Thank you Tony Schiavone

Tony Schiavone & Jim Ross
Courtesy: WWE

By Kevin Hunsperger

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

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My childhood was filled with pro wrestling from any company I had access to in the mid-1980s. In St. Louis, I could watch the WWF, World Class Championship Wrestling, The AWA, Central States, The UWF and The NWA on the Superstation TBS. One of the show's constants was Tony Schiavone. His voice greeted fans each week at 6:05 p.m. I came to like his interviewing style and the way he called matches. And who could forget the excitement in his voice telling us "we're out of time!!!" at the end of each show?

Jesse "the Body" Ventura & Schiavone in the WWF
Courtesy: WWE

I was in high school when Schiavone jumped to the WWF. It was one of the most surprising defections at that point in the "war" between Vince McMahon and Jim Crockett Promotions. Schiavone's departure predated that of Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes and the Road Warriors. It was weird seeing and hearing a JCP guy on my WWF programming. Disclaimer: I am a wrestling fan, but had always preferred WWF over anyone else. 

Nitro
Courtesy: WWE

Tony as we know eventually went back to WCW where he continued to call the action up until the company's demise in 2001. In the years leading up to that, I had grown bitter toward WCW in the Monday Night Wars, watching both Nitro and Raw. But I had clearly picked a side and was critical of all things WCW, including Schiavone. His infamous "that'll put a lot of butts in the seats" remark about Mankind winning the WWF Championship did it for me. For many years, I had judged Tony's entire body of work based on that one comment.

Years later we'd all learn that Tony was fed the line by Eric Bischoff. I listened to the former commentator tell the story to Jim Ross on his podcast a few years ago. I adopted a whole new respect and appreciation with Schiavone after that interview. And now for the past seven weeks, I have religiously listened to his podcast What Happened When Monday with Conrad Thompson.

I'm a huge fan of Conrad and the role he plays on Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard. In fact, Conrad was a guest on the My 1-2-3 Cents podcast back in August 2016. Listening to Tony each week tell stories from the past from his perspective has only made me respect and appreciate this man even more.

Episode 7: The Final Nitro show is especially telling. The days of the Monday Night Wars were clearly an emotional time not just for the talent in the ring, but those calling the matches and working behind the scenes too. Fans often forget there are real men and women with families and lives outside the ring. Our fandom sometimes blinds us to that fact. 

Bobby Heenan & Tony Schiavone
Courtesy: WWE

I'm writing this to thank Tony Schiavone for being one of the voices from my childhood. His work was underappreciated by many, myself included. If you haven't already, check out his show on the MLW Radio Network and be sure to stay entertained daily with his tweets (@tonyschiavone24). 

Rest in Peace: Lee Marshall

Lee Marshall RIP

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

Several media outlets are reporting that former AWA and WCW announcer Lee Marshall has died.  At this point, no one has listed a cause of death for the broadcaster, who's career spanned much further than professional wrestling.

I remember Lee from his days in the AWA.  He did commentary on the show back in the 1980's, I'd watch in the afternoons on ESPN when I'd get home from school.  He always had a great level of enthusiasm for the sport and knew what he was talking about.  Eventually he would resurface in WCW during the Monday Night Wars and did work on the WCW Hotline and the Nitro Road Report.

Marshall voice Tony the Tiger from 1995-2014

Until his death though, I did not realize he had been the ring announcer for the Los Angeles portion of Wrestlemania II back in 1986.  Another fact I didn't know until today, Lee Marshall was the modern day voice of the iconic cereal character Tony the Tiger.  Lee started that role in 2005.  

My thoughts and prayers go out to Lee Marshall's family, friends, and fans.  May he rest in peace.

Raw Memories: #4 Vince Buys WCW

Raw Moment #4:
The Monday Night Wars End

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

No doubt that March 21, 2001 changed the course of history forever.  It's the night that WCW, a wrestling company rich in history, was bought by its competitor, Vincent Kennedy McMahon.  I had been in Dallas for the week and was away from the computer and had no idea this was going down.  We arrived back home Monday afternoon and I logged in to the usual wrestling sites I frequented.  They were all reporting that Vince had bought WCW.  I couldn't believe it.  I knew the company was likely going to be sold, but the last I'd heard Eric Bischoff and some investors were interested.

I must admit I marked out a bit when Monday Nitro opened and fans were greeted by McMahon who made the announcement that he'd bought the company.  It was one of the most surreal moments in wrestling history.  What would this mean for the future of the business?  Were the WCW guys and gals going to all go to the WWF?  No one knew for sure.

As both shows chugged along and WCW put on matches like Scott Steiner vs. Booker T for the heavyweight title and Ric Flair vs. Sting the anticipation grew.  It all came to ahead when Shane McMahon showed up in Panama City Beach where Nitro was broadcasting from.  He and Vince sparred via satellite and Shane laid it out that WCW had been sold to a McMahon, but Not Vince.  Shane had somehow bought the company out from under Vince's nose.

This immediately took the focus off the pending WCW vs. WWF war in my opinion and became more about the McMahon family feud.  Things escalated when ECW returned only under the ownership of Stephanie McMahon.  So while the initial announcement and Vince appearing on Nitro was an awesome memory, the rest of the booking for the invasion angle feel flat.  It had some moments as you can go back and read in some of the other Raw Memories blogs.

Honorable mention:
The kid is good!
Photo courtesy: WWE

Honorable Mention:  I'm not sure how I let this one slip under my radar, but I did.  I had forgotten about the Lightning Kid's match on Raw that made him a house hold name until Chad brought it up on a recent From the Rafters Radio show.  Lightning Kid (aka Sean Waltman) had been a star in Global Wrestling Federation and was now wrestling in the WWF.  Kid looked just like a kid.  He was about 21 years old at the time and looked like he weighed about 160 pounds soaking wet.  To say he was not the a typical WWF meat head wrestler would be the understatement of the year.

But out of no where the Kid pinned a cocky and confident Razor Ramon.  It was a huge upset; one that earned the Kid a new moniker.  He became the 1-2-3 Kid and soon gained confidence and started climbing the ranks of the WWF.  Of course he would eventually become Syxx in WCW and X-Pac when he returned to the WWF and joined Degeneration X.  Had it not been for that initial match back in 1993 in the early days of Raw, who knows what would have become of the Lightning Kid...

Boo: What the Chuck?

?

Chucky makes an appearance 

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger on Twitter

I've mentioned in previous post that wrestling companies through the years have done tie ins with other forms of entertainment.  Heck, in just a few days, the Muppets will take over Monday Night Raw.  I'm actually looking forward to that.  But one puppet who had a tie in with wrestling a decade or so ago was less than appealing to me.

For weeks on WCW Monday Nitro fans would hear a menacing laugh during the show.  It wasn't until Rick Steiner was in the ring talking about his upcoming match with his brother Scott that the source of the laughter was revealed.  About 15 seconds into Steiner's interview with "Mean" Gene Okerlund, Chucky started his cackle and popped up on the big screen.

Battle of wits...

The "star" of Bride of Chucky cut a promo on the Dog Faced Gremlin and Mean Gene.  But the bottom line was, the doll was just there to promote the upcoming film.  Now this segment lasted less than four minutes, but it has burned a memory in my brain forever.  Funny how things so lame can have such an impact on a fan.  I've never been a big fan of horror movies and I've not seen any of the Child's Play movies, so this segment didn't thrill me at all.

Thankfully, Chucky never had anymore screen time after this and the whole thing came to an end.  Just imagine, there could have been a 3 way dance with Chucky, the Road Warriors' "Rocko", and George "the Animal" Steele's "Mine".  Talk about scary...