Tony Chimel Discusses His WWE Release

When Tony Chimel was laid off from WWE in November 2020, the longtime ring announcer reacted with shock. Nearly two years later, Chimel told the "Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling" podcast that the loss of his job still baffles him.

"When the pandemic hit, I was willing to go and travel and do shows and do whatever, and just continue to do my job," he said. "Obviously, they weren't running shows all over the country because of that. But they started running shows in Orlando, which is only two or three hours from where I live now and where I lived. I offered to go there, and they were saying no, they didn't want me there and things like that."

Chimel recalled that he received a call saying that he was being furloughed, but he told his employers that he was still eager to be part of the WWE presentations. But his offer was not accepted, and he later received his termination call from Kevin Dunn, which confused him.

"Kevin technically wasn't my boss, but he makes a lot of decisions," he said. "I don't know if he made a decision, or that new guy Khan, whatever, made the decision, because I'm sure they had independent contractors working in the production office and doing what I was doing for probably a lot less money. And at 59 to 60 years of age back then, they probably said, 'Oh, we can just let him go.' I guess it was a timing thing for them."

Chimel speculated that Dunn was eager to see him out of the WWE.

"I don't think he ever really liked me," he said. "I don't really have anything bad about him. I mean, I've gotten two calls from him in my 38 years there — the one telling me I was furloughed, the other one telling me I was fired."