World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. - Best seat in the house: your backstage pass through my WWE journey

Justin Roberts

Best Seat in the House

Your Backstage Pass Through My WWE Journey

Meyer & Meyer Sport (UK) Ltd.

CREDITS
Cover Design: Dave Bogart, Adam Mock, Andreas Reuel
Photo Pages Design: Dave Bogart
Cover Photo: Matt Roberts
Photos: Justin Roberts, Wrelano@aol.com, Matt Cardona
Typesetting: Sannah Inderelst
Copyediting: Liz Evans
Acquisition: Manuel Morschel
Ebook: Gregor Meisen

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Best Seat in the House
Maidenhead: Meyer & Meyer Sport (UK) Ltd., 2016
ISBN: 978-1-78255-115-7

All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means now known or hereafter invented without the prior written permission of the publisher.
This book may not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form, binding or cover other than that which is published, without the prior written consent of the publisher.

2017 by Meyer & Meyer Sport (UK) Ltd.
Aachen, Auckland, Beirut, Cairo, Cape Town, Dubai, Hgendorf, Hong Kong, Indianapolis, Manila, New Delhi, Singapore, Sydney, Tehran, Vienna
Member of the World Sport Publishers Association (WSPA)
www.m-m-sports.com

ISBN 978-1-78255-451-6

I am best known for my passion for professional wrestling and being the heart and soul of ECW. It is ironic that though Justin and I came from different areas of the country, are 10 years apart, and did different things to achieve our life goals (hell, the smartass nerd used to watch me on TV), we are so similar. We both come from a loving home where our parents, who had similar health issues, supported us in achieving our collective goals, and we also both have one sister. At times, we have shared a collective, immature brain, and most important, both of us have an insane love of professional wrestling. If there was ever a heart and soul of announcing, it would be Justin Roberts. He gave everything to his performance when he was out there in front of the crowd. He was on and amped for three-plus hours a night, every night, when he worked for WWE. In a 12-year career with WWE, Justin drove every mile, boarded every early flight, stayed in different hotels every night, worked while sick, and took a lot of crap from some wrestlers. He was in the trenches with the wrestlers. He gave his normal life up and had the greatest time doing it.

Most people would say that a ring announcer job is easy or its not important. On the contrary, it is the most important job. The announcer is the voice of the show, the grandmaster of ceremony. Without him, some debuting wrestlers would come out to no reactions. If a wrestler sounds important, he is perceived as important. An announcer sets the tone for the evening. In WWE, the performers job is to put smiles on faces, and the first spark of that smile and anticipation was Justins, Good evening, [whatever town we were in], and his Your first match always got the people on their feet.

When reading this book, dont look at it as another wrestling book; look at as reading a journey of someone who followed their dream, and use it as motivation to follow your own dream. Justin didnt win a contest or get the job because he was doing something else in news media. This is what he wanted to do, and he paid his dues to get there. This book is an honest depiction of someone who had firsthand knowledge of the inner workings of the WWE, including his dealings with some not-so-friendly wrestlers that viewed him as an outsider and efforts to survive the political landscape in WWE. Justin sat in on production meetings before most shows. Several times, he performed at the grandest show of all, WrestleMania. There is a WWE Hall of Fame award and a foundation, Connors Cure, that wouldnt have been happened if it werent for Justin Roberts.

I find it funny how he has so many pictures and videos of himself as a total geeky fan, trying to be cool hanging with the wrestlers. Well, this book could also be any movie where a geek becomes cool because Justin has caught the interest of many hot women and still lives a bachelors life (lucky bastard). I joke around with him for having the inability to love because he is a bachelor, but its his normal because he knows nothing different. Thats his dating, his courtship, and there is no normal in wrestling. I joke with him about the inability to love, but in hindsight, he loves his family, will do anything for his friends, and loves wrestling still to this day. (I cant explain his weirdness for the Golden Girls or 1980s and 1990s TV sitcoms, but maybe he can in this book.)

I may be biased, but despite whatever was bothering me in WWE, once I went through that curtain and stepped out to perform in front of the WWE audience, I was at my happiest. The first person I saw was Justin, and his smile and general excitement to see me, even though he saw me all day, made me happier.

I hope you enjoy Justin Roberts journey. Im happy to have been a part of it. As a wrestling fan who crossed over the guardrails, this should inspire the reader that if Justin can do it, so can you. If you have a dream follow it, and live life to its fullest. Every night, he had the best seat in the house in WWE because, quite simply, he was the best at what he did.

Tommy Dreamer
Professional Wrestler, 1989 to present

They say there are two sides to every story. Not this one. This is not a creative writing piece. There is no ghostwriter. This is my story, based on the facts, through my well-documented journey. I never sold out arenas. Heck, I never even claimed to sell any tickets. I did, however, take a long ride on a crazy roller coaster known as the business of professional wrestling. This story is not meant to be a tell-all, nor is it meant to target anyone. Its just my brutally honest story, and if it helps to make any positive changes in the world, or if it helps to inspire one of you or teach you something helpful that you may not have known, it will be worth it. I dedicate this book to my family, friends, fans, all my teachers, and everyone else in my path who helped shape me as a person, and to every performer who put their body on the line in the ring so I could have a job, as well as every performer who ever made me a fan. I hope you enjoy.

It was a brisk Chicago morning in the Northwest Suburbs junior high social studies classroom when Mrs. Mitsokopoulos popped in a videotape and sat down at her desk. The volume of the video immediately rose as high as possible, causing Mrs. Mitsokopoulos to rush over to the television and lower the sound back to normal. As she sat back at her desk, the volume lowered all the way down to the very bottom. She walked over to the television and slightly adjusted the volume back up. While returning to her desk, the volume went all the way up once again. Sure enough, as she tried to slightly lower the volume, the level dropped to the very bottom.

After realizing that a movie wasnt going to work on this day, she proclaimed that the students would be presenting their current event articles to the class. A volunteer offered to start and stood sternly in front of his classmates to begin the presentation. Within 10 seconds, the class interrupted the student by standing up. An appalled Mrs. Mitsokopoulos immediately instructed the class to sit back down. As the student continued on to his second note card, the class once again stood in unison and began clapping. A perplexed Mrs. Mitsokopoulos looked around in awe at the unprecedented, possessed-like behavior taking place before her eyes. This classroom, however, was not haunted; it was just my social studies class. I was armed with a universal remote control watch and note cards that also served as cue cards to my classmates, instructing them to rise if they were enjoying the presentation and next to rise and applaud if they would like me to continue.