ShareThisCould two WWE alumni become the unofficial tag-team champions of ESPN's "SportsCenter"?
Todd Grisham is striving toward that goal.
Following in the footsteps of ex-WWE announcer and best friend Jonathan Coachman, Grisham has jumped from pro wrestling to ESPN's coverage of legitimate sports. Debuting last month on multiple ESPN platforms, Grisham has already added hosting duties for a mixed-martial-arts news show ("MMA Live") and an American Kennel Club best-in-show special airing on ABC in January.
Grisham aspires to ultimately work with Coachman anchoring "SportsCenter," which is ESPN's flagship nightly news telecast.
"When I started, we sat down and I said, 'One day this is gonna happen,' " Grisham said last week during a telephone interview. "That's going to be a great day."
Three years after joining WWE in 2004 to call matches and perform other hosting and announcing duties, Grisham decided to re-dip his toe in the sports world on a part-time basis. He announced Major League Soccer in 2007 for Fox Soccer Channel, fueling a passion that originated as a lifelong fan and high-school and college player.
Grisham also admits he had long-term career concerns about being pigeonholed strictly as a WWE announcer.
"Some people look down at WWE," said Grisham, who joined the company after seven years as a local sports anchor in Ottumwa, Iowa, and Tucson, Ariz. "I thought there might be one day when I would want to move on to something else. I didn't want to be completely cornered as a wrestling guy who can't do real sports.
"Even though I had done that before, I hadn't done it in eight years. If you had a coach who hadn't coached in eight years, no one would hire them. WWE was very gracious to let me do that. It was a lot of travel, but it was worth it."
Grisham, 35, handled WWE duties ranging from being the play-by-play voice of "Smackdown" and the ill-fated Extreme Championship Wrestling to ring announcing on a European tour. Grisham also immersed himself in WWE's Internet-focused initiatives.
"In any one week I could have five or six different jobs depending on what they wanted me to do," Grisham said. "One week I was a play-by-play guy, the next week a sideline reporter, the next week a pre- and post-game host. I never knew what I was going to get."
Grisham needed to adjust to some of the quirks that come with the protocol for being a WWE announcer.
"In a football game when you're doing play-by-play, you can say whatever you want," Grisham said. "With wrestling, there are things that you don't say. You can't say this about this guy or that guy. They're not (championship) belts, but titles. You wear a belt; a title is held in esteem. I had to learn all that."
Asked for his most memorable WWE moment, Grisham referenced his "WrestleMania" appearances.
"Just being at a 'WrestleMania' and seeing what it's all about really is insane," Grisham said of WWE's biggest annual event. "Unless you're there, you can't realize how loud and smart the fans are. ... It's cool."
Grisham, who wouldn't completely close the door on a future WWE return, appreciates Coachman helping him get the lay of the land for how ESPN operates. Grisham and ESPN had to publicly apologize for a gaffe last month when he accidentally used an inappropriate phrase during a University of Oklahoma football game.
"Jonathan has been great telling me how to avoid the pitfalls and land mines," Grisham said. "The hardest part for me was being used to WWE where you had to always fight for your spot because it could go at any second. Coming here, I just want to hit singles. I'm not trying to change the world or reinvent the wheel. I'm just trying to ease in, get a good reputation and not make a big stink.
"Hopefully in a year or two, I'll have made headway. It's almost like I had to pump the brakes when I got here. Jonathan helped me out by saying, 'Hey, your time is going to come.' "
(Alex Marvez writes a syndicated pro-wrestling column for Scripps Howard News Service. He can be reached at alex1marv(at)aol.com or followed via Twitter at http://twitter.com/alexmarvez.)
