Steve Carrier on March 29, 2019
Edge and Christian open today’s show by speaking about the announcement that Ronda Rousey, Charlotte and Becky Lynch will main event WrestleMania. They both predicted this a while ago, and Edge thinks all three women are very deserving. He thinks this is the hottest angle in the company, and it deserves to go on last.
He notes that the company’s hottest angle should always go on last. There have been times when WWE didn’t pay attention to this, like when Jericho and Triple H had to follow Rock & Hogan at WrestleMania 18, and that’s not an enviable position to be in.
Christian thought it was good booking by WWE to involve Big E and Xavier Woods in the WWE Title angle with Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston. The New Day have been bonded together in this from the get go, so it was neat to see Big E and Woods win a Gauntlet match to book Kingston’s ticket to WrestleMania.
Edge says he recently caught up on the Fatal 5-way match on NXT from a couple of weeks ago, and he thought it was a really well done match. All five men are super talented and very unique in their own ways. He notes that Fatal-5 ways can be difficult to book, but these 5 men put on a great match.
Edge informs that Natalya visited him and his wife (Beth Phoenix) this past week. He notes that Nattie is such a good person and a lot of fun to have around.
Edge and Christian welcome Tony Schiavone to the show.
Schiavone notes that he’s never actually met Edge or Christian, as they got famous in wrestling after he was out of the business. Edge and Christian note that he was very influential as a commentator, and Schiavone says it’s always nice to hear that. He never thought his commentary work would influence performers to get better or fans to pursue a career in the business.
He was a baseball commentator and when he was brought into WCW he was told to call wrestling as if he was baseball or any other legitimate sport. He says everything became real for him when he was able to meet guys like Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes. He was welcomed into the wrestling world in a time when kayfabe was still alive, and he took it very seriously because he was quite proud to be a part of it.
Schiavone notes that he never had any producers in his ear until the later days of Nitro, and even then it was a rare occurrence. He’s not sure if he’d be able to commentate with someone in his ear all the time, like WWE commentators have to deal with as Vince McMahon is in their ear all night.
Schiavone says he never felt nervous working on camera even though there were millions of people watching at home, because to him he was just speaking to a camera. He’s much more comfortable on camera then he is at a podium in front of a room full of people.
Schiavone is not a fan of the over-scripted nature of the business today. He doesn’t want to criticize Vince McMahon because it’s obvious what he’s meant to the business, but when you micro-manage and over-script the talent, you take away from the talent’s ability to bring something fresh to the table and to get themselves and their feuds over.
Schiavone informs that he started working for WWE in 1989. Vince McMahon called him and told him that he was looking for someone to replace him as the lead commentator, and he liked Schiavone’s voice and announcing style. They set up a time for Schiavone to fly to New York and meet.
He did SummerSlam and the Royal Rumble but not Survivor Series, and McMahon seemed to lose confidence in him as a lead commentator. Schiavone also found it difficult to live in New York with his family as he had five small children at that time. It wasn’t really a great life for them there. Eventually they left and returned to the South.
He says he still regrets leaving there because he had a great year with the company and learned so much while he was there. He’s had a great life in Georgia, but if he could do it all over again he would have never left WWE. He says he really loved the production side of the business, and shooting and editing vignettes.
Schiavone says he’ll never forget the day he could sense a shift from Eric Bischoff and WCW, as they began moving into direct competition with WWE. He never had any ill will towards WWE, McMahon or Jim Ross, but Bischoff was determined to “drive a stake through McMahon’s heart”.
He thinks WCW’s demise started with the production of Thunder. Bischoff was firmly against it and told employees of WCW that they wouldn’t be doing another show unless Ted Turner personally told him they had to do it. Apparently that’s exactly what happened because within a month Thunder debuted.
Bischoff and Schiavone were concerned with the ability to produce two weekly shows as the talent would be spread too thin, and it was also very expensive to produce two weekly shows. He notes that this ill-advised decision came as a result of WCW being a television company compared to WWE being a wrestling company.
Edge asks Schiavone to name his favourite commentary partner. Schiavone says that’s a very difficult question to answer because he loved all of his partners. He learned a lot from Gorilla Monsoon, but he thinks he did his best work with Jim Ross. He thought they had great chemistry, great respect for the business and for each other.
After WCW’s demise Schiavone pursued radio work but was quite interested in returning to work for McMahon. Unfortunately McMahon wouldn’t return his calls and it was evident that WWE didn’t have anything for him. He did some work for TNA but around 2003 he realized he didn’t have a passion for the business anymore and knew it was time for him to move on.
After years away from the business, Schiavone received an email from Conrad Thompson in 2017. Thompson wanted to start a podcast with Schiavone, and since his daughter was about to be married he thought he could use the extra money. They started the podcast and then he started watching the product again. They’ve since taken the show on the road and he’s having a lot of fun.
That sums up this week’s episode of E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!
March 29, 2019 2:03 pm
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