Longtime WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts spoke with SI.com recently about various topics that included his departure from WWE, what led to it and more. Here are the highlights.
On leaving WWE: “I was unhappy and contemplated leaving, but I didn’t just want to give up,” Roberts explained to Justin Barrasso of Extra Mustard. “It was WWE’s decision—they told me they were going a different direction and did not want to renew my contract.”
“Live events used to be really fun. It used to be myself, a production manager, and a road agent. We would make decisions and the shows would be great, but they became a lot more complicated in the last year-and-a-half. Writers who are so out of touch with wrestling fans and wrestling in general were making decisions, and it became really hard to show up to work knowing the product was suffering because of it.”
On his meeting with UFC President Dana White: “I feel like I did everything there was to do as a pro wrestling ring announcer. I like UFC, and while I was there, I met with Dana White and a few other executives,” Roberts said of the December meeting. “But they have their guy [Bruce Buffer]. He does very well at UFC, and I know that and I would never try to step on his toes. If anything ever changes, you never know what the future could bring.”
You can follow Roberts on Twitter at this link.
