Sometimes we want our stars to remain unchanged, don’t we? We don’t want to stymie their personal or professional growth. But sometimes we just feel more comfortable when they’re just doing what we’re used to seeing them doing, being what we’re used to them being.
For the past few years, Samantha Irvin (real name Samantha Johnson) was a well-loved WWE ring announcer.
And then, in late 2024, she stopped.
Fans wanted to know why. There’s a simple answer, and one that’s also more complicated.
The simple answer is that Samantha Johnson was a singer who wanted to be a wrestler and instead got offered the WWE announcer job, which she took until she didn’t really feel it. Rather, she wanted to be a singer again.
The complicated answer, as she told Metro shortly after her decision, is that she “enjoyed playing the role until it wasn’t acting anymore and until I realized there was no character work for me at WWE. I poured my love for wrestling into it. Doesn’t mean I consider myself a true announcer. I’m a performer.”
In an industry where it’s still regarded as something special to be a lifer, someone who regards the wrestling role as performing might not be seen as something to celebrate. Even though WWE wants to vertically integrate to the entertainment market, to do so – like people like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has done – a person has to put in their time and take their metaphorical and sometimes literal lumps in the industry before becoming something else.
Given Irvin’s “playing the role” comment, she’s certainly indicated that she has a longer-term view of her career.
After all, as Samantha Johnson, she made it to the semi-finals of the tenth season of America’s Got Talent. A trained musician and accomplished flautist, she previously released an EP, 27 Underground in 2016.
So it’s not surprising that she’s now produced a song, called “Make Me”, which dropped on Valentine’s Day.
The song is meant to be a perfect reintroduction of lovers of her sound, according to Southcoast Today, and Irvin – who wrote and recorded the song herself and released under the name Samantha – sees it as a love letter to fans.
So… how is it?
The song has a breathy soul-confessional vocal with skewed guitar and simple drum machine backing. Sonically, it’s the airiness of the chorus which works best, slightly R&B with an 1980s vibe and a fluting style backing.
Were it not tor the chorus and the laid-back rapped section later, “Make Me” might have been a disappointment; it’s “bedroom soul” and we’ve heard a lot of that.
But, taken as a precursor for what might come, it’s warm and welcoming, and has a coquettishness, struggling to keep the love from bursting out feel.
And though that feel doesn’t always hang round, it does make me want to hear more. Which is the important thing here – after all, Samantha wants music to be a career.
Despite all her success as a ring announcer, Irvin was clear that she wanted to move forward in WWE, with ambitions to become a manager or commentator, or even a writer at some point. But the wrestling business is a strange one, and feeling like she might not be able to achieve those goals in WWE, perhaps taking a complete break was Irvin’s way to show people she could chart her own path and be her own person.
And although she has called a return to wrestling a “guarantee”, depending on the success of “Make Me” and any other future musical endeavors, that return might just be a ways off yet.
SAMATHA IRVIN STORIES
- Oct. 27, 2024: Samantha Irvin confirms: ‘I don’t like announcing’
- Oct. 22, 2024: Mystery surrounds Samantha Irvin’s WWE exit
- Oct. 21, 2024: Samantha Irvin leaving WWE
- Sep. 30, 2024: Samantha Irvin rips into wrestling fans
SAMATHA IRVIN LINKS
