The latest guest on Insight With Chris Van Vilet was longtime ring announcer Tony Chimel, who spoke in-depth about his time in WWE, which included details about his relationship with Vince McMahon, and what advice he would share for upcoming ring announcers. Highlights, including the full video interview, can be found below.
What his relationship with Vince McMahon is like:
“Vince was always good to me. He was just like a regular guy that owned the company. He knew me for so long, if he saw me in the hallway he was like ‘Chimel, you still working here? ’I’m like ‘Yeah I’m still here Vince.’ Either that or I would say ‘Yeah I’m here but I’m not working.’ He once came to bat for me big when I was ring announcing. I would get paid a certain amount to ring announce or time keep, and I was getting paid for both. After a couple of years of that, they said that they weren’t going to pay the timekeeper anymore, so I lost money. So I went to my boss and asked for more money for ring announcing so it evens out. He said to me ‘Chimel, where would you be working if you didn’t work for WWE?’ I said ‘Well I don’t know, but I am working for WWE.’ My boss always told me ‘If you have a problem with what I am doing then you can go to Vince.’ So I did. I said ‘Vince this is the deal. I’m doing both of these jobs, they took one away, I just want my money back through ring announcing. I will still ring the bell.’ And I told Vince what my boss said about not working here. Vince said ‘Please tell me he didn’t say that.’ I said he did. So I was tearing down the ring that night, my boss comes up and said we will talk about my pay on Monday. Vince must have pulled him aside and said to take care of him or whatever. I will never forget that Vince did that for me.”
Why he stopped ring announcing in WWE and moved behind the scenes:
“At one point when you are there for 25-30 years, and I am teaching the Lilian Garcia or the Justin Roberts or whoever. Basically they are telling you that you are teaching them because they will be doing your job. That was why I wanted to do something else, I wanted to make myself valuable and do something else other than ring announcing. The ring announcing is the show, bit what are you doing 8 hours before or 2 hours after. There was a point where I didn’t want to be on the shows for 24 days a month and do all the house shows. There was a point where it was enough, my kids are teenagers and I didn’t get to see them grow up. It would be nice to be home 15 days a month instead of 7. I was OK not ring announcing if I could do production or just do TV. The house shows were such a grind back then because they would run so many. Friday, Saturday Sunday, do TV Monday, fly home Tuesday and my kids hated me on Wednesday. You get all your sh*t in on Thursday, then you go on Friday and do it all again. Then they would run the overseas tours in Europe, where you are on the road for 17 days straight. It was a great living and great job, but after 25 years I was like I don’t mind, someone else can ring announce.”
His advice for up-and-coming ring announcers:
“If you are going to be a ring announcer, try to get involved in something else other than ring announcing. They love it when you can do something else as well. I was given a microphone and grew with the job as the job grew. Another important thing is that you are not more important than the talent you are announcing. Put over the talent, not yourself.”