Todd Grisham
| Todd Grisham | |
|---|---|
| File:ToddGrisham.jpg | |
| Born | January 9, 1976 Hattiesburg, Mississippi |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Todd Grisham |
| Debut | 2004 |
Todd Grisham (born January 9 1976 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi) is an American presenter/announcer working for World Wrestling Entertainment.
In the WWE, Grisham formerly co-hosted WWE Experience with Ivory, but after her release, he hosted it alone untill July 2006. He also hosts WWE's premier web cast show, WWE Byte This!, and does play-by-play for WWE HEAT. In addition, he does backstage interviews for RAW. On the October 31, 2005 episode of Raw, Grisham's was dressed up like Harry Caray for Halloween and conducted several interviews imitating Will Ferrell imitating Harry Caray. Since then, WWE Byte This! has apparently been cancelled.
He also hosted Raw's catch-up program WWE Bottom Line after Marc Loyd was released from the company.
He also took over Marc Loyd's duty of doing WWE Canadian updates. Todd brings new found charisma and a sense of humor to his updates, a refreshing change from Loyd's monotone updates. Todd has been known to call himself "T.G." and "The Grish". His favorite references to Canadian fans are "My favorite country to the North" and "My favorite country that starts with a 'C'" which is usally followed up by "Although Cameroon is a close second" or "Way better than Chad". Occaisonally, former WWE Velocity announcers Josh Matthews and Steve Romero have filled in temporarily.
Grisham would also host WWE Unlimited segments, a web-only broadcast that allows viewers to witness events during commercial breaks of RAW. However, on May 1, 2006 Grisham was able to call the main event on WWE RAW, alongside Jerry "The King" Lawler filling in for Joey Styles, who had just quit (kayfabe).
Sportscasting
Grisham attended Wingate University on a soccer scholarship, later transferring to West Georgia University where he received his degree in communications. His first professional job in the television industry was with KTVO of Ottumwa, Iowa where he worked for a year and a half. He then went on to work as a sportscaster for KOLD-TV for approximately five years before signing a two-year contract with WWE as an announcer, officially joining them on January 14, 2004. [1] [2] [3]
Trivia
- One notable slip in Todd Grisham's temporary ring announcing position occured when he had called a number one contender's match for the Intercontinental Championship (RAW) between Shelton Benjamin and Carlito, but instead accidentally calling it the Cruiserweight Championship (SmackDown). Commentators Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler used it as an excuse to how much they missed normal announcer Lillian Garcia who was injured (kayfabe) the week before after a Samoan Drop from Viscera.
- During an episode of WWE.Com Byte This!, he responded to a letter sent in by controversial superstar The Ultimate Warrior (Jim Hellwig) where the Warrior declined the invite to come to the show to talk about his DVD, The Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior. During the letter, Warrior went on to insult recovering cancer patiet Bobby Heenan and called Todd Grisham a "fag". Todd responded in good humor by saying he may have experiemented in college, but that was no reason for that claim. Also on the same episode, current Raw Superstar Matt Striker dressed up as the Warrior and cut a humourous and dead-on impersonation.