Tony Schiavone Reveals The One WWE Match He Wish He Would Have Called
Tony Schiavone was recently a part of a Q&A session on his podcast, What Happened When. One question Schiavone was asked was which pro wrestling match he wished he would have called, but did not or could not. Throughout his history as a pro wrestling play-by-play commentator, which spans four decades, Schiavone has been a part of many memorable moments. Particularly, while working for Jim Crockett Promotions/National Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling. Schiavone was well known during the Monday Night Wars for being the voice of Monday Nitro, with his riveting weekly cliffhangers which caused wrestling fans to want to watch the product on the following week.
While most of Schiavone's play-by-play tenure was in NWA and WCW, he did have a brief stint in WWE from 1989-1990. During his time in WWE, Schiavone was able to commentate for the 1989 SummerSlam and 1990 Royal Rumble pay-per-views. He returned to WCW in 1990, and remained with the company until it folded in 2001. Despite being one of the most loyal figures of WCW, Schiavone answered the question with a match that occurred on March 17, 2002, at WrestleMania 18, and this match turned out to be one of the most iconic matches in WrestleMania history.
"I would have loved to have called the [Hulk] Hogan [vs.] Rock from WrestleMania match," said Schiavone. "I think that would have been a lot of fun. Talking about the history of Hulk Hogan, and being in Toronto, and I never got to call a Rock match. I really think [calling] that match would have been great."
Schiavone added that he also would have loved to do some commentary during the Austin vs. McMahon feud, a Jack Brisco match while he was the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, as well as matches during the Freebirds/Von Erichs feud in World Class Championship Wrestling.
Interestingly, January 4, 2019, marks the 20th year of arguably the most pivotal moment in the history of the Monday Night Wars. Along with the dreaded "Fingerpoke of Doom" which ended the match between Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash, Schiavone was also instructed by WCW executives to spoil the WWE Championship match between The Rock and Mick Foley. Although the intention was for people to remain watching Nitro, it severely backfired, and 600,000 viewers turned their channel to witness Foley win the title for the first time.
After nearly 15 years from being away from pro wrestling commentating, focusing on a career doing play-by-play for baseball, Schiavone returned to the pro wrestling booth in 2017. At 61, Schiavone is now the weekly voice of Court Bauer's MLW promotion.
Source: What Happened When?