Todd Grisham (January 9, 1976) is an American presenter/announcer who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), working on its SmackDown! brand as the play-by-play announcer and is the host for Fox Soccer Channel's Major League Soccer broadcasts.
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Early life
Grisham attended Wingate University on a soccer scholarship, later transferring to University of West Georgia 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 Tucson for approximately five years before signing a two-year contract with WWE as an announcer, officially joining them on January 14, 2004.
World Wrestling Entertainment (2004-present)
Voice of Heat, Byte This and Bottom Line (2004-2008)
Grisham debuted in WWE in 2004, becoming the voice of WWE Heat, doing play-by-play alongside Jonathan Coachman, Josh Mathews, and others over a near four year period. Grisham also formerly co-hosted The WWE Experience with Ivory, but after her release, he hosted it alone until mid-2006, when Josh Mathews started hosting the show. He also hosted WWE's premier web show, WWE Byte This!, which was canceled in 2006. In addition, he did backstage interviews for the Raw brand. In 2005 he also began hosting Raw's catch-up program WWE Bottom Line after Marc Lloyd was released from the company, until September 2007 when Jack Korpela started hosting the show.
Grisham also hosted WWE Unlimited segments, a web-only broadcast that allows viewers to witness events during commercial breaks of Raw. On May 1, 2006 Grisham called the main event on Raw, alongside Jerry "The King" Lawler, filling in for Joey Styles, who had just quit, in storyline.
During an episode of WWE.com's Byte This!, he responded to a letter sent in by controversial superstar The Ultimate Warrior where Warrior declined an invitation to come on the show to talk about his DVD The Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior. During the letter Warrior insulted recovering cancer patient Bobby Heenan and called Todd Grisham "gay". Grisham responded in good humor by saying he may have experimented in college, but that was no reason to call him that. Grisham also participated in a series of conversations on Byte This! with fans of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) who interrupted the show to both proclaim TNA a superior product, or to insult Grisham directly when he chose to sugarcoat and dodge TNA related questions, Grisham retaliated with his own retorts, some humorous, and some hostile (once calling one TNA fan a "retard"). He some times did respond to the questions however citing that TNA was not at the level that WWE was.
ECW (2008-2009)
Grisham became the new play-by-play commentator for the ECW brand on the July 29, 2008 episode of ECW. He replaced play-by-play commentator Mike Adamle, who had become the Raw brand General Manager, and was paired with Tazz, who was the color commentator. This announce team was short-lived, however, as Tazz moved over to SmackDown to fill in for Mick Foley (who was injured by Edge and then left the company) and Matt Striker moved back to ECW to take over Tazz's duties as color commentator.
Since then, their commentating had been highly praised by fans and Grisham and Striker even won the 2008 Slammy Award for Announce Team of the Year. During his run as ECW commentator he still conducted interviews on Raw and also became the new regular interviewer for SmackDown as Eve Torres took a more in ring role. On April 4, 2009 Grisham would host the 2009 Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
SmackDown (2009-present)
On April 7, 2009 episode of ECW Grisham and Striker's near 8 month commentary partnership came to an end as Josh Matthews became the new play-by-play commentator for ECW. This was due to Tazz leaving the company. Play-by-play commentator Jim Ross would now switch to color, thus replacing Tazz, and Grisham became the new play-by-play man. Grisham made his SmackDown debut as play-by-play commentator on April 10, 2009. On October 30, 2009, he was reunited with his ECW broadcasting partner Matt Striker, who was moved to SmackDown to replace Jim Ross.
Sportscasting
In 2007, Grisham was named the host for Fox Soccer Channel's Major League Soccer broadcasts, working alongside Christopher Sullivan for pre-game and post-game coverage of the network's Saturday night broadcasts.
Personal life
Grisham was raised in Bay Minette, Alabama, and attended Baldwin County High School for his freshman year, where he played on the school's soccer team as a forward. His family relocated several times after his freshman year, and Grisham eventually graduated from Orange Park High School in Orange Park, Florida.
Grisham has an older brother named Jeff. Grisham recently married his long-time girlfriend Alyson DeRenzis.
Job titles
- Heat play-by-play commentator (2004–2008)
- Byte This host (2004–2006)
- The Experience host (2004–2006)
- The Bottom Line host (2004–2007)
- Raw (Substitute) Play-by-play commentator (2006)
- Raw (Substitute) ring announcer (2006, 2007)
- Raw backstage interviewer (2004–2009)
- ECW play-by-play commentator (2008–2009)
- WWE Friday Night SmackDown backstage interviewer (2009)
- Friday Night SmackDown play by play commentator (2009–present)
- WWE Superstars Play-by-play commentator (2009–present)
- WWE Pay-per-view backstage interviewer (2009–present)
Championships and accomplishments
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
- Worst Television Announcer - 2004 and 2006
- World Wrestling Entertainment
- Slammy Awards for Best Announce Team (2008) - with Matt Striker
References
