Justin Roberts talks Anarchy In The Arena.
Fans around the world of wrestling were completely caught off guard at the Double Or Nothing pay-per-view when Justin Roberts, who is usually just known for his ring announcing skills, said his famous line about sh*t hitting the fan in regards to the upcoming Anarchy In The Arena match.
Although the moment came across on screen like an ad-lib, Roberts recently appeared on the latest episode of Talk Is Jericho to discuss how it came together in length.
Roberts first explained how he got permission from everyone involved before hand, citing that he'd rather ask for permission instead of forgiveness.
"I go to you and I say ‘Hey, we got the show.’ On a AEW show, we’ve got phenomenal matches, every match is a killer match. I like to set the tone in everything I do. You have to set that tone, make something feel special and they’re all special, right? But because of what you guys were gonna do, I didn’t even know the specifics on what you were gonna do but knowing you’re involved and knowing the general idea of what the match was, I said ‘Hey, I wanna set the tone and do something to just kind of lead the crowd to what you’re gonna do in your match. I wanna start out nerdy introduction, nerdy professional ring announcer but then I wanna say this and make it a little bit of what I normally wouldn’t do.’ So you kind of thought about it and you go ‘Yeah, okay cool’. So I went to somebody else and [asked them to run it by Tony]. I didn’t wanna ask for forgiveness, I wanted to ask for permission."
Roberts continued on and also explained the thought process behind the actual idea itself.
"The idea, and I’ll explain it to you, the idea was I wanna get their attention. Again, ladies and gentlemen, they’ve been sitting through a lot of matches. They’ve seen a lot. But now, ladies and gentlemen, you suck them in with that. The arena was dead silent and then I looked like I forgot what I was gonna say, like I forgot my lines. In AEW, I don’t have lines to remember because I’m not handed a script, I'm not memorizing a script each week. I get to make up my own announcements every week, I have total freedom. Ladies and gentlemen, suck them in, it’s quiet. I look like I forgot what I was going to say, now it’s uncomfortable because usually you see me for a quick second and I go right into it, it’s a machine and it’s really quick. Now it’s uncomfortable. Now if you’re watching at home and you were on your phone, now you look up because it’s just this awkward silence. It’s uncomfortable. Did he forget what he was supposed to say? Then I just kind of shrug my shoulders and go ‘This shit’s about to hit the fan, this is Anarchy In The Arena’. You say that and it’s that moment of you go from uncomfortable to did he forget what he was gonna say to oh my gosh because you’ve never heard me swear in a ring announcement before. I’ve never done that before.”
The match still stands as one of the most memorable matches in AEW history, while some even look at it as the best AEW match of the year thus far.
To get a quick recap of what happened during Anarchy In The Arena, click here.
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