Tony Schiavone On Being Being In Talks With WWE and AEW At the Same Time, Working at Starbucks Before That

On the latest AEW Unrestricted, Tony Schiavone discussed how he came to work for AEW and how he was in talks with WWE at the time. Schiavone recalled how rough of a place he was financially not long before that point and how he had been working at Starbucks, a job he said he very much enjoyed, before doing his podcast with Conrad Thompson led to calls from both WWE and AEW. You can check out the highlights from Tony Schiavone and full audio below:

Tony Schiavone on where he was at before AEW: “In 2015, the end of 2015, I had lost my job with the radio station, WSB. And I’d been working as their sports director and then working as an editor on their website for a number of years — actually for 13 years. I lost that job, my contract was not renewed. They wanted to cut back. And so in December 2015, I was thrown out, basically. No job and no health insurance. For someone in their fifties, that’s [a] pretty scary thing. So, I still worked for the University of Georgia doing, on their football broadcast, on their basketball broadcast. I still had a job with the Braves’ AAA team. So I did have work, but I didn’t have enough to really supplement my income and pay the house here.

“So I got the family together and said, ‘I’m going to sell the house guys. I don’t think I can afford this.’ So, hung in there. And 2016 was a terrible year financially, for the Schiavone family. I started working at Starbucks, for a number of reasons. Number one, I needed the job and was looking for health insurance which they offered. And number two, I really like Starbucks. I like the people, and I discovered by working in there that I was right, it was a great place to work … I really, it was a great year and a half of working there.”

Tony Schiavone on Bruce Prichard trying to get him a job in WWE: “So anyway at the end of 2016 — during 2016, I did a NWA Fan Fest where I did a panel with Jim Valley. Conrad Thompson was in that, and he saw how funny I was, how irreverent I was, how I was obviously talking honestly. And he approached me in 2017 to do a podcast. And we started the podcast. That podcast led to us doing some crazy things online, of which Tony Khan saw and liked. and I got to know Bruce Prichard, because Bruce does a podcast with Conrad as well.

“Bruce told me, at the beginning of 2019 he said, ‘I’m going to go back to work for Vince. Just was January of 2019, ‘If you’ll give me a few months, I will contact you because I think you can come to work here.’ He did contact me on a Sunday in the summertime of that year. And he said, ‘Vince wants you to come back to work for us.’ And I said, ‘Great! What are we talking about?’ He said, ‘Well, we still don’t know yet. But we know we’d like for you to be a producer. Because we know you like to produce, we know you like to work behind the scenes. We’ll be back in touch.’ I said, ‘Got it.'”

On how that turned into his being contacted by AEW: “I call Conrad. I say, ‘I just got offered a job from the WWE.’ And he said, ‘That’s great.’ Hung up the phone, two minutes later I got a text from Cody … Conrad called him. And Cody says, ‘I don’t want you to go to work for the WWE.’ And I said, ‘Okay, good.’ And that’s all I said. And then he said, ‘Will you accept a call from Tony Khan?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ Tony called me. We talked for an hour — over an hour, because you know how you can go. So it was very interesting, and he said, ‘I might have you come down to Jacksonville.'”

On being in talks with both companies at the time: “Now, during this time, the WWE kept talking to me. And I never told the WWE that Tony Khan had an interest in me. I would just listen to what they had to say. So, they would call me and they would say, ‘We don’t have our ducks in a row yet. We’ll be back in touch with you.’ Bruce called, said, ‘Vince is very much interested, really wants you to come here and end your career.’ I said, ‘Okay. Well then, make me an offer.’ So they had an HR person call me and they said, ‘How much do you need?’ Well, I threw the ball way up in the air on that one. And they said, ‘Okay, we’ll be back in touch with you.’ Meanwhile, I go down and talk to Tony Khan.

“And I met with Tony, it was an all-day meeting at the stadium. And I knew immediately I wanted to work there. And I also had a wife of mine who, we’ve been married now 39 years, who told me, ‘If you take a job back with the WWE, I’m going to divorce your ass.’ But I didn’t play two sides against the middle, I didn’t. So I was just waiting and waiting to hear. Tony offered me something phenomenal, and I knew I wanted to work there, but I was going to listen to what the WWE had to say.”

Tony Schiavone on WWE ultimately backing off: “I was not one to call the WWE and say, ‘Listen, Tony Khan has offered me this.’ Or go to Tony and — I did tell Tony. I said, ‘I did hear from the WWE.’ And Tony says, ‘Well, if they offer you a million dollars, take it.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry, I will. And Lois told me, ‘It doesn’t matter what they offer you. Don’t take it.’ So anyway — she has a bad feeling about them.

“So anyway, the week of Summerslam, they contacted me. This was, I was just talking to one of the HR ladies. ‘We’ll be back in touch with you right after Summerslam.’ So the Monday after Summerslam, I get a call first thing in the morning, and the lady says, from the WWE says, ‘Thank you for your interest, Mr. Schiavone; we have nothing for you,’ and I went, ‘Uhh, you guys contacted me.’ Okay. I immediately turned around and called Tony. I said, ‘I’m in.’ And that’s how it happened, basically.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.