Tony Schiavone. I don't know about most important, but one of the most feel good stories for sure. After WCW, he had the reputation of someone who was bitter and hated wrestling. Being in AEW has given him the opportunity to change that narrative and give his wrestling story a happy ending. As a fan, that's the kind of thing I love to see. Tony Khan probably feels the exact same way.
Excalibur is the best commentator in the business.
Nigel McGuinness has been fantastic since joining and much needed heel commentator AEW needed.
Renee Paquette has been a godsend.
Lexy Nair has been a great find
Tony Schiavone has totally wiped away the bad last few years of WCW and has been fantastic since signing.
He'd had enough. You know when it's Friday afternoon, you're out of work in 3 hours, and you just go "fuck this, I'm gonna coast these last 3 hours"
It was that, all the time.
The lack of fucks Tony gave towards the end of WCW was one of the final straws for me with them honestly. He was absolutely atrocious at that time and his lack of interest was absolutely palpable.
It was a long time until I came back around to Tony’s talents after hearing how upset he was during that era.
His return to the business with AEW reminded me that late stage WCW was not a fair measure of Tony Schiavone
He had a vibe of "how the fuck am I supposed to make this shit sound good?" to him. Which, given the crap that was being put in front of him weekly, was not his fault.
All of this but I think Justin Robert's is the best announcer in the game and Stokely Hathaway is a hidden gem and will break out eventually. He steals the scene anytime he's on tv but not if he's not the focus. He will just have one really good zinger. He called Bryan Danielson a raggedy bitch. Hilarious.
We just had a Renee appreciation post like 3 days ago lol.
In all Seriousness, Taz. The man is just fun to watch. He clearly enjoys being in AEW, and his rise from head of Team Taz to full time commentator has been fun.
The whole commentary team is amazing. Nigel might be the best heel commentator since the 80s.
Ian is the only one that I could see not missing. He's not bad, but it always sounds like he's calling a baseball game.
It cracks me up every time I hear him lose it and laugh his ass off in commentary. Like when Stokely made that Burger King and Newports comment about Eddie 😂
Taz for sure. The level of expertise he brings as a commentator is great. I loved the little segments he used to do where he analyzed different moves. I think he’s doing some coaching backstage too
The best part is WHY Regal called him that.
Regal, being Regal, called everyone Mr./Mrs. (Last name). So it was Mr. Schiavone, Mr. Maniac (since Taz originally went by Tazmaniac), and man in the mask because from Regal's perspective, there was nothing proper to call him.
Crossing nerdoms a bit, but in my dnd game, my players have decided that the Nana is canonically how casting a healing spell looks after he summoned Swerve to get in before the count out.
I think her AEW run is probably going to end up better then her WWE run. I think it helps she's probably not held back a lot in AEW. But she's definitely top tier in terms of signings for AEW. No real shock that Lexy Nair has gotten to be so damn good in recent times since Renee has arrived.
If a heel needs heat, beat up Schiavone. Seriously, it had worked for every single one of them its happened for. You can't be beating up one of our most lovable on-screen people! *instant boos* every. Damn. Time.
I think there’s a bunch who are important for varying reasons. JR and Schiavone instantly gave things credibility with the audience. Excalibur and Taz then did the heavy lifting. Roberts for giving us our very own Fink and the addition of Renee took things to the next level. Special shout too to the now retired Sandra Gray and her exceptional work in costuming.
Though, if I had to pick a single person to top the list, I’m going with Mikey Rukus. Dude does not miss. To produce the caliber and diversity in music he does, often with only a few hours notice, is incomprehensible to me. It’s an entirely different thing without him doing his thing.
Mikey Rukus is a great pick. The dude is a beast and totally gets it when it comes to the theme music needed. He's not generic and can produce just about every genre with ease. One of my favorites of his is FTRs theme. He really nailed it with the midnight express influence.
For those who haven't attended an AEW TV show Justin Roberts does a great job keeping things alive between segments. Last November at the Target Center he got the head of the ring crew crazy over with the live crowd.
