Veteran ring announcer Tony Chimel has addressed recent confusion about his relationship with All Elite Wrestling.
Speaking during an appearance on the HUGE POP! podcast, Chimel explained that he was never fired by AEW, despite speculation that surfaced after comments he made in an earlier interview. According to Chimel, the confusion stemmed from a statement he made roughly six months ago in which he incorrectly suggested that he no longer worked with the company.
“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.”
Chimel explained that his involvement with AEW was based on a per-appearance arrangement rather than a full-time role. His responsibilities mainly included assisting with backstage operations and marketing-related logistics.
As the company shifted toward hosting events in smaller venues, Chimel noted that the particular tasks he had been helping with became less necessary, which resulted in fewer opportunities for him to appear at shows.
Despite not being used recently, Chimel said he still maintains relationships with several people in the organization and has positive feelings about his time working with AEW.
He also revealed that after his earlier comments circulated online in November, a colleague from AEW contacted him directly to express frustration over the inaccurate narrative that he had been fired.
Before working with AEW, Chimel spent nearly four decades with WWE. During that time, he became one of the most recognizable voices in wrestling, particularly as the longtime ring announcer for WWE SmackDown.
Chimel departed WWE in November 2020 after a career spanning close to 40 years with the company.
