of the top backstage interviewers and was even featured in wrap up segments at pay-per-views, where he would conduct exclusive interviews with wrestlers shortly after their matches. Coachman would also be involved in occasional segments with The Rock, that saw The Rock attempt to humiliate Coachman in any form possible, whether it was singing, dancing or smiling for the camera. The Rock also accused Coachman of performing rather lewd activities with farm or wild animals. However, The Rock's ridicule worked in favor for both men, as their backstage confrontations and interviews became highly anticipated. In 2001, Coachman was the sideline reporter for the XFL professional football league. He worked on the second-team broadcasts with Matt Vasgersian, Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, and Dick Butkus.
The Coach made a shocking heel turn against then babyface, Shane McMahon on August 24, 2003 at WWE Summerslam 2003. After this he would have an on-screen role as the "lackey" to then General Manager of RAW, Eric Bischoff.
Coachman would continue to work as a heel and later teamed up with his fellow WWE HEAT announcer Al Snow to feud against WWE RAW announce team, Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross. This feud would even see the pair win the right to announce the main show from the Ross and Lawler at one point. Later, Coachman would achieve a singles victory on pay-per-view at WWE Backlash 2004, defeating Tajiri (albeit with the assistance of Lance Cade).
Coachman would go on to host all of (as of 2005) the RAW Diva Searches. Later Coach would gain his own column in the now defunct RAW Magazine ("Coach's Corner") and his own webcast WWE.com ("CoachCast"). Throughout his success in the company Coachman's character would remain mainly disliked by superstars and fans alike.
Coachman was officially announced as the third member to the RAW broadcast team and signed a multi-year contract with WWE in 2005.
During October 2005, Coach was involved in a storyline involving the McMahon Family publicly firing Jim Ross due to the actions of Ross' friend, Stone Cold Steve Austin. The firing of Ross gave Coach the position of lead announcer on RAW. The storyline would culminate in a match at Taboo Tuesday where Stone Cold would face Coach in a match with both Stone Cold's and Jim Ross' jobs on the line.
Though the match was originally scheduled to be Stone Cold versus the Coach, Austin refused to participate because of issues he had with the storyline (the original story is said to have called for Austin to lose via interference by the returning Mark Henry). World Heavyweight Champion Batista was renamed the opponent to play up the SmackDown! vs. RAW storylines. On the October 31, 2005 edition of RAW, Batista came out and accepted the match only to be attacked by Coach's backup, the returning Goldust and Vader. At Taboo Tuesday, Batista faced off against Coach in a Street Fight. Vader and Goldust tried to interfere with the match, but Batista ended up getting the win. However, no mention of the Jim Ross stipulation was ever mentioned after the match.
WWE officials soon became dissatisfied with Coach's performance as RAW's lead announcer, either because of his perceived lack of skill at doing wrestling play-by-play or because play-by-play announcers in wrestling have historically had babyface sympathies. Former Extreme Championship Wrestling announcer Joey Styles replaced Coach in a move that became permanent despite Coach's on-air protestations that Styles' presence was temporary. Coach retained a prominent role on the RAW announcing team as the heel representative of a three-man booth with Styles, the play-by-play man, and Jerry "The King" Lawler, the babyface color commentator. Coachman often seems to have the opposite view of the other two announcers.
On the January 23, 2006 edition of RAW Coach defeated Lawler to win the last RAW spot in the Royal Rumble Match via interference from the debuting Spirit Squad (a quintet of male cheerleaders). Coachman would enter 7th during the match only to be eliminated by Big Show.
During the April 23, 2006 edition of RAW, after Coachman hosted a Divas bikini contest, Viscera would come down to the ring and perform the Visagra on Coachman. Coachman disappeared after this, not appearing on WWE television for several weeks. WWE has converted this into an angle. WWE.com reported that nobody, not even friends or family, knew of Coachman's whereabouts. On the May 5, 2006 edition of HEAT, broadcast partner Todd Grisham claimed that Coachman had quit, saying, "We've got announcers quitting left and right. It was Coach two weeks ago, Joey Styles this past week."
On the May 29, 2006 edition of RAW, it was revealed that Mr. McMahon had hired Jonathan Coachman under the new position of McMahon's Executive Assistant; to aid McMahon in the daily runnings on the RAW brand. While Executive Assistant, Coachman, along with the McMahons, would feud with the reformed DX.
In addition to his WWE assignments, Coachman calls various sports events on College Sports Television, a cable and satellite network owned by CBS. It can be argued that Coachman asked for the disappearance angle because he wanted to return to his roots as a "legitimate" sports announcer. It's not yet known how the new "executive assistant" angle will affect these plans, if at all.
Job titles
- Former Sports Anchor for KAKE Channel 10 news in Wichita.
- Former Sports Writer for KMBC Channel 9 news in Kansas City.
- Former WWF Excess show host.
- Former PPV color commentator.
- Former PPV play-by-play commentator.
- Former RAW play-by-play commentator.
- Former RAW color commentator.
- WWE Sunday Night Heat color commentator
- WWE Sunday Night Heat play-by-play commentator
- WWE backstage interviewer.
- Current CSTV commentator for college football, basketball, and wrestling matchups.
- Mr. McMahon's Executive Assistant.
Championships and accomplishments
- 2003 Worst Television Announcer
- 2005 Worst Television Announcer
External links
Professional wrestling managers and valets | 1973 births | Kansas Citians | American professional wrestlers | American sportswriters | Professional wrestling announcers | Living people | African American professional wrestlers
"Jonathan Coachman"