Tony Schiavone talks about his graphic novel, AEW, WCW, Jim Crockett Promotions, Ric Flair’s Last Match

Yiorgo: With us today is All Elite Wrestling (AEW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) wrestling commentator Tony Schiavone, who to quote the great podcaster himself Conrad Thompson who said, “Tony is arguably the most beloved announcer in the business.” Tony, it is so obvious that you are having so much fun on AEW. What are some of your favorite moments there so far?

Tony Schiavone: I have had soooooo many favorite moments working at AEW. One of my favorites is being able to work with the kids backstage. When I first started in the business I was kinda working with guys my age, and now I’m working with guys who are the age of my kids. It’s a different dynamic all together but the respect they have with what I’ve done and the respect that Tony Khan has for what I have done in the business is just overwhelming every day, it really is. I never thought I would really enjoy it again and I really, really enjoy what I am doing and it’s because of the atmosphere that Tony has created. I encourage everyone who loves pro wrestling to check out the incredible talent we have in the ring, at the announce table and behind the scenes on AEW Dynamite on the TBS station every Wednesday night at 8pm, on AEW Rampage Friday nights at 10pm on TNT and AEW Dark on YouTube and so much more.

Y: We are almost the same age, give a year or two and you along with Bob Caudle and David Crockett were the voices of my youth as I watched Jim Crockett Promotions, Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. I was very excited when I heard that you have a graphic novel about your life story called ‘Butts In Seats: The Tony Schiavone Story.’ Can you talk about how all that came to be?

TS: A lot of people have said to me that you need to do a book about your years in wrestling. I thought, there’s a lot of work in writing a book and I just don’t know if I’m into that. Mike Dockins who is my lawyer and based out of Toledo, Ohio approached me about doing a graphic novel. I thought that sounded pretty cool because I am a comic book fan and collected them when I was a kid back in the 1960’s, so that appealed to me. I remember having the very first X-Men comic book. I mean, how much would that be worth now? Mike hooked me up with Dirk Manning (#1 Amazon Best-Selling writer of comics and graphic novels) and Dirk set up these sessions that we would do once a month on zoom with myself, Dirk, Mike, Dave Silva who works with us and Drena Jo who is our editor and I would tell them my story. That’s how it all started.

Y: Did you have any input as to who would ink it?

TS: I really had no idea when it came to that. Dirk came up with this great idea right in the midst of COVID that we would have 10 chapters, with a different artist for every chapter, have pin-up pages between chapters, it’s a page that recaps the chapter you just read and we would have a different artist for that. We will have bonus stories with different artists and a different artist for the cover, so we ended up having 26 different artists work on this book and that I thought was tremendous because it gave these artists work during COVID. Dirk handled it. I had no input and I was very happy with the final product.

Y: So what did you learn from working on the graphic novel and what do you hope the readers benefit from reading it?

TS: In the grand scheme of things, I never thought of myself in that way. As you know, I started doing work with the Crocketts and the Crocketts impressed on me, and I knew this anyway, that my job was to put other people over. That was always ingrained in me and I never thought of doing anything to put myself over. I would always shy away from that. I guess I found out by doing this that it’s a story of determination, perseverance because I worked very hard. I made a very good living with Turner Broadcasting before WCW went down. I had to do some things creatively to stay afloat and keep a roof over my family’s head. I think it’s a story of determination and that you need to keep your life going during tough times.

Now this is very important. There are people that have had much tougher lives than I had and that’s why I have always been leary in telling my story. I hope it’s a story that people are drawn to and will say, he made sure his family was provided for, and he loved wrestling, that never wavered, he tried to reinvent himself, have his career go a different way and when I thought I was out, I was pulled right in. Hard work, determination and perseverance more often than not, it does work.

Those qualities are ingrained in me. I was a late in life baby. My dad was 50 and my mom was 41 when she had me. They were really old school. My mother grew up during the Great Depression and really had it hard. She always told me, “Regardless of what you do in life, always work hard because most people don’t.” My dad’s family came over from Italy before the turn of the century. He was born in 1908 in Pennsylvania in a very large Italian family, so old school hard work is in my blood.

