As previously reported, All Elite Wrestling recently made an announcement that former WCW Announcer Tony Schiavone has signed a full-time, multi-year contract with the company.
It was also announced at the time that Schiavone will be in charge of doing commentary work for the company with Excalibur and Jim Ross, and he will also be serving as a Senior Producer for when the company holds events.
Schiavone was recently interviewed by Wrestlingepicenter.com on a number of topics regarding his new role with the company, but first Schiavone talked about how he feels about wrestling once again being back on TNT, that, of course, being AEW as he remembers how bad it was during WCW’s time.
This is what Tony Schiavone said: “I had a very bad feeling about the Turner people when I left. The good news is, the Turner people that I didn’t have a good feeling towards are no longer around. I’m talking about the people that ran WCW, basically. I never thought I would do it again.” “I never thought wrestling would be back on TNT again because they were very against wrestling. I guess under Brad Siegel and James Kelner – I don’t know the history. They didn’t want wrestling on their networks anymore.”
“When I walked away from Panama City that night (the final WCW Nitro), I thought I was done with the wrestling business. I’m like that, James. I like to move on with my life… I’m not good at staying in touch with people; that is my fault. Thank goodness for guys like Arn Anderson and Jim Ross… Guys that are my friends in the business.”
Schiavone then said that he will be serving as a Senior Producer for the company from here on out and that he has no intentions of being part of the company’s broadcast team as it is already in place.
This is what Tony Schiavone said: “Okay, well, I do know I’m a producer.” “I’m going to be working on a lot of the videos you see in the shows. I’m going to be working behind the scenes when the live shows are going, the TNT shows. I’ve met with Tony Khan, I’ve met with, obviously, Cody. We do some production here in Atlanta… Cody and I actually live pretty close to each other so when I talked to Tony Khan, the idea was that I would do control centers and on-camera stuff, but I would not be on the broadcast team because his broadcast team was in place.”
Schiavone then said that he is not looking to replace anyone on the broadcast team as it is already established and the people there are very talented and they bring so much experience. He also said that what he knows is he is going to be part of the show in some capacity.
This is what Tony Schiavone said: I’m not looking to shoe-horn anyone out of the broadcast team – I’m not!” “Excalibur is a great guy. I know that Alex Marvez, gosh, is a very talented guy. But, I know that Jim Ross has always wanted me with him. I know that – He’s pushed for that. So, I told Tony, ‘I really want to work for you, but I don’t want to be the guy who is seen as trying to shoe-horn his way into the broadcast team.’ I don’t know what has happened since Tony and I have talked last, I just know I’m going to be part of the show in some capacity. I didn’t expect that and I don’t expect right now to be a part of the broadcast team. There’s not been any official announcement that has been made about that but I’m just going to have my hand in the broadcasts in some way.”
