Austin Michael Romero
Early life
Rome grew up in San Diego, California as a huge fan of WWE's Rock 'n Wrestling era, idolizing Superstars like The Ultimate Warrior and being mesmerized by
The Undertaker's debut at Survivor Series in 1990.
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Career
NXT ring announcer and sporadic Raw appearances (2016–2019)
Romero signed with
WWE in May 2016, having previously worked for
Nickelodeon as a touring emcee, and for Walt Disney World and Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, as a cast member.
He began working as a
ring announcer for the NXT brand on its Florida loop.
He was also the ring announcer at the Cruiserweight Classic,
and made his debut on WWE programming on the September 7, 2016, episode of
WWE NXT. His
ring name is a shortened version of his
middle name and his
surname, and he initially went by his full middle name and the shortened version of his surname, before it was changed before a
NXT taping to differentiate himself from Michael Cole.
Rome would make his main roster debut on the January 16, 2017, episode of
WWE Raw, in a backstage segment interviewing
Nia Jax.
He would continue to make appearances on both
NXT and
Raw, with his final
NXT appearance as an interviewer at .
From then on, Rome would appear regularly on the main roster shows.
Rome has occasionally been used on Raw or otherwise to further storylines. In an backstage segment in July 2018, Alexa Bliss was promoting Table for 3 on the WWE Network, when Rome walked by and interrupted her, thinking she was asking him out on a date.
Raw ring announcer (2019–2023)
Starting in January 2019, Rome became the main Raw ring announcer after previous announcer JoJo quietly left that position. Beginning in April 2019, Rome, much like his SmackDown counterpart Greg Hamilton, was forced by
Shane McMahon to introduce him to the ring with emphasis on the phrase "best in the world" (relating to McMahon's gimmick at the time).
On one occasion, Rome's voice gave out towards the end, resulting in McMahon and
Roman Reigns visibly
corpsing as well as Michael Cole and
Corey Graves making fun of him.
According to Hamilton, Rome was legitimately sick that night and commended him for still pulling off the announcement.
On December 27, Rome won the WWE 24/7 Championship at a House show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Samir Singh had just won the title off R-Truth for his third reign, and wanted Rome to announce him as the new champion, prodding him as he did so. Instead, Rome rolled Samir up to win the title and was about to announce himself as the new champion but Sunil Singh surprised him with a roll up to regain the title, also for his third reign.
Following the release of Greg Hamilton in October 2021, he had been announcing on both Raw and WWE SmackDown until January 14, 2022 when Samantha Irvin was called up to the main roster from 205 Live to serve as the ring announcer for SmackDown.
SmackDown ring announcer (2023–2024)
During the 2023 WWE Draft, Rome and Irvin were both drafted to switch announcing positions taking effect May 8, 2023. As a result, Rome would become the new ring announcer for
SmackDown, starting with the May 12 episode. In 2024, he would reduce his announcing roles at premium live events for the brand as Irvin solo announced three out of the four events from January-May, while Rome announced one, which was . He would still announce the weekly shows until his last
SmackDown appearance as official ring announcer on April 26, 2024.
Return to NXT and sporadic main roster appearances (2024–present)
On May 8, 2024, Rome announced on his Instagram account that he was returning as NXT ring announcer, citing being closer to his home in Orlando, Florida, where NXT holds its weekly shows.
Alicia Taylor, who was the NXT ring announcer, would take over Rome’s role as SmackDown ring announcer.
Rome would make a brief main roster return to announce for WWE’s tour to Saudi Arabia for the SmackDown show on May 24 and King and Queen of the Ring on May 25.
Championships and accomplishments
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WWE
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WWE 24/7 Championship (1 time)
External links
