AEW Caught Pretending Ian Riccaboni Was Around for Collision When He Wasn’t There

AEW has a lot going on, and everyone on the roster has busy schedules. This led to an attempt to create a visual trick for fans during the September 28 AEW Collision, though the ruse did not last long.

AEW taped last Saturday’s episode of Collision: Grand Slam after Dynamite: Grand Slam earlier in the week. However, one match was taped for Collision before Dynamite, which was Jack Perry vs. Minoru Suzuki for the TNT Title. Fans may have noticed that Ian Riccaboni was announcing, yet he wasn’t actually at the building in time for the match.

Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez discussed this on Wrestling Observer Radio. Alvarez stated, “We had an amazing television moment. It was Jack Perry and Minoru Suzuki, and this match was taped before Dynamite, but it was taped for Collision. And Ian Riccaboni is an announcer on Collision.”

At that point, Dave Meltzer added, “Well, he’s usually not. He was this week because of no Nigel.” Then Bryan Alvarez continued to say that, “The point is this: Ian was not in the building yet when they had to tape this match, and this match was going to be inserted in the middle of a show that he was expected to do commentary on. So of all of the ideas about how to explain Ian not being at ringside for this particular match.”

Dave Meltzer further explained the situation with Ian Riccaboni, as he has been announcing, but he was doing so from a remote studio. “He’s announcing the match. They announced it in studio,” he remarked. Then Bryan Alvarez expanded on this to explain what happened in the situation.

“His voice was there. I know. What happened was they had Tony and Daddy Magic do commentary and pretend that he was there, so they did not do commentary in post. Only Ian did. So they had to, like, leave spaces where he would say things, and then they did the rest by themselves. And so, like, they just pretended he was there. But like, they would do long shots, and you could see there’s only two announcers there.”

“So then they start fighting over by the announce desk, and you know, they’re getting, like, this big close-up of the announce desk, and there’s no Ian Riccaboni. So apparently, Tony Schiavone, just on his feet, thought he hid under the desk. And so then Ian Riccaboni, when he did the voiceover later, he starts acting like he’s underneath the desk. But anyway, he wasn’t there. They did the entire match, pretending he was there. And they had a cover for when they got a close-up of the announcers, and he wasn’t there. He was an invisible announcer.”

Tony Schiavone had to act like Ian was under the desk, and Riccaboni played along with the bit. In the end, it might have worked for a bit, but their charade was quickly revealed as Ian wasn’t actually around for the show. Footage of the moment from AEW Collision was quickly clipped and spread online. Many fans had their own reactions to this, from trolling to otherwise. Either way, they were certainly entertained.

Footage of the moment on Collision was quickly clipped and spread online. Many fans had their own reactions to this, from trolling to otherwise. Either way, they were certainly entertained.

We will keep an eye on this story for more updates. You never know what will happen next, but AEW is certainly going to do everything they can to make sure the show goes on as planned, even if they don’t have everyone around for the broadcast first-hand.