Longtime ring announcer Tony Chimel has addressed recent confusion regarding his professional relationship with AEW. Appearing as a guest on the HUGE POP! podcast, Chimel clarified that he was never let go or fired by the promotion. Chimel explained that he had mistakenly suggested in a previous interview that he no longer worked for the company, leading to people taking that as a departure.
“I would like to clarify something I said on some other podcast about six months ago about AEW,” Chimel stated. “I made the mistake of saying I don’t work for them anymore, which is not true.
I’ve been told that people were assuming that I got fired, which I never did get fired. Technically, I still would work for AEW if they called or wanted me to do anything. But, right now, that hasn’t happened in a while so, I just wanna clear that up, that I wasn’t fired from AEW and we left on good terms.”
Per-Appearance Agreement and Operational Shifts
Chimel detailed that his role with AEW was based on a per-appearance agreement, primarily assisting with backstage logistics and marketing. He noted that as the company shifted toward smaller arena shows, the specific duties he was performing became less essential. Despite the lack of recent bookings, Chimel maintained that he remains in contact with several individuals at AEW and thoroughly enjoyed his time with the organization.
The former WWE veteran also revealed that a fellow coworker at AEW reached out to him after his initial comments in November, expressing frustration over the false narrative that he had been fired.
Chime spent nearly 40 years with WWE before his departure in November 2020. He is best known to fans as the voice of SmackDown.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit HUGE POP! with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
