Tony Schiavone Calls Talent Relations Role “Very Tricky Job”
Tony Schiavone has one tough job in AEW but one that he relishes.
Tony Schiavone had been out of the wrestling business since WCW closed its doors in March 2001 – bar a very brief sojourn into TNA. Over the years many fans had the preconception that the long-time Jim Crockett Promotions and WCW announcer was out of love with wrestling but when he launched his What Happened When podcast with Conrad Thompson in 2017 it began a renaissance for the broadcaster.
Schiavone joined AEW in 2019 after a stint in MLW and now calls the action every Wednesday night on Dynamite with Excalibur and Taz and has become a trusted advisor of Tony Khan while working in the company’s talent relations department.
Will Tony Schiavone stay with AEW when he hangs up the microphone?
Speaking on his What Happened When podcast, Tony Schiavone was asked if he wanted to remain in some role with AEW when his on-screen broadcasting career comes to an end:
“No, I’d still want to work backstage. I’d like to have a baseball bat and whack guys in the ass with it when they wouldn’t get their work done. Which I kinda got now. I’d like to do kind of what I’m doing now, and that is work in talent relations. Because I think I know how to handle people, and I do.”
Expanding on his talent relations role in AEW, Tony Schiavone admitted the role is a tricky one and says he is responsible for handling wrestler’s complaints unless there ends up being an issue between two talents as has happened in the company in the past:
“It’s a very, very tricky job in wrestling to work in talent relations. I’m not the only one who works in talent relations, there’s like three of us. It’s a very tricky job because you have to, everybody’s different, you have to approach people differently, you have to be receptive to their ideas, and you have to kind of be sympathetic to their feelings.
“Right now, I handle every gripe and complaint that a wrestler has now, kind of goes through me and I try to settle it as best I can. If it ends up between two wrestlers, we probably need to go over my head with it or get other people involved. But I like dealing with talent, I really, really do.
“I think part of that is because the talent that I’m dealing with now all kind of watched me as they were growing up, so they have a respect for me. I don’t get it, but they do, and it helps me with my job. So I really like talent relations. Now talent relations is nothing like what JR was doing. Because JR was doing payoffs, contracts and sh*t like that. I’m just kind of like babysitting, but I like that.”
Tony Schiavone will be on the call for the 200th edition of Dynamite which will see The Elite in action against Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal, and Satnam Singh, and the AEW Women’s World Championship on the line as Toni Storm puts her gold on the line against Hikaru Shida.