Tony Schiavone On MJF, What May Top The Card At Double Or Nothing & Why He’s Enjoying His Job
Photo Credit: Lee South / AEW
Tony Schiavone was the special guest on The Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast and one of the three voices of All Elite Wrestling discussed the matters of Double or Nothing plus shared some insight on the chemistry of the the company.
Wade asked Tony outright if he thinks the AEW World Title match will go on last despite the major hype being made for the inaugural AEW TNT Championship (presented by Mike Tyson mind you) and Tony believes that it will be Jon Moxley vs. Brodie Lee in the main event.
“I’m only saying that because I was given a run sheet the other night during Dynamite and they listed the matches and they listed that one on top, so that’s what I’m thinking is going to be the last match. In reality, Wade, the world title match should always be your last match, I think.”
“Everything would point to making that the main event, but there would be some naysayers that would say okay, we’re making the TNT mean more than the World Title and then people would say we’re doing that because Cody is in it and he’s EVP and you know, I don’t know if Tony [Khan] books that way, I hope he doesn’t but I think that’s when it’s all said and done the world title should go last.”
Tony is asked how he believes the TNT Title is being positioned and weighs out some of the intricacies of the belt as far as what it’s role may be.
“I’m looking at this championship, well yeah, it’s a secondary title to the world title, but is it more of Television championship than a U.S. championship, if I can use those terms, because it’s a TNT Championship. I saw a lot of feedback that says, ‘Okay, so if we’re going to crown a TNT Champion, why don’t we crown the champion on TNT?’ And I thought, ‘Well, there’s some validity to that I guess,’ but well, you know, you want people to buy the PPV,” but Tony does see the “TNT” letters in the proper position. “It seems to be more of a Television Championship. I hope that’s as far as we go, personally because, and then of course we have the Tag Team Championships, but if you have like -”
“You’re against a Western States Heritage AEW Championship, is what you’re saying,” Wade jokes.
(Laughs) “That’s right. I think of Larry Zybysko when I think of that or Barry Windam when I think of that. Gosh, good call.”
Wade later asks about the squared circle smarts of MJF and Tony has high-praise for perhaps his most on-air heated rival.
“To me, MJF is way ahead of the curve. Everything he does and he’s one of the kids that actually talk to me all the time about – he’ll give me feedback on my commentary.” When he made his return match against Lee Johnson and we did the commentary. He sent me a text, when he watched the replay, he sent me a text the very next day, he said, ‘You guys did a great job on commentary, I want to talk to you about a few things,’ and then we got together the other night and he said, ‘You guys are doing a great job at putting me over as an athlete and I appreciate that, but you need to really make me a shitty heel and therefore last night, if you recall, or Wednesday night on Dynamite, you know he’s calling me a fatass and was calling out to me because he wanted me to get into the character, to really to hate him, which it’s easy to do. To hate him and I just think he’s ahead of the curve.
“Max is really, like most everybody in our office, a good kid, but man, he really, really puts in a lot of time and effort into the character and that was something that the great Dutch Mantell told me one time. He said the more effort and time and thought process you put into your character the more you’re going to get out of it and I really think MJF fits that bill.”
Wade makes note how Schiavone really seems to be enjoying himself as an employee for the company and he credits Khan and the staff he’s hired for creating such a positive atmosphere.
“Tony Khan makes you want to work hard because he is so good to his people and there’s a lot to be said for that. At my age, you can’t put a price on working for good people and we have a great staff and I’m talking about from Tony to the people behind the scenes, people that you never heard of. It’s just good people and so we’re all having a great time, we’re all pushing together and I’m sure we’re going to have our down moments as every promotion does, but right now we’re loving it, we’re having a great time, we really are.”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
You can listen to the entire conversation between Wade and Tony below: