Jonathan Coachman

Jonathan William Coachman (born August 12, 1973), also known as "The Coach", is an American sports analyst and former professional wrestling personality best known for his time with WWE and XFL.

Before embarking on an announcing career in professional wrestling, Coachman was a high school basketball player.

After two state basketball championships at McPherson High School in McPherson, Kansas, Coachman moved across town to continue playing for McPherson College.

While at McPherson, Coachman's interests included participating in theatre, serving as the sports editor for the school newspaper, and doing play-by-play and color commentary for the local football and basketball radio broadcasts.

Coachman was also a sports reporter/anchor at KAKE in Wichita, Kansas, and also lived for a time in Newton Falls, Ohio, frequently attending Youngstown State Penguins basketball games.

Coachman also starred in many instructional videos used for technical education classrooms of middle schools and high schools.

One set of videos featured "Coach" instructing people on flight navigation and the basics of airplanes.

He also had a "boyfriend-in-a-box" modeled after him during college.

Coachman also worked for local Kansas City news station KMBC-TV, where he was a correspondent for Larry King Live's coverage of Owen Hart's death in May 1999.

Coachman began his World Wrestling Federation (WWF) career as an interviewer on Smackdown, January 13, 2000, commentator, and presenter.

Coachman was also involved in occasional segments with The Rock, in which The Rock attempted to humiliate Coachman in any form possible, whether it was forcing him to sing, dance, or smile for the camera.

The Rock also accused Coachman of performing rather lewd activities with farm animals.

During winter of 2001, Coachman was pressed into service as a sideline reporter for regional telecasts of the WWF-owned XFL, initially serving on the same broadcast team as WWF commentators Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

The Coach made a heel turn against Shane McMahon on August 24, 2003, at SummerSlam.

After this he would have an on-screen role as the "lackey" to then General Manager of Raw, Eric Bischoff.

Coachman continued to work as a heel and later teamed up with his fellow WWE Heat announcer Al Snow in a storyline feud against the Raw announce team, Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross.

This feud would even see the pair win the right to announce the main show from Ross and Lawler at one point.

Later, Coachman achieved a singles victory on pay-per-view at Backlash, in 2004 by defeating Tajiri (albeit with the assistance of Garrison Cade).

Coachman would go on to host the 2004 and 2005 Raw Diva Searches.

Later, Coach would gain his own column in the now defunct Raw Magazine ("Coach's Corner") and his own webcast on WWE.com ("CoachCast").

Coachman was officially added as the third member to the Raw broadcast team and signed a multi-year contract with WWE in 2005.

During October 2005, Coach was involved in an angle involving the McMahon Family publicly firing Jim Ross due to the actions of Ross's friend, Steve Austin.

The firing of Ross gave Coach the position of lead announcer on Raw.

The storyline would culminate in a match at Taboo Tuesday where Austin faced Coach in a match with both Austin's and Ross's jobs on the line.

Though the match was originally scheduled to be Austin versus the Coach, Austin refused to participate because of issues he had with the storyline (the original story was said to have called for Austin to lose following a run-in by the returning Mark Henry).

World Heavyweight Champion Batista was renamed the opponent to play up the SmackDown! vs. Raw storylines.

On the October 31, 2005 edition of Raw, Batista came out and accepted the match only to be attacked by Coach's backup, the returning Goldust and Vader.

At Taboo Tuesday, Batista faced off against Coach in a Street Fight.

Vader and Goldust tried to interfere in the match, but Batista won.

However, no mention of the Jim Ross stipulation was ever mentioned after the match.

Former ECW announcer Joey Styles soon replaced Coach in a move that became permanent despite Coach's on-air protestations that Styles' presence was temporary.

Coach retained a prominent role on the Raw announcing team as the heel representative of a three-man booth with Styles, the play-by-play man, and Jerry "The King" Lawler, the babyface color commentator.

On the January 23, 2006 edition of Raw, Coach defeated Lawler to win the last Raw spot in the Royal Rumble match via interference from the debuting Spirit Squad.

Coachman would enter seventh during the match only to be eliminated almost immediately by The Big Show.

During the April 24 edition of Raw, after Coachman hosted a Divas bikini contest, Viscera came down to the ring and performed the Viscagra on Coachman.

During the commercial break of that show, still in the ring, he quit in protest of his treatment on Raw.

On the May 29 edition of Raw, it was revealed that Mr. McMahon had hired Coachman under the new position of McMahon's Executive Assistant; to aid McMahon in the daily running of the Raw brand, and actually acted as the General Manager when the McMahons were absent.

While Executive Assistant, Coachman, along with the McMahons, feuded with the reformed D-Generation X and also had issues with John Cena.

On June 18, 2007, Coachman was officially named Interim General Manager of Raw by the McMahon Family following the kayfabe death of Vince McMahon in a limo explosion.

On the August 6, 2007 edition of Raw, William Regal became the new General Manager on the Raw brand after winning a battle royal featuring other participants from the Raw roster.