Tony Schiavone Recalls Meeting With Tony Khan That Led To Promotions, Making AEW More Organized

On August 3, AEW announced Sonjay Dutt, Tony Schiavone, QT Marshall, and Pat Buck were being promoted within the company. The press release also stated Madison Rayne was joining the company as a coach. 

Schiavone was 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,” he said. 

A meeting was set up in Palm Beach during the NFL owners meetings weekend. Schiavone said he was snuck into the NFL owners party and talked to Khan during the weekend. 

“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,” he said.

Wrestlers such as Joey Janela and Mark Stunt cited a lack of communication prior to their AEW departures, and Schiavone is hoping to change that and the organization of the company in his new position alongside the others promoted. 

“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,” he said.

Schiavone noted that AEW is still a young company and will go through growing pains, but he believes the company is on the right track and wants to continue to improve how talent is treated. 

“I know this for a fact, and this comment is probably going to get some criticism, but here goes. I do know, and this doesn’t speak for everyone, but I do know that throughout the years in pro wrestling, there have been a lot of people treated like shit. We want to change that dynamic, we really do. You can’t please everybody, and everybody wants to know what their creative is and what their vision is and there is so much to gather up that sometimes you just cannot give each individual person the attention he or she needs for where they are going, where their character is going, what they’re going to do next. You can’t. Now, I’m put in a position to help Tony out with that and let them know, ‘We care about you, here’s where you are, you are a big part of this,’ or ‘You’re not a big part of this right now, here’s you’re role,’ and just communicate. That’s all, communicate. There have been a lot of people, not all, but a lot of people treated like shit throughout their wrestling career, and we want to change the dynamic of that, and I think we are,” he said. 

Along with Schiavone’s new role, Dutt was promoted to Vice President of Production and Creative Coordination, Marshall is now Vice President of Show and Creative Coordination, Buck is Vice President of Talent Development. 

If you missed anything from Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite, check out Fightful’s full report on the show by clicking here. 

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