Tony Schiavone Discloses Initial Plans to Join Rampage Before Landing Collision Role

The announce team for AEW Dynamite has seen its share of changes but has finally solidified with a consistent trio of Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, and Taz. After WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross transitioned from Dynamite to Rampage, he later joined the AEW Collision team for its Saturday night broadcasts.

Collision was initially distinguished from Dynamite by featuring Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness alongside Jim Ross. This changed on the October 14th episode when Tony Schiavone was added to the mix. When Jim Ross stepped in for the main event, as is customary, Kevin Kelly vacated his seat, leaving the trio led by Schiavone.

Schiavone Discusses Future Role on Collision During Podcast On his "What Happened When" podcast, Tony Schiavone delved into the backstory of his new role. He had initially approached Tony Khan about a play-by-play role on Rampage:

“I had told Tony [Khan] – and this was months ago – I had told Tony that I would like another chance at doing play-by-play. I said ‘I can probably do Rampage,’ he said ‘Okay let me think about it.’ I thought I was gonna end up doing play-by-play on Rampage but then he hit me with this and you don’t say ‘nah I don’t wanna do that,’ you say ‘hell yeah I wanna do it.’”

Schiavone spoke highly of his fellow announcers, emphasizing his respect for Kevin Kelly:

“I’ve told him this many times and I’m sincere about this, I really am, Kevin Kelly is a great announcer. He is so smooth and so good. I really, really enjoy working with him and Nigel and I know we’ve only worked together once but we’ve been backstage together for a number of months now.”

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— Ben Jordan Kerin Oct 18, 2023 08:47AM