Y: You and Conrad Thompson have a great podcast called What Happen When? How did you and Conrad first meet originally and how did he convince you to do the podcast?

TS: Conrad sent me an email around 2015-16 and said, “My name is Conrad Thompson, I live in Alabama, I’m a big wrestling fan and before you laugh this off, I would like to invite you to come to my house, we’ll have a cookout, you can just sit down and tell stories to my friends.” I didn’t know anything about it but I found out this is kinda what Conrad does. He offered me a chunk of money that blew my mind. I said ok and then I never heard from him again. So I thought this was BS, he had given me his number so I called him. I said, “Hey it’s Tony Schiavone, I never heard from you”. He said that he broke his foot and talked about some other things going on in his business. He then said something I’ll never forget, “Do you need some money?” I said no but that shows really what a generous guy he is.

Fast forward now, we go to the NWA Fanfest in the summer of 2016. I was doing baseball for the Gwinnett’s baseball team, we were playing the Charlotte Knights baseball team that weekend. They had attempted to bring me into these fanfests many times but I just didn’t want to do it. I had enough of wrestling. But 2016 was a tough year for me financially. I had lost my job at the radio station, I was just working for the Gwinnett Braves and Georgia Bulldogs and working for Starbucks and trying to make ends meet, so I went to the fanfest and I did a sit down interview with Jim Valley. This is all in the graphic novel and we talked about my life in wrestling. Apparently, I was so entertaining that Jim Valley said afterwards, “You need to take this act of yours on the road and make some money with it”.

Of course I didn’t believe him but Conrad Thompson was in the audience that day. It’s now January 2017 and Conrad sent me another email and said I would like to do a podcast about your days in wrestling and here’s what I plan to do. It was a business plan with how much money we can make, we can sell tee shirts and merchandise we can eventually get sponsors. My daughter was getting married so the timing was right and I said yes. We started in late January 2017, and here we are five and a half years later.

Y: What a ride it has been. What are three of your favorite moments from the podcast?

TS: I was working out of the basement at the time, we were only doing audio then, Conrad and I were doing an episode talking about something, and you know by listening to our show that our language can be very colorful and riskay, and my wife Lois started saying, you guys are sick, etc. and that became a routine where we would bring her on and tell us how stupid we were. She got some notoriety from that to the point that someone made a sign that said ‘Lois Rules’ and held it up at WrestleMania. I framed it, got a picture of that guy and his family, I’m looking at it now as we speak. That’s one of my favorites.

Another favorite is that we watch shows together and sometimes Conrad has me doing voice overs during the regular interviews in the segments we are watching and I have said some silly stuff, especially the Macho Man and Johnny B. Badd interviews.

Another favorite moment, and they have asked us to do it again, was when Conrad and I drove from his home in Alabama to Atlanta one time, we got two microphones and a recorder and we did a podcast of us on the road. It was Tony’s and Conrad’s Roadtrip. People have asked for that again. We have not done another one and I wish we would as a matter of fact. One of the great moments of that was that Conrad kept falling asleep. I’m driving, he would ask me something, I would answer him and he would doze off. I edited out some of that stuff. That’s another thing that I do, I edit the podcast. I love editing audio, love working with it and I just don’t trust anybody else.

Y: I called Conrad and asked him to share a favorite episode or moment with Tony.

Conrad Thompson: Man, there are too many to choose from. Tony has become easily the most fun, interesting and easy episodes to do every week. It really would be very hard to pick one moment but the thing that I am most proud of is that Tony has realized how much he has contributed to everyone’s lives. He was bitter and angry with the business and is arguably the most beloved announcer in the business. The resurgence that he has enjoyed and the success that he is enjoying right now, with the best contract he has ever had and with the most fun he has ever had in wrestling. He did not know that was an opportunity before the podcast but it is after and is one of the most proudest achievements in this whole experience.

