Tony Schiavone recalls meeting with the AEW president Tony Khan and how it lead to his promotions within the company.
Schiavone was recently promoted to Senior Producer and Special Advisor to Talent while still serving as an announcer and interviewer.
Speaking on AEW Unrestricted, Schiavone detailed how the promotions came about.
“What happened was, and I thought about this for a long time and talked to my friends backstage. Excalibur, you [Aubrey Edwards], Bryce (Remsberg), and talking to some people. I like being an announcer, that’s how I’ve always made my living, but I can do so much more. We do the podcast, I do the prepares for Rampage, but basically, there is one busy workday a week. I’ve got all this time, and I don’t mind working on the weekends. I got in touch with Megha (Parekh), who is our lawyer and HR person, and I said, ‘I’d like to meet with Tony (Khan) and go over some ideas.’ I said, ‘I want to talk with you, but I don’t want to talk with you during TV.’ You know how it is. TV is a wild beast,”
“We talked at the party, we talked flying back. I said, ‘Listen, I know your EVPs are the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega. They wrestle and they have the final say on a lot of things, but I’d like to work closely with them and help any way I can.’ He was very receptive to it. We started working overnight. Pat Buck had been brought in and he’s very professional and does a great job on a lot of things. I got working closely with Pat. Then he brought us all in at Universal tapings and said, ‘Guys, I really need your help. This company is going gangbusters and I feel I can use you in these ways.’ We said, ‘Sure,’ and an announcement was made,”
“Things can get crazy backstage. A lot of times, things can get crazy in a negative way, that’s the way it happens in wrestling, but now we have the tools and staff in place to try to remedy that before it breaks bad. We’re not going to be perfect at it, but I think we’re going to make it a better place to work. It’s already been a great place to work. A lot of times, making it a great place to work is being organized and if your employees look at you and say, ‘They are organized,’ it becomes a better workplace and they feel more confident about the company. We can all say that right now,”
Tony Schiavone on AEW Unrestricted
H/T to Fightful for transcription
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