Jonathan Coachman

Early life

Before embarking on an announcing career in professional wrestling, Coachman was a high school basketball player. After two state basketball championships at McPherson High School in McPherson, Kansas, Coachman moved across town to continue playing for McPherson College. While at McPherson, Coachman's interests included participating in theatre, serving as the sports editor for the school newspaper, and doing play-by-play and color commentary for the local football and basketball radio broadcasts. Coachman was also a sports reporter/anchor at KAKE in Wichita, Kansas, and also lived for a time in Newton Falls, Ohio, frequently attending Youngstown State Penguins basketball games.

Coachman also starred in many instructional videos used for technical education classrooms of middle schools and high schools. One set of videos featured "Coach" instructing people on flight navigation and the basics of airplanes. He also had a "boyfriend-in-a-box" modeled after him during college. Coachman also worked for local Kansas City news station KMBC-TV, where he was a correspondent for Larry King Live's coverage of Owen Hart's death in May 1999.

Backstage interviewer (1999–2003)

Coachman began his World Wrestling Federation career as an interviewer, commentator, and presenter. Coachman was also involved in occasional segments with The Rock, in which The Rock attempted to humiliate Coachman in any form possible, whether it was forcing him to sing, dance, or smile for the camera. The Rock also accused Coachman of performing rather lewd activities with farm animals.

During winter of 2001, Coachman was pressed into service as a sideline reporter for regional telecasts of the WWF-owned XFL, initially serving on the same broadcast team as WWF commentators Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

Commentator and Assistant to Eric Bischoff (2003–2006)

The Coach made a heel turn against Shane McMahon on August 24, 2003 at SummerSlam. After this he would have an on-screen role as the "lackey" to then General Manager of Raw, Eric Bischoff. Coachman continued to work as a heel and later teamed up with his fellow WWE Heat announcer Al Snow in a storyline feud against the Raw announce team, Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross. This feud would even see the pair win the right to announce the main show from Ross and Lawler at one point. Later, Coachman achieved a singles victory on pay-per-view at Backlash, in 2004 by defeating Tajiri (albeit with the assistance of Garrison Cade). Coachman would go on to host the 2004 and 2005 Raw Diva Searches. Later, Coach would gain his own column in the now defunct Raw Magazine ("Coach's Corner") and his own webcast on WWE.com ("CoachCast"). Coachman was officially added as the third member to the Raw broadcast team and signed a multi-year contract with WWE in 2005.

During October 2005, Coach was involved in an angle involving the McMahon Family publicly firing Jim Ross due to the actions of Ross's friend, Steve Austin. The firing of Ross gave Coach the position of lead announcer on Raw. The storyline would culminate in a match at Taboo Tuesday where Austin faced Coach in a match with both Austin's and Ross's jobs on the line. Though the match was originally scheduled to be Austin versus the Coach, Austin refused to participate because of issues he had with the storyline (the original story is said to have called for Austin to lose following a run-in by the returning Mark Henry). World Heavyweight Champion Batista was renamed the opponent to play up the SmackDown! vs. Raw storylines. On the October 31, 2005 edition of Raw, Batista came out and accepted the match only to be attacked by Coach's backup, the returning Goldust and Vader. At Taboo Tuesday, Batista faced off against Coach in a Street Fight. Vader and Goldust tried to interfere in the match, but Batista won. However, no mention of the Jim Ross stipulation was ever mentioned after the match.

Former ECW announcer Joey Styles soon replaced Coach in a move that became permanent despite Coach's on-air protestations that Styles' presence was temporary. Coach retained a prominent role on the Raw announcing team as the heel representative of a three-man booth with Styles, the play-by-play man, and Jerry "The King" Lawler, the babyface color commentator.

On the January 23, 2006 edition of Raw, Coach defeated Lawler to win the last Raw spot in the Royal Rumble match via interference from the debuting Spirit Squad. Coachman would enter seventh during the match only to be eliminated almost immediately by The Big Show.

