Former WWE Commentator Jonny Loquasto Speaks On Working With WWE Through The Pandemic
Pandemic wrestling was a whirlwind for everyone.
Jonny Loquasto is a former WWE commentator who is currently the Championship Wrestling play-by-play and combat sports announcer. Jonny Loquasto aka Jon Quasto recently sat down with Armbars & Sidebars to discuss his career and spoke about his time working with WWE during the pandemic.
They decided to move TV to the PC. From the moment NXT went live at 8 PM Eastern until it went off the air at 10, that two hour window, how the world changed, is unbelievable. I mean, I remember during the broadcast, everybody was on their phones. ‘The Utah Jazz game got shut down? What?!’ All this other stuff happening. And we would always have this little meeting after television every week, a little announcer meeting, whoever was there. And I remember Tom (Phillips) saying ‘Hey, we don’t know what’s next. So just be on the lookout for a message’. And sure enough, two days later, everything got shifted to the PC. And next thing we find out, Rehwoldt (Aiden English) and I are going to call 205 Live in an empty PC. And we actually shot that before SmackDown, we actually, from what I understand, we got a chance to call the second-ever empty arena event, obviously after The Rock and Mankind. Even though it didn’t air until after SmackDown.
– Jonny Loquasto via Armbars and Sidebars
He continued on.
I’ll never forget, we were about to go on air, it was such a surreal moment for everybody. The amount of pride I had in that moment, its hard to explain. Obviously, we didn’t want to mention.. we didn’t know what the pandemic was at the time, I don’t even remember what I said on air at the time, but it was something to the extent of like “in these very uncertain times, we just want to put smiles on your faces and do what we do best and that is bring the action”, something to that extent. Just glance on it, there’s no people here, we have to reference it, then let’s move on. I believe that’s when we had a 5 on 5 elimination match or something to that extent. Then every week after that was leading up towards WrestleMania, which I remember the phrase was ‘Too Big For Just One Night” and so, we got to do that catchphrase.
– Jonny Loquasto via Armbars and Sidebars
He also spoke about the changes in WWE in just the short time he was with the company.
Man, you talk about.. I was there for a year but how many changes happened in that one year is really unbelievable. I’m proud. I’m proud of everything, everything I did there. And I’m truly grateful for every moment. Yes, did I feel more moments were coming? Absolutely. But.. you know, a worldwide pandemic happens, decisions get made, and unfortunately some decisions are not in your favor. All you can do is, you know, pick yourself back up and make yourself better. And I’m better now than I was two years ago. I can tell you that. And so, I owe it to having to adjust and having to go through changes.
– Jonny Loquasto via Armbars and Sidebars
He also spoke on pandemic wrestling being an escape.
Yeah, it had to be an escape! And the entire team, gosh, its amazing how television was able to keep happening. You had people who, obviously, were away from their families. Who were still coming to work everyday. Yeah, that was the whole point. It truly did have to be an escape. People can say what they want about the people up top and the people making decisions, when it comes down to it, being part of that team truly was about making fans happy and putting smiles on people’s faces. Whether it was in an empty arena during the pandemic or in front of live audiences.
– Jonny Loquasto via Armbars and Sidebars
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