Line #11 Wrestling/TonySchiavone


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tony_schivone.jpg]]
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3	Noah Anthony "Tony" Schiavone (born on November 7, 1957) is an American sports broadcaster and {{professional wrestling}} commentator.
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5	He started out working as a minor league baseball commentator before being hired by Jim Crockett Promotions (which would later become Wrestling/{{WCW}} in 1988) as a play-by-play commentator in the mid-80s. He left in April of 1989 for a brief stint in the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} World Wrestling Federation]] that lasted until April 1990, after which he returned to WCW, eventually becoming its lead play-by-play announcer in the Wrestling/MondayNightWars.
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7	After WCW went out of business in 2001, Schiavone retired from wrestling commentary (though he made a brief appearance for Wrestling/{{TNA}} in 2003) and worked as a minor league baseball announcer and morning sports anchor for both WDUN in Gainesville and WSB-AM in Atlanta simultaneously.
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9	On January 30, 2017, Tony began hosting the ''[[http://www.mlwradio.com/tony-schiavone.html What Happened When]]'' podcast with Conrad Thompson on MLW Radio, discussing stories from his WCW days. He would return to wrestling commentary on October 5 of that same year, providing color commentary for the resurrected Major League Wrestling promotion.
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11	On August 26, 2019, he revealed in a ''WebVideo/BeingTheElite'' episode that he would be working for Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling.
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13	In 2021, he [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sourcepointpress/butts-in-seats-the-tony-shiavone-story announced]] a Website/{{Kickstarter}} campaign for a biographical graphic novel titled ''Butts in Seats: The Tony Schiavone Story''.
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15	----
16	!! "The biggest tropes in the history of our great sport!"
17	* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: He was more or less WCW's equivalent to Wrestling/JimRoss. Others also compare him to Wrestling/MichaelCole, since both became "the voice" of their promotion after Ross departed.
18	* AwfulWeddedLife: He likes to joke about his marriage on ''What Happened When''.
19	* CombatCommentator: He was WCW's lead announcer from the mid-90s until its demise.
20	* ClusterFBomb: On both his podcast and his Twitter account, he's no stranger to swearing. Even on the PG WCW programming, he swore the most out of all the announcers.
21	* DeadpanSnarker: He had a very dry wit, which you'd have to be to deal with Wrestling/BobbyHeenan. He also has a tendency to rip into {{Troll}}s and haters on Website/{{Twitter}}.
22	* DirtyOldMan: He has openly fawned over the attractive women that passed through WCW (usually Wrestling/DebraMarshall or Wrestling/{{Madusa}}) when reminiscing on his time on the company on his WHW podcast even though he's married, which Conrad has called him out for.
23	* DontExplainTheJoke: Yes, Tony, we understand the meaning of [[Wrestling/BillDeMott Hugh Morrus]]' PunnyName without you pronouncing it "humorous".
24	* HesBack: Returned to wrestling commentary in 2017 for Major League Wrestling. Two years later, he announced he would be a part of Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling alongside his old colleague Wrestling/JimRoss.
25	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: He infamously announced that Wrestling/MickFoley would win the WWF Championship in advance on WCW programming (since at the time ''Raw'' was pre-taped), saying that it would 'put a lot of butts in seats' sarcastically, leading to millions of fans switching over to watch Foley win the belt on Raw. To be fair, [[JustFollowingOrders he was ordered to say that]] by Wrestling/EricBischoff.
26	* IWasJustJoking: He's technically responsible for Creator/DavidArquette becoming WCW Champion. As the story goes, he suggested it as a joke at a booking meeting, everyone laughed...and then Wrestling/VinceRusso, WCW's head booker at the time, thought it was a great idea.
27	* InsultOfEndearment: Calls his fans "slapdicks".
28	* ItsTheBestWhateverEver: He proclaimed almost everything to be "The greatest/biggest event in the history of our great sport!"
29	* LargeHamAnnouncer: Was known for his over-the-top style of delivery that demanded attention.
30	* TheNicknamer: Gave Mike Tenay his RedBaron "The Professor".
31	* PapaWolf: He revealed on an AEW webcast that Wrestling/AdamCole had specifically asked him to look after Cole's real-life girlfriend Wrestling/BrittBaker and help keep her out of trouble. (This was before Cole joined them in AEW.)
32	* PornStache: In the 1980s during his stint with the NWA.
33	* PrecisionFStrike:
34	** After Wrestling/HulkHogan's FaceHeelTurn, his last words before ''Bash at the Beach '96'' went off the air were "Hulk Hogan, you can go to Hell. Straight to Hell!" He also made it up on the fly, as he did with most of his commentary prior to WCW's twilight.
35	** In AEW, after [[TheyCallMeMisterTibbs Dr.]] Wrestling/BrittBaker [[InsistentTerminology D.M.D.]] tried to humiliate him by revealing he once worked at a Starbucks, Tony silently mouthed "What the fuck?" to the camera.
36	* ProductPlacement: Shilling WCW itself.
37	* TheRival: Began to develop an acrimonious relationship with fellow commentator Wrestling/BobbyHeenan in WCW's later years. They had gotten along professionally for a number of years beforehand, but their relationship began to degrade on screen by early 1998. Schiavone notably began to NoSell Heenan's attempts at interjecting commentary during matches and lost patience at times, leading to instances of back and forth sniping on screen. Heenan, for his part, has admitted to phoning in much of his later WCW work and had difficulty adapting both his own style and to interacting with much different commentators than he was used to in his earlier career.
38	* SelfDeprecation: Does this big time on social media and his podcasts.
39	* SpotlightStealingSquad: He became this by 1998, being present on ''Nitro'', ''Thunder'', and most of WCW's pay-per-views. That much exposure will make anyone sick of you.
40	* StraightMan: Was this on commentary, often playing off his zanier partners.
41	* TakeThat: Tony took a cheeky shot at the late-era WCW nonsense he had to call in the last few years before the company went out of business when he was commentating the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxpGLX95DTY AEW Puppy Battle Royale]].
42	-->"This match is better than anything I called back in 2000."
43	** When Tony Khan joined Schiavone for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhyhKIPQBoA a paid ad]] during the episode of Wrestling/ImpactWrestling where new AEW champion Wrestling/KennyOmega appeared with the AEW belt, Khan brought up Schiavone's one-off appearance on the former TNA:
44	--->'''Khan:''' You- you spent a cup of coffee in Impact Wrestling yourself, didn't you Tony?
45	--->'''Schiavone:''' Yeah, one night, and then I quit the business for eighteen years.

Context Wrestling / TonySchiavone