WWE veteran Tony Chimel has disclosed why he decided to stop ring announcing during his time in the company.
Chimel was excellent in his role, and many WWE fans would still recognize his voice if he had to do the intro for a superstar, especially Edge. He spent 38 years in the Stamford-based company.
During a recent interview on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Tony Chimel stated that he stopped ring announcing because he wanted to remain valuable by doing other things in the company.
“At one point when you are there for 25-30 years, and I am teaching the Lilian Garcia or the Justin Roberts or whoever. Basically, they are telling you that you are teaching them because they will be doing your job. That was why I wanted to do something else, I wanted to make myself valuable and do something else other than ring announcing. The ring announcing is the show, bit what are you doing 8 hours before or 2 hours after. There was a point where I didn’t want to be on the shows for 24 days a month and do all the house shows," Chimel said.
Tony Chimel had a hectic schedule as a WWE ring announcer
WWE talent and personnel are hard-working people, and they're always on the road preparing to put on entertaining shows all the time.
Tony Chimel opened up about his busy schedule, saying he was away from home and his family due to being on the road.
"The house shows were such a grind back then because they would run so many. Friday, Saturday Sunday, do TV Monday, fly home Tuesday and my kids hated me on Wednesday. You get all your s**t in on Thursday, then you go on Friday and do it all again. Then they would run the overseas tours in Europe, where you are on the road for 17 days straight. It was a great living and great job, but after 25 years I was like I don’t mind, someone else can ring announce," Chimel added.
Tony Chimal was released from the company in 2020, ending his three-decade run in the company. Who is your favorite ring announcer? Sound off in the comments below.