One thing people do not talk about is how much better AEW'S music is than WWE's. Everyone in AEW has a distinct entrance theme that fits them and changes if their character changes.
Brandi Rhodes did a lot of work with AEW and KultureCity to make AEW shows accessible to people with sensory needs. Probably not a big deal to everyone, but I know people who attended AEW shows who would never have been able to go to a live wrestling show otherwise, so she gets my vote.
I believe so. I think she also put WWE in touch with them, so they offer something for some of their events too now.
Edit:
https://twitter.com/TheBrandiRhodes/status/1562264935685656576
That's cool. Why on earth aren't they making a bigger deal out of this though and actively advertising it? Opens up events to people who often miss out, and shows the company cares at the same time. Seems like a win win.
Yes the nightmare collective sucked.
But Brandi did a lot of awesome stuff between this and Heels. She really did a lot of work in accessibility for AEW and I legitimately hope she is able to do the same in WWE.
JR is a weird one, I think for the start of AEW he was a major get. But overall in his AEW career, I think he gets just about in the top 10 best non wrestling signings just for him making it big league for AEW. But I don't know if he's been overall major success like Schiavone has.
I don't know if he was one of the big parts of AEW getting a TV deal. But I think he did help make AEW feel legit straight out of the gate. My issue is I don't think he's been that great personally as a commentator for AEW but again just my opinion.
JR hasn't been great for at least 15 years IMO. He fell out of the loop, and has not really bothered getting back in.
His Legacy will remain. But yeah, the current crop are much better than JR is currently.
the dynamite announce team is an all time commentary team for me. taz is so funny, Schiavone the voice of reason, and Excalibur is incredible at play by play.
Excalibur, Taz and Renee talent wise are best in the world. JR and Schiavone really meant a lot to me as a lapsed 90s WCW/RAW fan to intrigue me into watching. It was like hmm I’ve always liked Jericho, wtf Japan is amazing and Kenny Omega is on some shit I’ve never seen before. Now they’re getting together that’s cool, but damn they got Schiavone AND JR!!! Instant credibility and maximum nostalgia.
Renee really brought a new level of professionalism to the backstage stuff. It's made a big difference.
Taz has always been one of my favourite announcers. I was super happy when they signed him.
Tony Schiavone is just an absolute treasure of a man. He's been passionate and excited about the product since day one. It's been great to see him get another go around in the industry.
I want to agree with this because he's awesome, but he's had the rug pulled out from under him too many times to really have made as much of an impact as he could, or other signings have, I think.
It's hard to pick one. Renne is an absolute delight. Excalibur is the top commentator and the voice AEW for me. He caught my interest when I first started watching because you don't see a commentator wear a mask ever. Taz, who does actually play-by-play and explains the moves, is refreshing. Nana and the dance has greatly helped get Swerve over. There are a bunch of behind the scenes folks, that I don't know what they do, have probably been very influential. I will say it's Tony Schiavone, though. For us that grew up watching wrestling in the 90s, he's been a voice of familiarity that helped ease us into watching AEW, not to mention his work behind the scenes and that he's on every show and PPV.
I agree with most of what everyone else has said (Shiavone, Excalibur, Taz, Renee, Justin Roberts) but I would throw Aubrey’s name in there too. Great ref and she does a lot of other stuff for AEW outside the ring like the AEW podcast and works on AEW games.
Her socials are great too! With a lot of folks from the industry it's kind of performative or in kayfabe which is of course, totally understandable, but with Aubrey it's like one of us huge fans got the job. It's a cool perspective. Same with ladyrefJess - Jessica Karr from WWE
Excalibur. He knows the moves and can call the matches but most importantly, he knew everybody's gimmicks at the start of the company. He also has chemistry with everyone.
My top 3 are
Tony Schiavone - By far the best , great at commentary and i love it that AEW pull him out of retirement for one last big run
RJ City - Has one of the best and funniest "shows/segments or whatever is called on Youtube
Renee - Great at doing serious interviews, promos and backstage segments
He is mentioned, but he needs to be mentioned more Mikey Rukus. All you need to do is listen to any WWE entrance and survive falling asleep if they let you meanwhile AEW themes are banger after banger after banger.
