In defence of Schiavone …
By Scott Keith on 20 April 2013
Hi – long time/first time etc
I get the hatred that Schiavone gets as a caller – especially when he was shilling and admittedly horrible product in '99. But that was his job, yeah?
I get the hatred that Schiavone gets as a caller – especially when he was shilling and admittedly horrible product in '99. But that was his job, yeah?
However, as a basic play-by-play guy, I wonder why he cops SO much criticism. It's ironic that part of that criticism is based on his obsession with calling wrestling a "sport". I was watching the DVD of the best of WCW and, when it came to telling a match story, focusing on a relevant injury, or busting out correct move-calls like "right scissor" or "Le Majestral", or never confusing a neck-breaker with a jaw-breaker, he was pretty much flawless. So much of what gave WCW that air of 'it might be real' was his ability to name each maneouvre flawlessly.
But then again, I think WCW was always a little underrated and overrhated.
Schiavone was a totally fine PBP guy up until Bischoff got the Executive VP job over him, at which point he completely checked out and no longer gave a crap. Even Tony himself has talked about how little he cared after a certain point. I always liked Tony before that, though, especially during the 80s with David Crockett, the team that pretty much defined my wrestling fandom.