Mike Rome Spills the Beans on His Insane WWE Tryout Experience at the Performance Center

WWE ring announcer Mike Rome recently shared details of his chaotic tryout for WWE in a new interview with Chris Van Vliet. Rome has been with the company for nearly seven years, having signed on in May 2016, despite having no prior ring announcing experience.

Rome recalled his tryout as a challenging experience, with WWE’s PC being small and hectic at the time. Rome had to memorize stats and ring announce a few matches, including a backstage segment with Bull Dempsey, where he was asked to stall for time. Rome also had to introduce a live arena show and pump up the audience before throwing to a video package.

“I remember it like it was yesterday. So when I finally got the call from a guy named Johnny Greco, he wears a lot of hats, he’s been everywhere. He’s in there and we’re doing this process and Greg is there, and they had me ring announce something. They gave me the stats ahead of time, you memorize them and you turn around… they give you a couple of seconds.

We did a whole thing where I was [acting like] I was backstage, cause at the time in the PC, they’re doing classes in there so you’re doing your auditions when classes are in there and Triple H is working out in the room next door and he walks out and it’s like ‘Don’t mess up!’ It’s a crazy… during that time, it was kind of crazy because the PC was so small and it was whatever.

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So they grabbed… it was Bull Dempsey at the time and he came over and we did a backstage thing and I was supposed to talk to him about his thing with Tyler Breeze and they’re like ‘Hey, hey, you need to stall.’ So I’m like stalling, trying to ask him questions and then I go ‘Thank you for your time, back to you guys.’ It was that kind of stuff.

We did an arena thing where I walked out and went ‘What’s up WWE universe, tonight you’re gonna see this, Intercontinental Championship is on the line, WWE Championship is on the line’ and then kind of putting over the audience before throwing to a video package. It’s stuff like that. I don’t know what the process is now, but that’s what it was when I did it.”

Although Rome’s tryout was chaotic, he was able to impress the company with his skills and secure a job as a ring announcer. In addition to his role as ring announcer for Raw, Rome also hosts various non-televised WWE live events and will be featured in the upcoming WWE 2K23 video game.

What do you think are some of the biggest challenges for new WWE recruits during their tryouts, and how do you think they can best prepare themselves for the chaotic and high-pressure environment of WWE’s Performance Center? Leave a comment.