Tony Schiavone Has No Plans To Retire From Announcing
Expect to see and hear from Tony Schiavone for a long time.
Tony Schiavone has been involved in wrestling broadcasting and commentary for decades. He worked for Jim Crockett Promotions (before it became WCW) during the 1980s, had a one-year stint in WWF/E from 1989 to 1990, spent the next decade in JCW/WCW, made a few appearances for TNA/Impact in 2003, and then had a few appearances for MLW, before returning to Turner Broadcasting as a commentator for AEW.
But despite spending so much time in and around wrestling, Schiavone hasn’t shown any interest in slowing down, even though he’s now 65 years old.
Speaking on his What Happened When podcast, Tony Schiavone initially made comments suggesting that, upon turning 65, he realized how tired he was and that “life was on the way downhill”
“I ain’t got many more years left in this business. I don’t. It’s a young man’s business, and at the age of 65, I realized it. It’s a young man’s business. The day I turned 40, I needed glasses that day. It was like, ‘What the f**k?’ I woke up that day, and I would try to read something. I’m like, ‘Man, this is out of focus.’ So the day I turned 65, I just woke up tired. I’ve been tired ever since then. I’m just tired. So I just think that life is on the way downhill right now,”
However, Tony Schiavone clarified any misconceptions about this comment and any story about him contemplating retirement is false:
“Never been better in my life, thank you for asking. I‘m saying that because Adam Demois, I talked to him yesterday with our bonus podcast, and he said, ‘So you’re retiring, huh?’ I went, ‘What the f**k are you talking about?’
Apparently, one day I was tired, and I was like, ‘Man, I’m just tired. Maybe I’ll just do a podcast with you and do video games the rest of my life. Well that became a clickbait [story].
I said, ‘I know you and your readers hate me, that’s fine. But I have no plans to step away from announcing.’ I’m the luckiest guy in the world, so why would I leave?
Sure, I get tired. I stay up all night on Tuesday night and I get no sleep on Wednesday night, and I end up sleeping most of the day on Tuesday until the late afternoon, when we gotta do some work to her Rampage out the door. So I’m doing great.”
Aside from doing commentary during matches with Excalibur and Tazz, Tony Schiavone also does interviews and plays a role backstage as a Senior Producer and AEW’s Special Advisor to Talent.
h/t Fightful for the transcription