Tony Schiavone Had a Lot to Say About the WCW's Final Days

Tony Schiavone reached the pinnacle of his success as the play by play announcer for WCW’s shows, including Monday Nitro and Thunder as well as all Pay-Per-View upon his entry into the company. He stayed firm on the WCW ship until it sank in 2001.

When he sat down with Wrestling Inc, he had a lot to say about the rise and fall of WCW. He in particular said that Eric Bischoff’s actions were not he believed to be to blame for the demise of the company, stating, “I thought Eric knew what he was doing and I thought Eric could do a lot more. But every time we had a little bit of success, the people above him got involved in it and screwed it up. I mean, there was rumors that Eric had a deal with us to be on NBC. And Turner screwed that up.” He also opens up about the change in bringing in Vince Russo, stating, “I remember thinking it was probably the right move because I think that Eric couldn’t do what he wanted to do and was probably burned out.”

He finally talks about the parent company’s decisions to sell the WCW and its catalog to WWE, stating, “My reaction was that Jamie Kellner…should never have had another job in television. How can you sell your library for $2.5 million when, if you don’t have enough foresight and vision to know that down the road, you’ll be able to package it, be it CDs or digital downloaded, for multimillion dollars? How can someone be in our industry and be that stupid?”