Executive Assistant, interim General Manager (2006–2007)

During the April 24 edition of Raw, after Coachman hosted a Divas bikini contest, Viscera came down to the ring and performed the Viscagra on Coachman. During the commercial break of that show, still in the ring, he quit in protest of his treatment on Raw. On the May 29 edition of Raw, it was revealed that Mr. McMahon had hired Coachman under the new position of McMahon's Executive Assistant; to aid McMahon in the daily running of the Raw brand, and actually acted as the General Manager when the McMahons were absent. While Executive Assistant, Coachman, along with the McMahons, feuded with the reformed D-Generation X and also had issues with John Cena. On June 18, 2007, Coachman was officially named Interim General Manager of Raw by the McMahon Family following the kayfabe death of Vince McMahon in a limo explosion.

On the August 6, 2007 edition of Raw, William Regal became the new General Manager on the Raw brand after winning a battle royal featuring other participants from the Raw roster. As a result, Coachman was removed from his position as Interim General Manager and became Regal's new assistant. However, following a kayfabe assault by John Cena on Regal during the September 3 edition of Raw, Regal had to be temporarily relieved of his duties as General Manager at which point Coachman was once again named interim General Manager of Raw until Regal was fit to resume his role. On the October 1 edition of Raw, Regal returned as General Manager which resulted in Coachman being once again demoted to his prior rank.

On the December 3, 2007 edition of Raw, Coach was in a No DQ Handicap match with Carlito against Hornswoggle, with whom he had been having problems. However, Hornswoggle had paid the APA to protect him during the match. Coachman was pinned by Hornswoggle after a Clothesline from Hell and a Tadpole Splash.

A rivalry ensued and one night Coachman chased Hornswoggle all over the backstage area, and it eventually moved to the arena, where Hornswoggle performed his "hide under the ring" trick to get away. Coachman moved to the other side of the ring and pulled out a detonator, much to the surprise of Jim Ross. He attempted to activate the detonator twice, but nothing happened. He then moved under the ring to check the explosives, and Hornswoggle came out from under the ring, and successfully detonated the explosives, causing smoke to appear from under the ring, and the cameras to make TV screens change color, from gray to rainbow, and according to JR, the building shook. Coachman was charred and unable to move.

SmackDown Commentator and departure (2008)

On the January 4, 2008 episode of SmackDown, Coachman would replace John "Bradshaw" Layfield, who rejoined Raw the previous week, on commentary alongside Michael Cole. Later that year in June, Coachman's contract expired after deciding not to renew.

Part time appearances (2016–present)

On March 25, 2016, Coachman made a special appearance during WWE's live event held at Madison Square Garden. On the March 28 episode of Raw, Coachman returned to WWE TV for the first time in almost 8 years, cutting a promo with The New Day. Coachman would also announce that SportsCenter would be live leading up to WrestleMania 32 on April 3.

ESPN

In 2008, Coachman left WWE to begin a career with ESPN. Starting in mid-2015, Coachman began presenting highlights of WWE's best moments of the week on ESPN, and having weekly sitdown interviews with WWE wrestlers on SportsCenter.

Personal life

Coachman and his wife Amy have two children. Amy is a pharmaceutical representative, a former college athlete, and a personal trainer.

Other media

In addition to his WWE assignments, Coachman called various sports events on College Sports Television, a cable and satellite network owned by CBS, including football, basketball, baseball and softball. He also called college basketball for CN8. In addition, Coachman served as the part-time play-by-play announcer for the WNBA's New York Liberty on the MSG Network, as well as the studio host for New York Knicks games. He also hosted the weekly MSG program MSG, NY.

In 2009, Coachman signed with ESPN as anchor of SportsCenter. In 2012, he became the host of Coach & Company, a nationally syndicated radio program that airs on ESPN Radio.

Coachman also lends his voice talents to the video game Black College Football Xperience: The Doug Williams Edition.

In wrestling