Paul Wight: I’m Finally Having Fun Because When I First Tried To Do Commentary, I Was The Shits
Paul Wight discusses his recent appearances on AEW commentary, noting that when he first tried it, he was 'the shits'.
Paul Wight discusses his recent appearances on AEW commentary, noting that when he first tried it, he was ‘the shits’.
Wight recently returned to commentary for AEW, a role he had previously worked in for AEW Dark and Dark Elevation, but now joined the team for Dynamite and Collision tapings, with fans welcoming back to the desk and praising his work.
While speaking to TMZ’s Inside The Ring, Paul Wight spoke about having fun on commentary and the advice he received that helped him along the way.
“I’m finally having fun because when I first tried to do it, I was the shits. I’ll be honest with you. It was terrible because I’m all wound up tight and I’m trying to be an announcer voice and ‘nice maneuver’ and whatever the hell else I was saying, and Mike Mansury, who’s a good friend of mine, and Tony Schiavone is great as well. Tony Schiavone is a little bit more old school. So he said, ‘just relax, man,’ and Tony Schiavone looks at me and smiles, ‘just relax,’ and in my brain, I’m like, ‘oh, I can’t relax.’ Like, I got to be good at this, and then Mike Mansury’s like, dude, he says, ‘you’re like Troy Aikman.’ He says, ‘you’re not going to tell me what they’re thinking. Tell me the X’s and O’s. Why are they doing this? You know, why are they running this play? Why was this open? