Tony Schiavone was doing his job with his reaction to the AEW All In footage.
On the April 10 episode of AEW Dynamite, AEW sparked controversy by airing footage of the incident between CM Punk and Jack Perry from AEW All In. When the commentary team segued to the Young Bucks for the segment, Tony Schiavone could be seen looking visibly upset, leading many fans to compare his reaction to that of his time during WCW in its downfall.
On the latest episode of his What Happened When podcast, Tony Schiavone explained that, with his reaction, he was trying to put more heat on the Young Bucks. (H/t Jeremy Lambert of Fightful for the transcription)
“I think it’s hilarious, not hilarious; I think it’s probably approx that people can take screenshots and assume anything from a screenshot,” Tony Schiavone said. “My facial reaction to what happened was my facial reaction trying to put more heat on the Bucks for being assholes. Within the storyline itself. I did not have any reaction to the footage we saw because I don’t give a damn.”
Tony Schiavone On WCW Comparisons
Tony Schiavone then responded to co-host Conrad Thompson, who stated that Tony had already seen the footage. Schiavone went on to shoot down any comparisons to WCW, and he said that they were wrong.
“No, that’s right. So what. So f*cking what,” Tony Schiavone said. “I was not upset at the promotion, I was not upset at Tony Khan, [and] I was not pissed off about what we had shown. I was trying to be fully in the moment of the angle, which is the Bucks bitching about FTR not wanting to shake their hands and getting f*cked around. That’s what I was doing. Of course, everyone wants to create their own story and that’s fine. That’s what social media is about. Social media is about idiots coming together and trying to come up with their own ideas. Maybe I was still upset about Bug [Schiavone’s dog who recently passed], I don’t know, but I didn’t give a shit about the footage, and still don’t.
“I’m sincere when I say that I don’t care. I don’t care. It has no impact on my life. Some people are saying, ‘Oh the footage you were showing was like the Finger Poke of Doom moment for AEW.’ That’s what you want it to be because you want to see us fail. There is no way, because I was in both companies, there is absolute no way that you can compare us to WCW. You can’t. You may want to, you may think you’re right. You’re wrong, you cannot compare us to WCW. I was there for both. You were not.”
WrestleZone will have coverage of AEW Dynamite as it airs on Wednesday.
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