"Once you’re gone you’re dead" - Tony Schiavone reflects on current WWE star featured in Darby Allin's AEW segment
Wrestling veteran and AEW commentator Tony Schiavone recently reflected on a Darby Allin segment featuring a WWE Superstar and revealed that it would not have featured back in the day. The segment involved former AEW star, Cody Rhodes.
The two-time TNT Champion has been granted the freedom to create his own Entrance videos and promo packages. Leading up to his title match against Samoa Joe, a video package was shown hyping his success with the TNT title, including a small clip with former AEW star and current WWE Superstar Cody Rhodes.
During the latest episode of the What Happens When podcast, Tony Schiavone talked about the particular clip and mentioned that if it were the olden days, Cody Rhodes would not have been part of that package. He believed that back in the day, if a talent left the company, they were forbidden, and their name and accomplishments were never mentioned.
“There was a snippet of Cody [Rhodes] in that … I remember thinking that would have never happened back in the day. Never. There was no way that would have happened. [The mentality in the past when a wrestler left a company was] once you’re gone you’re dead," Tony Schiavone said. (H/T Wrestling Inc.)
Schiavone opened up about the mindset in the past and stated that if a talent left the promotion, then his or her history would be erased and would never be mentioned.
“Guys would show up and then not show up, you know? It was, ‘Oh, look who’s here, and look who’s not here,’... Back then as an announcer, you would just pick up things. ‘Where’s Michael Hayes?’ ‘Oh, he’s no longer here.’ I remember even asking Jimmy Crockett sometimes, ‘Where is so and so?’ ‘Oh, he’s no longer with us, and do not mention his name at all ever again,’ I would go, ‘Okay.'” (H/T Wrestling Inc.)
Darby Allin successfully defended his title against former WWEC Superstar KUSHIDA on AEW
The main event of this past week's episode of AEW Dynamite was a match for the TNT Title between the Champion Darby Allin and former WWE Superstar KUSHIDA.
The two stars put on a tough fight. Towards the end of the match, the former NXT Cruiserweight Champion looked to clinch the victory by locking in the Hoverboard submission move. However, Darby Allin countered it and, in unique fashion, locked in a version of the figure-four and rolled up the former WWE Superstar to get the win.
#AndSTILL!!! TNT Champion @DarbyAllin retains the title after an amazing battle against KUSHIDA on #AEWDynamite LIVE on TBS! https://t.co/RSbXs5ace1
After the match, KUSHIDA and Allin shook hands, and it seemed like the former WWE Superstar wanted a rematch down the road.
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