Wight thought he would ‘cut his teeth’ under Michael Cole.
Before AEW’s YouTube program, Dark: Elevation was discontinued, Paul Wight and Tony Schiavone were the mainstays on commentary with a rotating panel of guests.
Wight has always had an interest in commentary and he expressed that sentiment while appearing on Busted Open Radio. He added that he’s not upset about Dark: Elevation no longer being in operation and understands it’s just business.
When Wight was in WWE, he spoke to Michael Cole and Executive Producer and Chief of Global Television Distribution, Kevin Dunn, for years about announcing. Wight thought he would ‘cut his teeth’ under Cole.
Absolutely (I’ve always wanted to do commentary). It’s really funny how things transition. I guess this is a quasi-neutral station so I guess I’ll be directly honest about it. For years, I talked to Michael Cole about announcing. I talked to Kevin Dunn, talked to Michael Cole and I would pick Michael Cole’s brain a lot. I always respected Michael Cole so much. Just in some of the little things he would tell me, the way he talked about my character when I was competing, just some of the stuff he did so I always thought that that’s who I was gonna cut my teeth under, so to speak, in announcing was under Michael Cole and that opportunity didn’t present itself and now the opportunity to do commentary presented itself and I’m here in AEW and I’m working with Tony Schiavone, I’m working with J.R., I’m working with Taz, Excalibur. I’ve got so many great, experienced announcers that are giving me my own little thing. Like, is it a play-by-play thing? Is it more of a Gorilla Monsoon thing? And I think what kind of works for me is I’ve tried to roll into that, just when I started getting my rhythm and stuff. But that’s business. We know that. I’m not mad about it (AEW Dark: Elevation no longer being in operation). I know that I can take the time that I took on Elevation and process and the next time an opportunity presents itself, I’ll be ready to go.
On the August 4th edition of AEW Rampage, Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli brawled with Best Friends (Trent Beretta & Chuck Taylor) in the Daily’s Place parking lot. Paul Wight and Tony Schiavone called the action.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Busted Open Radio with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
