During her chat with Fightful, former Ring of Honor, TNA, Shimmer, and AIW talent Veda Scott discussed her recent work at the commentary table.
Featured below are the highlights.
On her role as a commentator:
“Yeah, so like, quite literally finding what voice I’m going to use as a broadcaster, as you all know, is a big thing. We don’t always necessarily sound the exact same depending on what situations we’re in, both in real life and socially at work as a broadcaster. For me, I’ve tried to pull a lot, this is talking about the mechanics of it, I’ve tried to pull a lot from sports announcing and sports broadcasters and sideline reporters and that sort of thing, but also from wrestling commentators. But [I’m] always trying to maintain the balance of having too much of that so I’m still able to have my own unique voice. There’s a lot of uniformity, particularly in professional wrestling, particularly in play-by-play announcing, that mimics a lot of sports broadcasting, which also has a lot of uniformity to it. That’s a good thing and a bad thing, in my opinion. Obviously, there is a sound and also a look that is desired and, you know, is sort of like what is wanted a lot of the time. We’re breaking free of a lot of that, but there is always still going to be like, this is what a professional wrestling announcer sounds like,” she continued. “I don’t always sound like that, so I’ve tried to, for professional reasons, take in some aspects of people, both in wrestling and not, and broadcasters who might be beneficial for me to include aspects of what they do from things like vocal inflection to how they carry themselves but also maintain me because I like me. I don’t want to succeed by completely just putting on someone else’s persona, I guess. So I’m trying to figure out the balance between that, of looking at what I need to do professionally but also maintaining enough of my personality. That’s been the journey that I’m still on every single time that I sit behind a microphone.”
On changing her style:
“I used to predominantly do what would be designated as color commentary in professional wrestlers if you’re talking about it from a traditional two-person team. As time has gone on, particularly as I’ve started to do more and more commentary and learn a lot more production aspects and mechanical things, I’ve started to lead more and more teams and also be shifted kind of over to the play-by-play side of things a lot more often. I also do a lot of solo commentary where I’m just doing everything. That designation isn’t as strict on the independent level, but it definitely is on TV. For me trying to figure out how I am as a play-by-play announcer versus how I am as a color commentator versus how I marry those two together that’s been really interesting. I love doing play-by-play. It’s actually my preference. It’s been really cool to be put in that position more and more now. Earlier, it was always like, ‘Oh, you’re a wrestler; you’ll do color.’ I actually prefer the play-by-play designation, and as I’ve done more and more broadcasts, I’ve been able to get myself in that position a little bit more.”
Scott joined the AEW announce team during the promotions Women's Tag Team Cup Tournament, and she is also on the AEW Dark commentary team.