Last May, legendary announcer Lilian Garcia returned to RAW and joined Samantha Irvin in the ring to help introduce a King of the Ring Quarterfinal tournament match between Gunther and Kofi Kingston (in a moment meant to be a passing of the torch).
However, when Irvin shockingly left WWE last October, Garcia was brought back into the fold to serve as a full-time announcer. After spending some time on SmackDown in recent months, she's since taken a step back, with Alicia Taylor now taking the spotlight.
Talking to Chris Van Vliet, Garcia explained how her WWE return happened and confirmed it was a quick turnaround after first getting the call from WWE CCO Triple H.
"I'm in Atlanta, I'm now living there, and Bad Blood is in Atlanta. I came back in October, so we didn't know anything. I go to Bad Blood, I'm in the audience, I'm sitting next to Booker T. Then I get the call two weeks later, 'Hey, can you come back?' The thing is I knew when they offered it to me to come back, they did tell me, 'Hey, this isn't permanent announcing for Raw or SmackDown. We just really need you right now but this is a new era, we want to be completely upfront with you.' Which I really appreciated."
"I said, Look, whatever you guys need, I never thought I was going to be back, and whatever you need, I love this business. I love the people I work with. I’m excited. So when they brought me back, I knew that Raw was going to be until the changeover in January 6 for Netflix, that I knew. And they were like, Okay, now we're gonna put you on SmackDown but we don't know how long. Every week that went by they were like, 'I'm so sorry we need you another week, is that okay?' And I'm like, 'Of course it is. It's fine. Do whatever you want. I am loving this, totally loving this.'"
"But what was so beautiful that has evolved from it is that even though I'm not gonna be the full-time SmackDown announcer anymore, they said, 'You know what, we love having you part of this, we want to extend, we want you to do Saturday Night's Main Event. We think you're a perfect fit for that. I love it,'" she added, revealing where we'll see her next. "I get to wear gowns for that."
While Garcia will only be appearing sporadically moving forward, WWE fans have welcomed her back into the fold, and she later told Van Vliet how much that's meant to her.
"Amazing, the fans have been incredible, just the love from that to the people I'm working with, to the new talent that's there, the girls in the locker room, absolutely incredible," she enthused. "And they all reached out to me, or they're like we're gonna miss you on a weekly basis. They know I'm not gone-gone, but they're like we're gonna miss you on a weekly basis."
"Working back with Triple H and seeing all of these people that I worked with for so many years, all the agents now that are the producers that are there. It's my family. I don't have my parents anymore, I didn't have kids, and I'm not in a relationship, I'm in Atlanta by myself. So it is my family, and that's what's so beautiful, and the fact that they said, 'Look, we really want to work this out to keep you in some capacity here.' Man, that's music to my ears and just to my heart," Garcia concluded.
While Irvin has been missed since leaving WWE, Garcia nicely filled the void, and Taylor is certainly doing her best despite having some huge shoes to fill. Hopefully, a WWE Hall of Fame induction is somewhere on the horizon for Garcia as it would be well-deserved.
How do you feel about the company's current ring announcing lineup?