Tony Schiavone Talks Keeping His Composure During Ric Flair’s Promos, Getting Back Into Announcing, & More

Tony Schiavone recently spoke with CBS DC about keeping his composure during Ric Flair promos, his return to announcing, and more…

On Keeping his composure during Ric Flair’s over-the-top promos: “Yeah, the one that I remember was one that we did on the set of World Championship Wrestling back in the 80s. He was doing the angle against Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin and Precious, and he was trying to woo Precious, and he brought out a mannequin. He kissed and made love to the mannequin, while I was holding the microphone. If you go back and watch it, I think you catch me laughing. He and I talk about that often, when I talk to him and I talk to him about how nutty he was. I say, ‘Yeah but, I was there when you kissed a mannequin.'”

On getting back to announcing with MLW after being away from it for years: “Yeah. Court [Bauer] got in touch me, and we started in October, and he said, ‘Listen, I’d like for you to come down and call some action for us.’ He said, ‘I don’t have much money to give you, but I wondered if you’ll consider doing it.’ And he told me how much he would give me to do the first show. I said, ‘Well that’s kind of nostalgic because that’s what I got my first show back in 1982.’ I thought about Court and MLW and said, he and Conrad Thompson had done a lot for me by opening up the world of podcasts, and I might as well go down and try to do it. I was really apprehensive, because I didn’t think my voice could handle it based on what I used to do. It was really kind of an unknown world for me to go back and do it.”

Despite being unhappy working for WCW at the end of the company’s run, would he have stayed if WCW continued on: “I would’ve continued on because the money back then and the benefits were just too good. There’s no question. It’s funny because when we finally did go down, everything was so bad, and it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I’ve often said, ‘You can’t put a price on happiness’ and I really wasn’t happy. It was just too much pressure and I remember Eric used to say, ‘I know things get nutty here and I know there’s a lot of pressure and we drive you pretty hard, but buddy that’s why you make the big money.’ I didn’t make the big money compared to the guys, but I made a very good living. But again, you can’t put a number on happiness. The last show that we had when Vince took over we were down in Panama City, [Florida] and I got in my car and drove back to Atlanta that night and just felt great. I knew we were going down, and I knew eventually that WCW would go belly up. I didn’t know what would happen, but there was a lot of questions leading up to that moment through the months leading up to it. I had shed the tears about the business and what my life was gonna be moving forward before that moment. But when that moment came, I was really, really relaxed.”