Tony Schiavone was a recent guest on the Edge & Christian Pod Of Awesomeness, where he spoke about his role in WCW and working with Dusty Rhodes. Highlights and the full podcast are below:
On playing a specific character:
“People who’ve seen me live know that I’m a completely different guy than I was back in the wrestling days. Back then, I saw myself as a straight man character. It was my job to put guys over, and I tried not to let my own personality shine through. I always thought, if you ham it up too much, you’re taking away from the guys and that’s not your job. Even way back when doing interviews, Dusty always used to say “hold the microphone and then step out of the picture”, and I always tried to do that. The picture was always Flair, or Tully or Magnum or Hulk Hogan.”
What did it feel like to hold the microphone for legends like Dusty Rhodes?
“You knew when you were in the midst of a good one. I held the interview for some bad ones too, but when Dusty or Flair or even Tully or Arn got out there, you knew there was something good. They would react to the fans that were there in the studio audience. None of that was ever lost on me, that I was in the midst of people who knew what they were doing. Ric used to come out and the only thing he knew was who his opponent was and he would come out and do those. There was no time limit, Dusty was in the back listening and said when to wrap it up, but there was no script at all. You can see now, some guys who didn’t know what they were doing when they had blown it. It just doesn’t work. To me, I think if you script everything, you take away from the talent and their abilities to cut a promo and bring you in and get you excited about the match. I don’t know if it’s a lost art but it’s not what it used to be.”
On being in WCW during the Monday Night Wars
“I remember it as sure as we’re sitting here right now. We were running the Target Center in Minneapolis, which obviously meant we were doing good business. We were doing a Nitro and Eric [Bischoff] had a meeting in catering. I will never forget him saying this, he said “Be in this business to have fun. I don’t know about you guys, I’m having fun, but I won’t be satisfied until I drive a stake through Vince McMahon’s heart.” It was personal for him. Then, when I found out that he showed up on Vince’s TV, it blew my mind.
I never had feelings of animosity. Jim Ross is a good friend and I never had any ill will towards any other promotions. I think, for wrestling to be good, everyone has to be successful. Competition is good, and I never thought that we should try to knock anyone out of business. What happened was, we battled and everyone got better.”
