Veda Scott talks about finding her voice.
Veda Scott, after a successful career as a professional wrestler, carved out a niche for herself as a professional wrestling announcer and is hoping to parlay her newfound passion into a full-time career.
Speaking on Fightful's Grapsody podcast, Veda broke down how she found her voice and, along the way, merged the roles of the color commentator and the play-by-play analyst.
“Yeah, so like, quite literally finding what voice I’m going to use as a broadcaster, as you all know, is a big thing," she said. "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."
Continuing, Veda Scott spoke about how she has shifted from a color commentator-style presentation, which is most typical for a former or current wrestler when they take a role behind the headset. Scott explained that she began to lean more into a play-by-play style once she began to understand more of the production aspects of a wrestling show. Also, Scott spoke about her experiences as a solo commentator.
“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," Scott said. "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.”
Furthermore, Scott spoke about eventually mastering the need to merge the role of the play-by-play announcer and a color commentator. Specifically, she said she's trying to find a balance so that she can be an asset on every show, be it an independent show or one that is presented on television.
“For me, I’ve always tried to marry both aspects. Like I would find myself doing color and end up starting to shift into play-by-play because that’s just how my brain works," Scott said. "Again, just trying to find the balance like on the independents, there’s a bit more casualness around the designations between the positions, especially in a two-person or three-person booth. Usually, there is somebody that is pretty strictly designated to play-by-play and then maybe like waving around otherwise. On television, there is usually a much stricter designation for production reasons, and that’s just how it is. I’ve tried to get good at transitioning between those roles as I go from place to place because, like you said, I work for a lot of different promotions. They all have different feelings, they all have different vibes, they all have different presentations, and I need to be able to maintain me but also adapt to those situations as well and slide in as seamlessly as possible and elevate the broadcast rather than drawing attention to myself and bringing it down. That’s important, I think.”
When speaking about the transition from wrestler to announcer, Veda explains initially working in a post-produced environment for SHIMMER. Scott also spoke about asking for more opportunities in the industry, working alongside names like Kevin Kelly, as she realized that announcing was a path she wanted to pursue.
“That’s been interesting, too, because when I first started doing commentary, I did a lot of commentary for SHIMMER. A lot of that was because, at the time, a lot of the production was done in post in terms of announcing and commentary. We would film the matches and then do commentary later after the editing was done. So in that situation, I was able to kind of wiggle into… I knew I wanted to do more announcing in general," she said. "Same with, in Ring Of Honor, where I would try to get myself to the commentary table as much as I could to get experience to work with Kevin Kelly, to work with whoever was there at the time. Same thing with SHIMMER and Dave Prazak and also on the independents; it’s just asking if I can do more commentary work. Trying to put out tons of promos and interviews to show that I want to talk about pro wrestling. That transition from wrestler to commentator… for a while, I would do commentary for the promotions that I wrestled at.
"The Veda Special, we always called it, I would wrestle the opening match, and then I’d go to commentary and call the rest of the show, which was always fun, and I still like doing that," she added. "It’s become harder in recent months especially because I tend to either lead the broadcast or be a little more involved in the actual broadcast, so I can’t switch back and forth as much. For SHIMMER, for example, I was doing color commentary on shows that I had wrestled on or [I would] call matches with people I routinely wrestled. That was a lot more personalized, whereas now I’m very regularly doing broadcasts for promotions that I’ve never wrestled at and I never will or calling matches for people I’m never going to be in a ring with. So there’s not that personal aspect anymore, and that’s been really fun to transition into full-on like broadcaster Veda. Not ex-wrestler, but part-time wrestler as opposed to having a personal stake in what’s going on.”
Today, Scott continues to work towards the goal of a full-time announcing job. Elsewhere in this interview, she said she would not mind winding up in Ring of Honor again. Fans can read her comments here.
Fans looking to follow Veda's journey can follow her on Twitter and Instagram. More of Veda's links, including her booking information, can be found here.