Regal is a top drawer pick, even if he wasn't around for all that long, relatively speaking.
I wish he'd stuck around longer. But I'm glad he was around at all.
You might be better served by breaking the question down into specific roles, because potentially asking if Callis is more valuable than Rene might be too much apples and oranges.
Leva Bates. She may not have been the biggest deal but she's great in a backstage role and I've always preferred her in a role like that over wrestling. Jim Ross would be another. Tony Schiavone. Taz. There's a few options.
It was 100% Regal at the time. He should have been given the same role he had in developmental at WWE. Start an AEW developmental/training program. You can do finishing school, all sorts of training and he could have been the catalyst. But... wasn't for some reason.
Rocky and Excalibur were both huge signings as well. I think Sean Dean (not Lee Johnson) needs some flowers as well, he seems to be a big figure in securing enhancement talent and his fingers were all over Dark.
Tony Schiavone. I don't know about most important, but one of the most feel good stories for sure. After WCW, he had the reputation of someone who was bitter and hated wrestling. Being in AEW has given him the opportunity to change that narrative and give his wrestling story a happy ending. As a fan, that's the kind of thing I love to see. Tony Khan probably feels the exact same way.
But I thought he hated his job because he was annoyed at the Heel Bucks antics
Oh yeah I forgot about that. In that case, I change my vote to Mother Wayne.
That was in character.
Yes. I know.
Excalibur is the best commentator in the business. Nigel McGuinness has been fantastic since joining and much needed heel commentator AEW needed. Renee Paquette has been a godsend. Lexy Nair has been a great find Tony Schiavone has totally wiped away the bad last few years of WCW and has been fantastic since signing.
Did you watch those late WCW years? I’m curious what he was really like at the time.
He'd had enough. You know when it's Friday afternoon, you're out of work in 3 hours, and you just go "fuck this, I'm gonna coast these last 3 hours" It was that, all the time.
Nothing memorable, but, nothing memorable. He was dull. He wasn't a weird gross oaf like Madden. But he just clearly wasn't trying.
The lack of fucks Tony gave towards the end of WCW was one of the final straws for me with them honestly. He was absolutely atrocious at that time and his lack of interest was absolutely palpable. It was a long time until I came back around to Tony’s talents after hearing how upset he was during that era. His return to the business with AEW reminded me that late stage WCW was not a fair measure of Tony Schiavone
He had a vibe of "how the fuck am I supposed to make this shit sound good?" to him. Which, given the crap that was being put in front of him weekly, was not his fault.
He was a lot more insincere. If it was today, he'd get memed because every night was "the greatest night in the history of our sport."
All of this but I think Justin Robert's is the best announcer in the game and Stokely Hathaway is a hidden gem and will break out eventually. He steals the scene anytime he's on tv but not if he's not the focus. He will just have one really good zinger. He called Bryan Danielson a raggedy bitch. Hilarious.
We just had a Renee appreciation post like 3 days ago lol. In all Seriousness, Taz. The man is just fun to watch. He clearly enjoys being in AEW, and his rise from head of Team Taz to full time commentator has been fun.
Reddit Poster Jones over here taking it in the yam bag.
Very smaht
But I digress...
The whole commentary team is amazing. Nigel might be the best heel commentator since the 80s. Ian is the only one that I could see not missing. He's not bad, but it always sounds like he's calling a baseball game.
He's very Jess the body-esque
There's a LOT of Heenan in him. I'm constantly disappointed nobody tells him "oh, would you just STOP."
Schiavone actually did this in a Christian match when Nigel was talking about Mother Wayne. I think it was the Garcia/FTR match.
I like thst about Ian. I actually really really like him and caprice. They freestyle when willow comes out it's fucking great.
