Tony Schiavone knows how to ham it up for the cameras.
On the April 10, 2024 episode of AEW Dynamite on TBS, that is exactly what he did.
During the latest installment of his “What Happened When” podcast, the legendary pro wrestling commentator and one of the main voices of AEW, spoke at length about the public reaction to his facial expressions when the backstage footage was aired from AEW ALL IN 2023 in London, England that shows CM Punk and Jack Perry getting into a scuffle.
“My facial reaction to what happened was…trying to put more heat on The Bucks for being a*******. I did not have any reaction to the footage we’d seen because I don’t give a damn,” Schiavone said. “So what? So f***** what. So I was not upset at the promotion, I was not upset at Tony Khan, I was not pissed off about what we had shown, I was trying to be fully in the moment of the angle, which is The Bucks b******* about FTR, not wanting to shake their hands and getting f****** around…I’m sincere when I say I don’t care. It has no impact on my life.”
Later in the show, Schiavone made it clear that he doesn’t feel what AEW is doing is similar to the lambasted tactics that WCW pulled leading up to the demise of the promotion.
“Some people are saying oh, the footage you were showing is like the finger poke of doom moment for AEW,” Schiavone said. “Well you know what, that’s what you want it to be because you want to see us fail,” he said. “And there is no way because I was in both companies, there is absolutely no way that you can compare us to WCW, you can’t. You may want to, you may think you’re right, you’re wrong. You cannot compare us to WCW, I was there for both, you were not.”
Check out the complete episode of the “What Happened When” podcast featuring Tony Khan at AdFreeShows.com. H/T to F4WOnline.com for transcribing the above quotes.