Tony Schiavone on what Tony Khan said to him before Sting’s debut on AEW Dynamite

During the latest episode of “What Happened When,” Tony Schiavone talked about events leading up to Sting appearing on AEW Dynamite. Schiavone was told in advance that there were talks going on with Sting and that he would be coming into AEW but he was not told specifically what would be going down last Wednesday night. Schiavone was ecstatic to call Sting’s AEW debut last Wednesday.

He said, “It felt good. It was quite a night on many levels. I had heard that Sting was coming in and that’s all I heard that they were talking to Sting and it looks like Sting was coming in. That’s all they would let me know as much as I am behind the scenes.”

Schiavone was made aware of the post-match angle involving Team Taz, Cody Rhodes, Darby Allin, Dustin Rhodes and Arn Anderson but he was not specifically told that Sting would be involved in that segment.

“When I got there that day, we had the meeting the night before and when Tony Khan goes over the meeting, he will just say for instance, he said ‘Cody and Darby will have the match against Team Taz. The match is scheduled for whatever, five minutes plus the commercial break and then five minutes on the back end. At the bottom, it said five minutes for a post-match angle and it will be really cool.’ That’s all he said during the meeting on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I got there and I was told Sting is coming tonight. I’m thinking this is some big s**t. Sting doesn’t come until late and me and JR and Tony Khan and Excalibur go back in the trailer where Sting and his wife were in and we talk to them. He was really in a good mood and excited. Tony is really excited to talk to him. We talked about how we were going to do this.”

Schiavone added, “Tony said to the announce team, ‘It’s Sting the way you used to say it because that is what is going to sell this.” I said, ‘ok, I hope I can still do it.’ As the day progressed, I started to put pressure on myself if I could still do this. I didn’t go back and listen to it, but I think my voice cracked a little bit. My voice is not what it was 20 years ago.”

Sting’s debut was a success because of the big numbers for that show and Sting’s appearance has already drawn 2.2 million views on YouTube.

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit What Happened When with Tony Schiavone with a h/t to PWrestling.com for the transcription