David Otunga: I Never Saw Myself As An Announcer
David Otunga says he never saw himself as an announcer.
David Otunga says he never saw himself as an announcer.
While Otunga first began his career in WWE as an in ring performer, he would later become an announcer for the company following walking away from his in ring career in the mid 2010s.
While speaking to Insight With Chris Van Vliet in a new interview, David Otunga spoke about how he came to be an announcer in WWE.
“Okay, so it went like this. I’ve never even talked about this, but I stepped away from the ring in probably 2013 or so. My son’s mom was my fiancée at the time. She was going through some stuff, and they needed me at home. That’s what I’ll say about it. So it was a choice I made on behalf of my family, where I put my career aside for a while to be the man I needed to be in our relationship, for her, for my son, and it was what it was. So then Vince and I always had a great relationship, and they liked me enough as a talent. So it’s like I want you to see what you can do announcing. I always cut a good promo well, so they say. So anyway, I started doing the Raw pre-show every week, and I do it with Corey Graves, Scott Stanford, shout out to Scott, that’s my guy, Booker T, and we had so much fun doing this. We’re laughing all the time, like nobody even watches this, and then the office would tell us, ‘Yeah, but there’s one person who watches this every week. It’s Vince, and he loves it.’ So then I did that for maybe a year or two, and then I get a call one day like, ‘Hey, we want to try you out as an announcer on Raw.’ Whoa! I never considered that. I never saw myself as an announcer. That was never something I wanted to [do]. The whole time I was doing the pre-show, I was thinking, I’m doing this now, and because it allowed me to have more time at home, that was the thing, and how I was able to do that still, but eventually I’m going to get back in the ring. But then, when they gave me this option to be an announcer, they’re like, ‘We really want you to do this. Try it out.’ Alright, I’ll try it, and I did. Announcing is tough. It’s fun, but that’s a tough job. But anyway, they liked my work in that so much. That was it. It’s kind of like they tell you be careful, if they offer you a gimmick when you first start out, be careful how well you do with it. Because if you do really well with it, that’s going to be your gimmick, and they’re just going to go from there. So it’s one of those things where I gave it a shot. I did well enough, and then they just saw me as an announcer after that.”
Otunga was then asked about Vince McMahon’s reputation for being in announcer’s ears.
“Well, he’s always there. So, personally, he might give me something funny to say, to rip on Cole, or somebody, whoever was out there with me. He never yelled at me, but I heard him get a hold of some of the other guys, but he was right there the entire time.”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Otunga spoke about a faction he pitched before ending his in ring career. You can read more about that here.
