Tony Schiavone explains how he became AEW Collision’s play-by-play voice

For most of AEW Collision’s brief history, Kevin Kelly has been the Saturday night show’s lead voice. But on its last episode (on Oct. 14), Tony Schiavone did play-by-play for most of the show with Kelly and regular color commentator Nigel McGuinness as analysts. When Jim Ross joined the team for the main event, it was Kelly who left the desk.

On his What Happened When podcast, Schiavone explained what led to the change:

“I told [AEW owner, president & head of creative] Tony [Khan], I said, ‘I would like another chance at doing play-by-play.’ And I said, ‘I could probably do Rampage.’ He said, ‘Okay, well, let me think about it.’ And I thought I was going to end up doing play-by-play on Rampage.

“Then he hit me with [Collision], and you don’t say no to that. You say, ‘Hell yeah, I’ll do it.’“

Kelly’s run as Collision’s play-by-play has not been without its critics, but according to Schiavone that’s not what led to the change. He’s also a big fan of one of his new commentary partners:

“I’ve told you this many times and I’m sincere about it, Kevin Kelly is a great announcer. He is so smooth and so good. I really enjoyed working with him and Nigel. We’ve only worked together once, but we’ve been together backstage for however many months.”

We’ll see how the new team gels in the weeks to come. Let us know what you think of Tony Schiavone calling the action on Collision in the comments below, Cagesiders.