Posted on 9/23/125 by Colin Vassallo
Mark Shunock, better known to WWE fans as Smackdown ring
announcer Mark Nash, sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Las
Vegas to discuss his journey from the theater stage to
professional wrestling, playing Timon in “The Lion King”
Broadway show, how he went from announcing Top Rank Boxing
to WWE, providing the introductions for John Cena and Cody
Rhodes, the origin of his WWE name, winning the Stanley Cup
with the Las Vegas Golden Knights and more!
On how he became a part of WWE:
“Well, we all know Nick Khan is the president of WWE, they
lost a ring announcer, and there was an opening. I got a
text message out of the blue from Triple H. I looked down at
my phone, and it was right around the time of the election
last year. So I looked at it at first, and I don’t even know
if he knows this, but I looked at it at first. I said, Oh,
this has got to be a solicitation text for a candidate,
right? It was just numbers, and it started out, ‘Hey, it’s
Paul Levesque, Triple H with WWE.’ So it was like when you
see that, you know they’re not really texting you. That’s a
bot texting, right? Like ‘Hey, it’s Morgan Freeman. I want
you to vote for me for the Screen Actors Guild’ or whatever.
Yeah, that’s what I thought it was when I first glanced at
it, and I looked down, whatever. But my phone, like many
people have, is connected to my computer, and I was working
on my computer and I could see the text message also pop up
on my screen. I read the first bit, and I was like oh, this
is actually him. This isn’t somebody pretending to be Triple
H. And I read the text, and it was like, ‘Hey, man. We’re
big fans of your work over here. You got time for a call?’
Yeah, hold my beer. Of course I got time for a call. The
greatest mind in wrestling of all time is texting me, and
I’m like, wow. And that’s how it started. We started a
conversation, and the timing was perfect. My contracts were
up with Top Rank, and I graciously said, ‘Hey, I think I’m
gonna move over here’, and I will say this about Top Rank.
Brad Jacobs, who was my point, is probably one of the most
incredible human beings on the planet. His words to me when
I called him were, ‘It sucks for us. This is incredible for
you. Congratulations.’ To this day, I have the utmost
respect for Brad. And I’m sure, I don’t know for a fact, but
I’m sure Nick had something to do with this when that
vacancy presented itself. Because he’s the one who brought
me over to boxing, and I’m sure he had something to do with
bringing me over to the WWE. And you know, Joe Tessitore is
with the WWE, and he was the voice of Top Rank forever. So
we have a wonderful relationship. And I can say that Joe has
been remarkable in holding my hand. Everybody has been. So
again, kid in the candy store, humble as hell, grateful for
everything.”
On the origin of his WWE name:
“There’s a process there, and it’s awesome. That’s a big
part of wrestling is finding out who this person is now, and
where this name is, or how they’re finding that name. So it
didn’t come overnight, and there was a lot of conversation
about it back and forth with options, and Nash was, believe
it or not, something that I came up with. It’s my mother’s
maiden name and my father’s last name squished together. So
my father’s name is Shunock, as everybody knows, S, H, U, N,
O, C, K. My mother’s maiden name is Nassr N, A, S, S, R. So
I took N, A, S, H, put it together, and I just threw it in
an email. I didn’t even need an explanation. I said, ‘Hey,
what do you guys think about Mark Nash? It’s my mom’s name
and my dad’s name squished together.’ They’re like, awesome.
So again, as much as it’s not my real name, it is. So when I
walk out, I am so proud of Mark Nash on that screen, because
you’re allowing me now to tell the WWE Universe that that’s
my mom and my dad on that screen with me, and I’m just like
you and probably all of your listeners. We all have
families. We all have mothers and fathers, and I love mine
just like everybody else, and they’re with me every Friday
night.”
On his never-seen 17 John Cena introduction:
“I’m gonna just say it. This [Stanley Cup] ring is pretty
special, and that’s an iconic moment from the Stanley Cup. I
don’t know that I will ever be a part of a moment. Let’s
knock on wood that they keep happening as amazing, I don’t
have another word for it, just unreal, amazing, incredible,
as this last three months that I’ve had with John Cena.
Again, what is life? He points at you and calls you into the
ring and tells you, ‘Your announcement sucks. Read this
instead.’ And then I’m like, okay. I get this elaborate ring
announcement for John, it goes bananas and viral, and
everybody loves it. And I’ve had the privilege of now
repeating it for three months, and that came to an end two
weeks ago, his last appearance on SmackDown, and I had a
moment with him where I literally just looked him in the
eyes, and I said, Thank you so much for this incredible
opportunity. Again, I don’t even know that we’d be sitting
here if it wasn’t for that, right? Because it propelled me
in the WWE Universe in a pretty cool way.