Kevin Kelly (announcer)

Not to be confused with the professional wrestler, Kevin Wacholz, previously named Kevin Kelly.
For other people with the same name, see Kevin Kelly (disambiguation).
Kevin Kelly

Kelly at a Ring of Honor show in August 2011.
Birth name Kevin Foote
Born (1967-05-09) May 9, 1967[1]
New York City, New York[2]
Residence Harrisburg, Pennsylvania [3]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Kevin Kelly[4]
Billed height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[1]
Billed weight 240 lb (110 kg)[1]
Debut 1992[4]

Kevin Foote[4][5] (born May 9, 1967) is an American professional wrestling color commentator, manager, pundit, sportscaster and former ring announcer, better known by his ring name, Kevin Kelly. He is perhaps best known for his appearances with World Wrestling Entertainment between June 1996 and March 2003, and is currently an announcer for Ring of Honor and Lucha Libre USA. Kelly is married with two children.[4]

Early career

Kelly was born in New York City, New York, but his family relocated to Stuart, Florida when he was ten. He graduated from Florida State University in January 1990.[5] Kelly first became involved in broadcasting when he began working as a disc jockey, playing music from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.[6]

World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (1996–2003)

Kelly debuted on the professional wrestling independent circuit in 1991. He originally worked as a ring announcer for Eddie Mansfield's Orlando, Florida-based International Wrestling Federation.[4][1]

Kelly received a try-out with the World Wrestling Federation as a ring announcer due to the intervention of fellow IWF alumnus Billy Gunn.[4] He was hired by the WWF in June 1996.[7] In 1997, Kelly, alongside Michael Cole and Jim Ross, served as the commentator for Raw is War, the flagship television program of the WWF. In 1999, Kelly began serving as an interviewer on Raw is War and SmackDown!.[4]

As an interviewer, Kelly was involved in numerous angles. The most publicized was the controversial "Pillman's got a gun" angle, which took place on the November 4, 1996 episode of Monday Night Raw, which was filmed in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The angle was set against the backdrop of an ongoing feud between Brian Pillman and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Throughout the broadcast of Monday Night Raw, live footage was shown of Kelly interviewing Pillman in his home in Walton, Kentucky alongside Pillman's wife Melanie. After Dok Hendrix informed Monday Night Raw announcer Vince McMahon that Austin was supposedly traveling to Pillman's home, Pillman, upon being appraised of this development, produced and loaded a 9 mm Glock pistol and stated that he would "blow [Austin's] sorry ass straight to hell!" A frightened Kelly delivered the line "Pillman's got a gun!"[8][9]

In the course of the interview, Austin arrived at Pillman's home and, after fighting off several of Pillman's friends who had surrounded the house to protect him, broke into the house and advanced on Pillman. Pillman responded by pointing his pistol at Austin, with the live camera feed subsequently fading to black as Kelly and Melanie Pillman screamed. When the camera feed returned, Pillman was being restrained by his friends, and Kelly informed McMahon that there had been two explosions, but no-one had been injured. At that point, Austin re-entered the house, with Pillman's friends forcing him out again as Pillman pointed his pistol at Austin while screaming obscenities and threats. Kelly shouted for someone to "call the police" as Monday Night Raw color commentator Jerry Lawler instructed him to "get the gun". The broadcast ended with Austin being driven from the house as Melanie Pillman cried. The WWF and Pillman would later apologize for the segment.[8][9]

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Kelly would frequently be mocked by The Rock during interviews, with The Rock labeling him an "ugly hermaphrodite" and nicknaming him "Hermie".[1][10] At Unforgiven on September 24, 2000, Kelly was attacked by the returning Stone Cold Steve Austin while attempting to interview him.[11]

Kelly would later begin hosting the weekly WWF webcast Byte This!. In addition to his on-screen roles, Kelly served as a WWF talent scout, monitoring wrestlers in the Heartland Wrestling Association, Memphis Championship Wrestling, Ohio Valley Wrestling and Urban Wrestling Alliance developmental territories.[4] Kelly was responsible for watching and evaluating tapes of matches sent to the WWF by prospective employees.[12][13] Kelly also had a minor degree of influence on the creative direction of the WWF, and was the creator of the storyline that saw Stephanie McMahon marry Triple H, creating the McMahon-Helmsley Faction.[10] In addition, Kelly produced Confidential.[10]

In November 1999, Kelly debuted in the Delaware-based East Coast Wrestling Association as a manager, forming several heel stables. On April 7, 2001 in Wilmington, Delaware, Kelly defeated Cheetah Master for the ECWA Heavyweight Championship with the help of Billy Fives and Rick Fuller, members of Kelly's Alliance of Defiance stable. He was stripped of the title on May 5, 2001, with Scoot Andrews defeating Billy Fives for the vacant title.[14][15] On December 3, 2005, Kelly was inducted into the ECWA Hall of Fame.

