Tony Schiavone Recalls Vince McMahon Asking Him to Shave His Mustache

Tony Schiavone had a short run in WWE, and he recently recalled how Vince McMahon asked him to shave his mustache for it. The AEW commentator spoke about his time in WWE from 1989 to 1990 in a Q&A for AdFreeShows and recalled McMahon making the request as he didn’t want any aspect of Schiavone’s time from Jim Crockett Promotions to carry over onto WWE TV, and wanted him to shave the mustache so that he would contrast more with Mean Gene Okerlund.

“Vince wanted me to shave my mustache,” Schiavone said (per Wrestling Inc). “He said ‘I’m going to ask you something if you don’t mind doing it,’ and this is back in the day when Vince would ask you to do something instead of telling you to do something.”

He added, “So he wanted to completely erase all my identity from the NWA. And I wouldn’t. I would much rather Arn give me a Spinebuster because his belly is so big now that I’d just bounce off of him.”

Schiavone worked for WWE under a one-year contract and worked alongside Jesse Venture on the commentary teams for SummerSlam 1989 and Royal Rumble 1990, along with other shows. He returned to WCW after his contract expired.