Jonathan Coachman

Jonathan William Coachman
Data
Surname	Jonathan William Coachman
Ring name	Jonathan Coachman
Additions to names	The Coach
birth	August 12, 1972 Kansas City , Missouri
Announced from	Wichita , Kansas
debut	December 23, 1999

Jonathan William Coachman (born August 12, 1972 in Kansas City , Missouri ), also known as "The Coach" , is an American journalist and former wrestling commentator. Today he works as a sports journalist for the broadcaster ESPN .

Life

Youth and Beginnings

Coachman was a successful high school basketball player from McPherson High School in McPherson , Kansas . After two successful seasons there, he moved to the team at McPherson College. He was named McPherson's Sportsman of the Year twice. He was also interested in the theater, wrote the sports section of the school newspaper and commented on local basketball and football games on the local radio . He later worked for the Kansas-based television station KMBC-TV.

Wrestling career

In 1999 Coachman began working as an interviewer and commentator in what was then the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE). After a small feud against The Rock , he became a reporter in 2001 in the Football League XFL, which was part of the WWF. 2003 they made him a heel and he became the assistant to the general manger of Raw , Eric Bischoff . He later became a commentator on the B-Show Heat, where he worked with Al Snow . The team started a feud with Raw commentators Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler .

With the help of Garrison Cade , Coachman defeated Tajiri at the 2004 Backlash PPV . In 2004 and 2005 he hosted the WWE casting "Diva Search" and got his own columns in Raw magazine and on the WWE homepage. In 2005, he officially became the third member of Raw's commentary team. In October 2005, Coachman was involved in a storyline about the McMahon family's public dismissal of Jim Ross ( kayfabe ), which also included Steve Austin . Actually, a match between Austin and the coach was planned on "Taboo Tuesday", which should be about Ross' and Austin's workplace. However, Austin canceled and so there was a match between Batista and Coachman, but it was no longer about Ross' job.

WWE officials became dissatisfied with Coachman's comments, so he was replaced by Joey Styles , but later brought back to the team. In January 2006 he was granted an appearance in the Royal Rumble and in April he was allowed to moderate the Divas Bikini Contest. Coachman then disappeared for a while, which the WWE turned into a storyline where no one knew where the coach was. From May he directed the Raw show as Executive Assistant to Vince McMahon . In this position, he helped the McMahons in a feud with D-Generation X . From June 2007 he even became the official general manager of Raw.

By winning a Battle Royal, William Regal was the new GM and Coachman demoted to his post as assistant. Starting in January 2008, he and Michael Cole commented on SmackDown's editions , but was replaced by Mick Foley in April and has since continued his career outside of the wrestling business.

Other work

Coachman has also been working as a commentator for the American TV station MSG Network since 2007 . Since August 2008 he has been working as a presenter for the broadcaster ESPN, both in the TV division (ESPNews) and on the radio.

Web links

• Jonathan Coachman's WWE Alumni Profile
• Profile on Neckbruch.com