On March 21, 2003, Kelly was released by the WWF (renamed World Wrestling Entertainment in 2002) as part of a series of budget cuts.[10][16]

Radio (2003–2010)

He went on to work for the short-lived Major League Wrestling promotion. Since his release, Kelly has criticized the corporate policies and creative direction of his former employer.[10][17][18]

Kelly once hosted a segment named "Plan B" on the Voice of Wrestling Internet radio program. He continues to appear on the independent circuit with promotions such as Eastern Pro Wrestling.[19] In August 2007, Kelly started his own show on the Wrestling Radio Network called The Kevin Kelly Show. Kelly also hosts The Big Picture audio show on ClubWWI.com

Ring of Honor (2010–present)

On March 2, 2010, Jim Cornette announced that Kelly had signed an agreement to be the voice of Ring of Honor on Internet pay-per-view,.[20] Since 2011 until now, Kevin Kelly has been serving as main color commentator in Ring of Honor TV tapings as well as Internet pay per views.

May 28, 2011 to October 22, 2011, Kelly was an announcer for Lucha Libre USA For Season 2.[21]

In 2014, Kevin Kelly began hosting a wrestling and pop culture podcast, The Kevin Kelly Show, on Place to Be Nation.[22]

New Japan Pro Wrestling (2015, 2016)

On October 12, Kelly and Matt Striker served as the English language commentators for New Japan Pro Wrestling's King of Pro-Wrestling.[23]

Kelly returned to NJPW English commentary at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2016, again working alongside Matt Striker as well as NJPW wrestler Yoshitatsu.[24] He returned as part of NJPW English commentary at Invasion Attack 2016 alongside Steve Corino who filled in Matt Striker's position.

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Kevin Kelly". Bodyslamminging.com. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  2. ↑ "Profil von Kevin Kelly". Cagematch.net. March 4, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  3. ↑ "Kevin Kelly". Ring of Honor. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Kevin Kelly". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  5. 1 2 "Interview with Kevin Kelly". TheBurningHammer.com. December 11, 2006. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  6. ↑ Thatcher, L.; Young, D. (April 8, 2007). "Kevin Kelly interview". WrestlingObserver.com. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  7. ↑ Lyon, S. (June 17, 2006). "Stephen Lyon looks at 10 years ago this week in the Wrestling Observer". WrestlingObserver.com. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  8. 1 2 Burkholder, D. (October 7, 2004). "1996: Brian Pillman Whips It Out". OnlineOnslaught.com. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  9. 1 2 Lyon, S. (November 4, 2006). "Pillman & Austin Gun Angle...". WrestlingObserver.com. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 "Kevin Kelly interview about backstage in WWE". WrestlingObserver.com. September 22, 2003. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  11. ↑ Powell, J. (September 25, 2000). "Austin culprit unrevealed at Unforgiven". Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  12. ↑ Oliver, G. (June 1, 2001). "The Alberta WWF tryout experience". Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  13. ↑ LaCroix, C. (September 30, 2006). "The WWE tryout experience". Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  14. ↑ Gerweck, S. (May 30, 2001). "Jim Kettner". Gerweck.net. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  15. 1 2 Dupree, J. (2005). "ECWA - East Coast Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Title History". Solie.org. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  16. ↑ Baines, T. (March 30, 2003). "WWE to welcome Goldberg tonight?". Ottawa Sun. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  17. ↑ Fritz, B. (June 18, 2003). "Kevin Kelly on his WWE years". Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  18. ↑ Stein, T.; et al. (October 28, 2003). "Jimmy Valiant, Bill Eadie and Kevin Kelly interviews on state of wrestling business". WrestlingObserver.com. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  19. ↑ "EPW roster". EPWWrestling.com. 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  20. ↑ Who's Slamming Who (March 2, 2010). "Who's Slamming Who". Retrieved March 2, 2010.
  21. ↑ Roberts, Alex (May 30, 2011). "5/28 Lucha Libre USA TV taping: Spoiler results for Season 2 episodes of MTV2 show - Lethal debuts, Petey, new commentators, double-turns". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  22. ↑ http://placetobe.podbean.com/
  23. ↑ Meltzer, Dave (October 2, 2015). "Fri update: John Cena taking time off, Johnny Hendricks hospitalized". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  24. ↑ Velten, Dan (December 18, 2015). "Late news updates from Friday 12/18: Taven injury, weight issues, Tokyo-Dome, NXT". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  25. ↑ "ECW A Hall of Fame". ECWA. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
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