Jim Ross spoke about Tony Schiavone’s departure from WCW in 1989 during this week’s “Grilling JR” episode.
Here is what he had to say:
“Do you think in hindsight Schiavone was not happy with his ‘demotion’ that you became the lead announcer, or was it probably more about that he didn’t have a lot of confidence the company was heading and felt like Vince McMahon’s outfit maybe offered a little more security?”
“I think it was because he no longer was on TBS. I don’t blame him. There was no reason for him to be x’d out altogether from TBS. I understand you have to have some symmetry and continuity and you have to have familiar faces on key programs. But he was going to be the face of syndication and at the time syndication had become a much bigger deal. Syndication meaning the local wrestling show, the local NWA Pro or WorldWide or whatever it may be. All those in the local markets, Tony was supposed to be the head guy of that, the voice of that brand. I think the decision makers, again, you might want to talk to him. You might want to sit down and say here’s what we are thinking as opposed to here is what we are doing. There’s a difference in that even in sentence structure. Here’s what we are thinking or here’s what we are doing. If it’s here’s what we are doing, that means I don’t need your feedback. You can either get along or you can move along. We don’t give a s**t because we know what we are doing anyway. I think that was the reason. I understand it. If I were in Tony’s shoes, I would have been pissed off as well. No doubt. I wish he could have stayed there. Again, communication in this company was horrific. I wish Tony could have stayed there and worked through it because I think eventually he would have been back to TBS. Maybe with him and I working together which would have been great, I think, I’m being egocentric maybe, I think we had good chemistry. But, he didn’t give that opportunity a chance to happen and he was off to the bright lights and big city.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co