Legendary WCW announcer Tony Schiavone has just been hired to All Elite Wrestling according to ProWrestling.com.
Schiavone was one of the voices of WCW during the Monday Night Wars/Attitude Era of wrestling. He was the lead announcer from 1990 to 2001. Schiavone announced for both Nitro and Thunder. However, when WWE bought out WCW he did not start working with WWE.
Schiavone Is The Voice Of WCW
When I think of mid-90s WCW it is impossible to not hear Schiavone’s voice. To put it in terms of a WWE equivalent at the time, he was the WCW version of Jim Ross. This is a major get for AEW having signed him last Thursday. Schiavone is rumored to be the announcer for the TNT weekly show. The current PPV announce team is Excalibur, Jim Ross and Alex Marvez. It is not clear as of yet if Schiavone will added to the PPV team.
Cody Says Product Shouldn’t Be Centered In Nostalgia
Even though Cody claims he will not rely on Attitude Era nostalgia his actions say otherwise.
“The ‘Attitude Era’ is the most profitable era in this sport’s history,” said Cody. “It’s an amazing period, something to really learn from and study. But it’s over. It is not coming back, it’s that simple. The product cannot be centered in nostalgia,” Cody told Sports Illustrated.
Sports Illustrated Interview
Cody has hired Jim Ross, Chris Jericho, Jerry Lynn, Dean Malenko, a TV deal with TNT and now Schiavone. These were all popular people from the Attitude Era of WWE/WCW/ECW, but no nostalgia motivated gets according to Cody.
However, all these people have a lot of experience in wrestling so hopefully their knowledge will help the new promotion. AEW is a different kind of promotion and they can hopefully bring some old school basics to AEW.
Schiavone Was Being Courted By WWE
Schiavone is currently signed as an announcer with Major League Wrestling. However, it has been reported Schiavone will be working for AEW and MLW. My guess is when the MLW contract expires he will just work for AEW.
However, AEW was not the only person interested in Schiavone. WWE was reportedly looking to sign Schiavone up until last week, but he signed with AEW instead.
Schiavone adds a lot of professionalism to any announce team. He is very good at speaking clearly and staying on topic. However, he has a reputation for being a company shill which is more funny than annoying.
Schiavone A Better Fit Than JR
I would much rather have Schiavone than JR on the announce team. JR doesn’t have it anymore and it is mostly because he doesn’t know who 90 percent of the current wrestlers are. However, the problem comes from co-announcers having so much respect for him that they let him talk as much as he wants. This would be fine, but has to fill the dead air and usually fills it with BBQ sauce talk.
All the wrestling fans over here at ThatHashTagShow are optimistic to see what Schiavone can bring to AEW. We will keep you informed with any new wrestling news.
