Tony Schiavone Comeback of the Year?
By Scott Keith on 3 November 2019
I'm thinking Tony's got to be the obvious lock for Comeback of the Year for 2019?
As a Western Canadian kid, I had very limited exposure to WCW, my wrestling fandom growing up was a diet of WWF, Stampede and Allstar. My introduction to WCW and Tony on a regular basis didn't happen until TSN started airing in late '97. My intial impressions of Tony were not good. I never enjoyed his commentary and he came across as a complete shill, my lasting memories of him were of the infamous "butts in seats" comment and my favourite, his embarrassing "I prefer rap" during the No Limit Soldiers/West Texas Redneck feud.
I'm just finding his character in AEW to be in such a stark contrast to what I remember. He is coming across as completely genuine, sincere and one of my favourite personalties on Dynamite. I really did not see that coming. Was he ever this good or compelling? Or is this a case of me joining the WCW party too late and I missed his good years? Had WCW just ground him down by the time we started getting Nitro?
When WCW folded and Tony faded away, I had written him off for good. I'm happy to say I was wrong.
Yeah, you definitely missed all the good Tony. By the time of Nitro he was a checked-out shell of himself who was bitter towards Bischoff for getting the Executive VP job above him and busy with baseball on the side. Tony on old WCW on the Network is the way to really appreciate what he used to bring to the sport.