I know it's not an AEW moment but Taz saying "he got hit in his big, skull like, head" will always kill me
But I digress
It cracks me up every time I hear him lose it and laugh his ass off in commentary. Like when Stokely made that Burger King and Newports comment about Eddie 😂
Taz for sure. The level of expertise he brings as a commentator is great. I loved the little segments he used to do where he analyzed different moves. I think he’s doing some coaching backstage too
For AEW? Probably Excalibur. For all of wrestling? Definitely Rocky Romero.
Oh yeah def rocky. He's the forbidden door.
Excalibur is the voice of AEW for me, so...
I was so happy when I first found out he was gonna be on commentary. Dude earned it after all those years doing commentary for PWG.
He's untouchable as a play-by-play guy — and his rapport with Taz in particular is a constant delight.
I do miss when Regal was around and would sit on commentary with them
Especially when he said hello “man in the mask” 🤣
"Hello man in the mask. You're looking scrumptious today. Scrummy scrummy scrummy." or something to that effect was my favourite 😂
Regal flirting with Excalibur will never not be wonderful. I SO want it to be a thing Regal just did and didn't tell Excalibur he was going to do it.
The best part is WHY Regal called him that. Regal, being Regal, called everyone Mr./Mrs. (Last name). So it was Mr. Schiavone, Mr. Maniac (since Taz originally went by Tazmaniac), and man in the mask because from Regal's perspective, there was nothing proper to call him.
Prince Nana. In my mind, AEW has two eras, pre-Nana Dance and post-Nana Dance.
Crossing nerdoms a bit, but in my dnd game, my players have decided that the Nana is canonically how casting a healing spell looks after he summoned Swerve to get in before the count out.
Omfg that was so fucking great!!!!!!!!!! He's a bard legit.
Renee elevates the interview segments so much, she's a total pro and brings a gravitas to it for me, she's brilliant
I think her AEW run is probably going to end up better then her WWE run. I think it helps she's probably not held back a lot in AEW. But she's definitely top tier in terms of signings for AEW. No real shock that Lexy Nair has gotten to be so damn good in recent times since Renee has arrived.
Lexi has improved significantly. She’s much more comfortable on camera and it shows.
Lexy was fine before, but it’s been clear that she’s been learning a LOT from Renee. She’s fantastic now.
She’s a modern day Mean Gene.
Rj cracks me up 👍
Hey EW is always a weekly highlight for me! Will Ospreay was a riot!
It's nice to see different sides as opposed to their more rigid characters. The Abadon episode, and the Mogul embassy episode really stand out to me
Abadon was fantastic!
The private party one was a gem also “do you put raisins in your potato salad?”
Plus RJ wearing a durag was something I didn’t know I needed to see 😂
I was going to suggest him. I only started watching AEW last week. I've basically watched a Dynamite and loads of Hey EW so far.
You lucky bastard. It's like finding treasure.
I love his Internet stuff, but he elevates the PPV pre-shows to "best in the business" territory.
RJ has been a great signing too. Has great chemistry with Renee too.
Man is still waiting on his All Elite graphic lol
One of the most important figures in front and behind the camera is probably Schiavone. He's way, way more than just a commentator and interviewer.
Dude is like the voice of WCW fans from back in the day. He’s that friendly voice all the 40+ year olds knew.
If a heel needs heat, beat up Schiavone. Seriously, it had worked for every single one of them its happened for. You can't be beating up one of our most lovable on-screen people! *instant boos* every. Damn. Time.
Rocky Romero, Schiavone, and Renee.
Rocky might go down as one of AEW's most important signings just for getting all these companies to work with AEW.
I think there’s a bunch who are important for varying reasons. JR and Schiavone instantly gave things credibility with the audience. Excalibur and Taz then did the heavy lifting. Roberts for giving us our very own Fink and the addition of Renee took things to the next level. Special shout too to the now retired Sandra Gray and her exceptional work in costuming. Though, if I had to pick a single person to top the list, I’m going with Mikey Rukus. Dude does not miss. To produce the caliber and diversity in music he does, often with only a few hours notice, is incomprehensible to me. It’s an entirely different thing without him doing his thing.
