All Elite Wrestling announcer Tony Schiavone was recently interviewed on a recent episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast by his co-host AEW referee Aubrey Edwards on a number of topics, including what are some of AEW’s biggest and most iconic moments.
According to Tony Schiavone, one of AEW’s as well as his biggest and most iconic moment in the company’s history was when Sting made his AEW debut and Schiavone said his “it’s Sting” line. Schiavone talked about when he knew Sting would be debuting in AEW and that Cody Rhodes broke the blockbuster news to him, but told him to keep it quiet.
This is what Tony Schiavone said:
“Well, I had known that there was a chance that Sting would come to work for us. I think that had been bantered around quite a bit.” “The last thing I had heard was well, Sting may go work for AEW, but he’s concerned because of his time with the WWE. He doesn’t know what he wants to do, and that’s all I heard, didn’t know when it was happening, and then when we got there the day of, I get there early in the backstage area.”
“And Cody says, ‘your buddy’s here today.’ Dude, I got a lot of buddies. I said, ‘Who are you talking about?’ He said, ‘My best buddy.’ I said, ‘Who you talking about?’ He said, ‘Sting.’ I said, ‘You are shi–ing me.’ He said, No. You just got to keep it quiet.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry. I’m good at keeping stuff quiet. I come from the old school.'”
Tony Schiavone then admitted that he did tell one person about Sting’s AEW debut, but he made sure to be subtle about it. Schiavone said he told Private Party’s Marq Quen because Quen is a huge Sting fan and that he revealed the instructions that Tony Khan gave to the commentary team about Sting’s debut.
This is what Tony Schiavone said:
“I did this because I knew I wasn’t really letting on that I knew that Sting was there, but Marq Quen of Private Party is such a big Sting fan.” “I know there’s a lot more, but Marq Quen of Private Party would always come up to me and go, ‘It’s Sting!’ And I go and put my thumbs up, even to the point to where Marq Quen, in one of these matches, I went, ‘It’s Marq Quen!’ No one got that but he did, so he’s a big Sting fan.”
“So I saw him during the day, and I said, ‘Hey buddy, don’t get too excited about tonight’s show.’ And he takes his headphones off. He said, ‘I’m just in the battle royal. How excited can I get?’ I said, ‘Just don’t get too excited.’ Hit him up second time. ‘Hey buddy, don’t get too excited about tonight.’ That’s all I said to him, and then when Sting came out, Stevie, our stage director handed me a note from Marq Quen that said, ‘OMG!’ So I knew that it was happening, and I didn’t know how we were going to present it, but Tony brought me in.”
“He told the other announcers. He says, ‘When Sting comes out, I want Schiavone to hit that, ‘it’s Sting’ line. He said, ‘I want you to do it because that’s really going to sell it. I want you to say it’s Sting. Sting is back on TNT for the first time since March 26, 2001, and Sting is in AEW.’ And so I hit those. I think I hit two of those lines, and JR hit ‘Sting is in AEW’, which I thought really worked out well.”
Schiavone then talked about the entire rosters’ reaction to Sting’s AEW debut, including his and that his excitement was authentic. Schiavone also revealed what he told Sting to do the day after Sting’s AEW debut.
This is what Tony Schiavone said:
“I think that my excitement was authentic.” “It was authentic when they told me earlier in the day, and I just wish I would have seen him walk to the backstage area going to the Gorilla position because that would have been worth me being back there just to see everybody’s reaction because everybody’s reaction out front, all the wrestlers who sat ringside, I mean those kids were giving each other high-fives and everything.”
“So I told Sting the next day, I said, ‘Listen, you need to do this,’ and I think he understood. And I hoped he was going to do it anyway. I said, You need to go out today and mingle with these kids because you’re a god to these guys and girls. You need to go out and just say hello. It will mean the world to these people,’ and I think he did on Thursday.”
Schiavone then talked about what Khan had told the commentators about the post-match angle and that it is going to be great and it will be a lot of fun and they will like it.
This is what Tony Schiavone said:
“At the end of the Cody tag team match with Darby and Team Taz, we have seven minutes for a post-match angle, and the only thing Tony said during the meeting was, ‘It’s going to be great. It’ll be a lot of fun. You guys will like it.'” “That’s it. He didn’t say Sting will come in. Then by talking to Cody, I knew.”
