ESPN’s Jonathan Coachman recently spoke with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard website about WWE’s weekly segment on ESPN and more.
On the creation of WWE’s weekly ESPN SportsCenter segment:
“I pitched this latest project in July, but the new leadership really took over about fifteen months ago. Before that, anytime I would pitch going to SummerSlam, or WrestleMania was always met with, ‘We don’t do that.’ That was without even looking at the numbers, or the amount of fans, or the venue. It was just a cold no. So it was infuriating when I knew, as a talent and a person who loves to produce content, this was going to work. We met in July and came together forSummerSlam, and that was a big success, and then the green light was given for our Tuesday night ‘Off the Top Rope’ sometime in September, and we started our first one at the end of October. We’re going on four months now, and the numbers have been really, really good, and we’re hoping to expand what we do as the year goes along.”
On the most watched segment featuring a WWE star:
“We always tweet out the interviews after we’re done on SportsCenter, and the most watched interview so far–and it hasn’t been close–has been Roman Reigns,” revealed Coachman. “This is a good dude who is starting to find out what fits him. I think you’re going to see the negativity surrounding him switch and turn, and he’ll turn into one of the biggest stars in the world.”
On possibly interviewing Vince McMahon:
“If you were worth $700 million, your legacy is cemented, and you still have size 22-inch arms, would anything make you sweat?” asked Coachman. “I doubt it, but I’ll certainly try.
“Vince is an absolute freak of nature. There are certain people on this earth who were made to do certain things, and nothing he does surprises me. Vince is one of the biggest stars of all time, so it made sense for him to come back, especially with all of the injuries. It didn’t surprise me, and it only would have surprised me if we never would have seen him again.”
You can read the entire interview here.