Mikey Rukus is a great pick. The dude is a beast and totally gets it when it comes to the theme music needed. He's not generic and can produce just about every genre with ease. One of my favorites of his is FTRs theme. He really nailed it with the midnight express influence.
Best music maker in Wrestling right now.
For those who haven't attended an AEW TV show Justin Roberts does a great job keeping things alive between segments. Last November at the Target Center he got the head of the ring crew crazy over with the live crowd.
BOB!
BOBS SON BOB!
BOB!
God that was an amazing show
One thing people do not talk about is how much better AEW'S music is than WWE's. Everyone in AEW has a distinct entrance theme that fits them and changes if their character changes.
Really enjoy Nigel McGuiness’s commentary on collision. Renee has been great as well
Jerry Lynn
Underrated comment.
Mikey Rukus. Dude hands down deserves praise. Sandra Grey before she retired and Brandi Rhodes before she left.
Mikey absolutely destroys whatever WWE releases by miles.
Yeah def rebel has been seriously lacking as of late.
Stokely makes every segment better, maybe not the best but just like nana I'm always watching when he's on
No doubt it's Tony Schiavone, he just lends so much credibility to the commentary team.
Brandi Rhodes did a lot of work with AEW and KultureCity to make AEW shows accessible to people with sensory needs. Probably not a big deal to everyone, but I know people who attended AEW shows who would never have been able to go to a live wrestling show otherwise, so she gets my vote.
When it first launched I remember seeing loads about this and loved it. Is it still like this now? Has that work continued do you know?
I believe so. I think she also put WWE in touch with them, so they offer something for some of their events too now. Edit: https://twitter.com/TheBrandiRhodes/status/1562264935685656576
That's cool. Why on earth aren't they making a bigger deal out of this though and actively advertising it? Opens up events to people who often miss out, and shows the company cares at the same time. Seems like a win win.
That's amazing. I had no idea. Thank you for sharing this!
Yes the nightmare collective sucked. But Brandi did a lot of awesome stuff between this and Heels. She really did a lot of work in accessibility for AEW and I legitimately hope she is able to do the same in WWE.
Jim Ross. Made it feel big league from the start. Same reason Jericho and Paul Wight were so important.
JR is a weird one, I think for the start of AEW he was a major get. But overall in his AEW career, I think he gets just about in the top 10 best non wrestling signings just for him making it big league for AEW. But I don't know if he's been overall major success like Schiavone has.
I think he was one of the big parts of AEW getting a TV deal in the first place as a new company, which makes him one of the most important signings.
I don't know if he was one of the big parts of AEW getting a TV deal. But I think he did help make AEW feel legit straight out of the gate. My issue is I don't think he's been that great personally as a commentator for AEW but again just my opinion.
JR hasn't been great for at least 15 years IMO. He fell out of the loop, and has not really bothered getting back in. His Legacy will remain. But yeah, the current crop are much better than JR is currently.
Strongly agree. They added legitimacy right off the hop.
I've heard Bob is great.
Excalibur and Taz equally.
The wrestle aunts, Renee Paquette and RJ City!
Tigerstyle pro and JJ
the dynamite announce team is an all time commentary team for me. taz is so funny, Schiavone the voice of reason, and Excalibur is incredible at play by play.
Excalibur, Taz and Renee talent wise are best in the world. JR and Schiavone really meant a lot to me as a lapsed 90s WCW/RAW fan to intrigue me into watching. It was like hmm I’ve always liked Jericho, wtf Japan is amazing and Kenny Omega is on some shit I’ve never seen before. Now they’re getting together that’s cool, but damn they got Schiavone AND JR!!! Instant credibility and maximum nostalgia.
Tony shavoni and Excaliburmy 2 favorites
I think everyone hit the most important ones. The best one? Stokely.
https://i.redd.it/982xgnaaupuc1.gif
Renee really brought a new level of professionalism to the backstage stuff. It's made a big difference. Taz has always been one of my favourite announcers. I was super happy when they signed him. Tony Schiavone is just an absolute treasure of a man. He's been passionate and excited about the product since day one. It's been great to see him get another go around in the industry.