Y: Tony, as we now know, Conrad is bringing back Jim Crockett Promotions one last time at his Starrcast V July 29-31st in Nashville, Tennessee with Ric Flair’s Last Match. (Ed. note, read Yiorgo’s recent interview with Conrad Thompson for all the details https://www.militarynews.com/norfolk-navy-flagship/podcasts-extraordinaire-conrad-tho mpson-talks-starrcast-v-ric-flair-s-last-match/article_1b5d5f02-e278-11ec-82f0-c7409ec ed027.html ) Let’s reminisce about the good old days of Jim Crockett Promotions. Can you share a Ric Flair story?

TS: I got a million Ric Flair stories. My favorite would be the first time I was with him at his house talking about his match with Harley Race for Starrcade 83. Ric was so nice to me and very polite. I was and still am such a big fan of his. It was a big moment in my life to be able to meet Ric Flair and interview him.

Y: You originally worked at the Crockett baseball park with Francis Crockett. Can you share a fun memory?

TS: One time we had some thefts at the baseball park and Francis hired some German Shepard dogs to protect the ballpark at night. We were supposed to work with these dogs but they were mean as hell. They jumped on me, bit me, tore my shirt off. They would look at us in our office and growl. Francis said, “Oh my God, I feel like I’m trapped. We are getting rid of them”.

Y: How about a Jim Crockett Jr. story?

TS: We were at the very first Crockett Cup in New Orleans, Louisiana and me, Jimmy Crockett and Dusty and a couple of others were walking down Bourbon Street. Jimmy saw this shirt in the window of a store with some very suggestive language on it and said, “I’m buying that shirt for you Tony”. He did buy it for me, I took it home and hid it because I didn’t want Lois to see it. I don’t know why I brought it home. I’ve since donated it but I remember that was the first time I had fun with Jimmy because he was serious all the time and he was my boss. But I discovered that time you could have a lot of fun with him.

Y: And a story with your partner in crime as co-commentators, David Crockett.

TS: David was so good to me and such a big part of my life that we named our last son after David. His name is Timothy David Schiavone. When I was doing the baseball game announcing, we were in Charlotte one time and David came on the air with me. We were talking and I told him the story on the air, and David did not believe me. But it’s true.

Y: Of course our reminiscing would not be complete without a Bob Caudle story.

TS: Bob Caudle is very special to me. Fans talk about me being the voice of their childhood. Well Bob was the voice to my childhood. A fun memory that I have with Bob is when we were at the Nassau Coliseum for Bunkhouse Stampede, I was the ring announcer and Bob Caudle did the commentary with Jim Ross. The next morning we had to go from our hotel at Nassau Coliseum to LaGuardia Airport. I swear, I’m driving 80-90 miles an hour on the expressway, a map on my lap and Bob on the passenger side, JR and somebody else in the back seat. Bob kept saying, “I can’t believe you are driving this fast with a map on your lap in this traffic.” We got there and he said, “That was unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like that, it was amazing.” He kept going on and on how I was able to do that. I said, Bob, slow down, I’m not a wrestler, you don’t have to put me over. I do this all the time, my dad was a truck driver.

Another quick story about Bob. When I had the opportunity to do something with him on set, in Spottenburg in 1985, I am standing there and we are getting ready to go live, I turn to him and say, “I’m not overstating the fact that this is one of the biggest moments in my life to stand next to you and broadcast with you.” And he being the great humble guy that he was just shrugged it off.

Y: How about a pinch me moment that you could not believe this Virginia boy was experiencing?

TS: My pinch me moment, is the first TBS show when David and I went live to tape but it was live for us. We recorded it in the morning and it would air at 6:05pm. We would have a 3:15pm flight and fly back home to Charlotte and I watched it on the TV that night. I saw myself at 6:05pm and here I am doing this national TV show in 1985, four years removed of me graduating college. That truly was my pinch me moment.

To purchase Tony’s graphic novel, go to https://www.amazon.com/Butts-Seats-Tony-Schiavone-Story/dp/1954412320

For Starrcast V info, go to www.starrcast.com

Yiorgo is an arts, entertainment and sports writer. A stage, TV and movie actor, he is also a sports entertainer, educator, motivational speaker, writer, storyteller and columnist.