Tony Schiavone isn't just a barista anymore.
The former WCW commentator--who did, in fact, take a job working at Starbucks because "they have great benefits"--has a new podcast, called What Happened When.
He spoke with Sporting News recently, and was asked how he feels returning to the wrestling world, albeit just in a podcasting role.
“I never thought I would get back into it but here I am again. It’s been overwhelming. In just a couple of weeks, we’ve done quite well and we’re very excited about our podcast and very excited about the reception from everyone out there.”
Schiavone talked about one of his most memorable interviews, and, perhaps not surprisingly, it involved the always memorable Rowdy Roddy Piper. “I remember doing an interview for the first Starrcade with Roddy Piper. Roddy faced Greg Valentine in a dog collar match at that show in ’83. We did a promo for the Greensboro market with Roddy Piper. He had the dog collar. He hooked me to the dog collar and drug me back and forth as he was doing the interview. Then after it was over, he said, ‘Are you OK?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ I didn’t know he was going to do that but it was wonderful.”
A lot of people don't remember that Schiavone was with the WWF briefly in the late 80s. You can see a video of him with Jesse Ventura at Summerslam 1989. He left the company after a brief tenure, and still thinks that choice to leave has him blacklisted by Vince McMahon to this day.
“I left after one year there and I think (Vince) was very upset with me for leaving. I shouldn’t have left. It was a terrible mistake to leave but I made a decision based on what my family needed at that time. I always thought he was angry with me for that. I know we talked after that and he was very nice to me but I just always got the feeling that me leaving really ticked him off. I may be wrong.”
You can read the entire interview at this link, and you can check out Tony's podcast by clicking here.