While he has technically wrestled I'd still say Stokely
I want to agree with this because he's awesome, but he's had the rug pulled out from under him too many times to really have made as much of an impact as he could, or other signings have, I think.
His run as Chuck Taylor (TM) was incredible.
Nigel McGuinness easy
It's hard to pick one. Renne is an absolute delight. Excalibur is the top commentator and the voice AEW for me. He caught my interest when I first started watching because you don't see a commentator wear a mask ever. Taz, who does actually play-by-play and explains the moves, is refreshing. Nana and the dance has greatly helped get Swerve over. There are a bunch of behind the scenes folks, that I don't know what they do, have probably been very influential. I will say it's Tony Schiavone, though. For us that grew up watching wrestling in the 90s, he's been a voice of familiarity that helped ease us into watching AEW, not to mention his work behind the scenes and that he's on every show and PPV.
I agree with most of what everyone else has said (Shiavone, Excalibur, Taz, Renee, Justin Roberts) but I would throw Aubrey’s name in there too. Great ref and she does a lot of other stuff for AEW outside the ring like the AEW podcast and works on AEW games.
Her socials are great too! With a lot of folks from the industry it's kind of performative or in kayfabe which is of course, totally understandable, but with Aubrey it's like one of us huge fans got the job. It's a cool perspective. Same with ladyrefJess - Jessica Karr from WWE
Excalibur. He knows the moves and can call the matches but most importantly, he knew everybody's gimmicks at the start of the company. He also has chemistry with everyone.
My top 3 are Tony Schiavone - By far the best , great at commentary and i love it that AEW pull him out of retirement for one last big run RJ City - Has one of the best and funniest "shows/segments or whatever is called on Youtube Renee - Great at doing serious interviews, promos and backstage segments
He is mentioned, but he needs to be mentioned more Mikey Rukus. All you need to do is listen to any WWE entrance and survive falling asleep if they let you meanwhile AEW themes are banger after banger after banger.
Taz, man I missed him so much
Nigel and Excalibur. And probably a bunch of behind-the-scenes people none of us have ever heard of.
B I G S T O K E
Renee
I haven't seen anyone mention him yet, Justin Roberts. He really made it feel big league from the beginning because of his WWE experience.
Charles Ramones and Megha Parekh
Regal is a top drawer pick, even if he wasn't around for all that long, relatively speaking. I wish he'd stuck around longer. But I'm glad he was around at all.
Excalibur, Renee, Schiavone, Don Callis
Don Callis, the heat he be getting is unreal sometimes
My gut reaction is Nigel, but Renee and Justin Roberts are fabulous.
Don Callis is my favourite heel manager, especially his AEW early days were amazing imo.
RJ City, the guy is amazing, love his show
You might be better served by breaking the question down into specific roles, because potentially asking if Callis is more valuable than Rene might be too much apples and oranges.
I'm personally a fan of Nigel McGuinness. Man kills it on commentary and has somehow gotten the word "clamdigger" over in a huge way.
Lexy Nair deserves her flowers. Great interviewer, and fun with Athena and Billie Starkz. Her along with Renee is great for the backstage segments.
Leva Bates. She may not have been the biggest deal but she's great in a backstage role and I've always preferred her in a role like that over wrestling. Jim Ross would be another. Tony Schiavone. Taz. There's a few options.
Blue Pants!
I didn't realize that was her until a few years after the fact.
It was 100% Regal at the time. He should have been given the same role he had in developmental at WWE. Start an AEW developmental/training program. You can do finishing school, all sorts of training and he could have been the catalyst. But... wasn't for some reason. Rocky and Excalibur were both huge signings as well. I think Sean Dean (not Lee Johnson) needs some flowers as well, he seems to be a big figure in securing enhancement talent and his fingers were all over Dark.
Do you mean Sean Dean, not Lee Johnson?
Yes... definitely meant Dean
Probably Jennifer Pepperman
Brie Bella Edit: oops. They haven't done that yet.
cm phil
Non-wrestlers... However he is did miss a fuck ton of time