Tony Schiavone: From Polarizing to Admired
Tony Schiavone. Just hearing the name will evoke memories of the good ol’ days for many wrestling fans. In what has to be one of the more interesting stories of any professional wrestling announcer ever, the man who once uttered the line “butts in seats” has gone from being considered everything that was wrong with wrestling announcers to being one of the most beloved figures in the sport today. So, how did that come to be?
Schiavone’s career in wrestling officially began in 1983, when the Crockett family brought him on as an on-screen announcer for their NWA shows. Schiavone was admittedly a lifelong wrestling fan who has reminisced on his podcast about going to several different events in the 1970s and early 1980s. He had been working for the Crockett family as a baseball announcer and was asked to come in for the wrestling side. From this point, he would move his way up from backstage interviewer to eventual play-by-play commentator alongside the likes of the legendary Bob Caudle and even Jim Ross.
In 1989, Schiavone would make the decision to sign with Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation. He has noted that he saw the writing on the wall for the NWA and Jim Crockett Promotions following their sale to Ted Turner and rebranding as World Championship Wrestling. While he would only spend one year ‘up North’ he would call both SummerSlam 1989 and the 1990 Royal Rumble alongside Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura. He would even reveal that he was not meant to be on the call for the Rumble as it was to be Vince McMahon, but Vince had spent a little too much time with friends partying during the day and handed off the duties to Schiavone. Much of his time in the WWF was actually spent as a producer, where he used his editing and production talents to assemble many of the Coliseum Video compilation videos that were selling like hotcakes at the time.
Due to an admitted sense of not being well-liked by McMahon, a lucrative offer from Jim Herd and WCW as well as his family (most notably his wife Lois) preferring life in the South as opposed to Connecticut, Tony would return home to WCW following WrestleMania VI in 1990. While he has admitted openly regretting this decision, it would be beneficial for him as he would work his way back up and upon Jim Ross departing WCW for the WWF in 1993, Schiavone would officially become the “voice” of WCW. He would remain as the main commentator until the death of WCW in 2001, working alongside a varied group of commentary partners from legends such as Jesse Ventura and Bobby Heenan and less revered figures like Stevie Ray and Juventud Guerrera. No matter who he was working with he would try and hold it all together. Due to his lost passion for the business thanks to WCW and all of its backstage politicking in addition to the impending sense of doom thanks to Turner’s merging with AOL Time Warner (that would lead to WCW being sold for peanuts to Vince McMahon) he became a shell of himself. This would result in his overuse of “the greatest night in the history of our sport” and other calls that made him one of the most mocked figures in the sport. This would be amplified by the infamous night where he was ordered to reveal that a taped RAW featured Mick Foley winning the WWF Championship.
Following the demise of WCW, Schiavone would move away from the business, despite a one-off appearance in the early days of NWA TNA where he cut a worked-shoot heel promo against his former colleague Mike Tenay and join Vince Russo’s group. He would admit that this one night officially put a stake in the heart of his passion for the business and he would completely remove himself from the business. He would focus on his radio career, as well as calling minor league baseball and university football in Georgia.
Fast forward to early 2017. Following the huge success of the Something To Wrestle with Bruce Prichard podcast, Conrad Thompson would reach out to Tony Schiavone in regards to doing a similar show with WCW themes. Given that Schiavone was struggling to find a way to help pay for his daughter’s wedding, this seemingly came at a perfect time. The show would feel a little off as both Thompson and Schiavone tried to recreate the same format as Something To Wrestle to no avail. Eventually, a pivot was made to Tony and Conrad simply watching old shows and mocking them relentlessly a la Mystery Science Theatre 3000 all while Tony would drop gems of backstage information from the time of the show in question.
It was the spark that was needed. While there have been occasional episodes themed differently (such as Ask Tony Anything) this format took over and became the show’s gimmick. While it never quite reached the heights of the aforementioned Something To Wrestle or even Conrad’s other podcasts that came along after, What Happened When With Tony Schiavone became a certified hit, all because it was Tony getting to cut loose and be himself, as opposed to his former on-screen persona. While Tony originally only planned to do the podcast until his daughter’s wedding was paid for, he began having fun and of course seeing how financially viable the show had become. The show would launch a Patreon for the hardcore fans where they could interact with Tony on a regular basis, with many of the people being regularly mentioned on the show. On a personal note, WHW was the last of the Conrad-casts I found myself becoming a fan of, but as time wore on it’s now the only one I ensure I listen to and I have joined the Patreon cult over there which after time allowed me the opportunity to engage with Tony on Zoom chats and even a personal phone call from the man himself. And I can ensure you, what you hear is what you get with Tony Schiavone, one of the nicest and funniest people I have ever spoken to.
And that is what makes What Happened When and the resurgence of Tony Schiavone so intriguing. When you break it all down, Tony is simply one of us, a wrestling fan. And the success of the podcast brought Tony back where he belongs, calling professional wrestling. He would return in 2017 by calling Major League Wrestling events when his busy schedule allowed. Due to conflicts with his commitments with minor league baseball we were not to get as much as many may have preferred. In 2019 a bidding war actually started between WWE and AEW with both companies trying to get his services. In the end, Tony would sign a lucrative deal with AEW. Since then he has stated on the podcast that he believes WWE only wanted to sign him to keep him away from AEW and they likely would have done nothing with him or simply let him go after the fact, much like they did to his friend Eric Bischoff.
Being one-third of the commentary team for AEW alongside Excalibur and his old running mate Jim Ross, the three have come across a natural chemistry that is hard to manufacture. Many fans were happy to hear Tony calling wrestling on a grand scale and on TNT no less. 18 years after he called the last WCW show Tony was back as one of the main anchors of a company displaying their wrestling product on a Turner network. A lot had changed, and Tony found himself mending his old on-screen style with his newer “don’t give a damn” attitude to the delight of many. Earlier this year when the COVID-19 pandemic first struck, Tony was the only announcer able to make it to Daily’s Place for the AEW shows and this may be where he did the best work of his career, holding the booth together with fill-in commentators like Cody and Kenny Omega. But when he was paired with Chris Jericho it was clear that the two had similar chemistry in the same vein as Jesse Ventura and Gorilla Monsoon.
It’s truly amazing to look at the story of one Noah Anthony Schiavone, nearly 40 years after he first debuted in professional wrestling, with a 15+ year absence and how he has become one of the more revered and loved figures in wrestling at a time when that is rare. Back in 1999 and 2000, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter readers voted Schiavone as the Worst Television Announcer and now in 2020 many fans consider him the strong point of an AEW announce team that features arguably the greatest wrestling announcer of all-time Jim Ross. How did Tony do it?
He became comfortable with who he is and just let the real version of him out. Something a lot of people could truly learn from.
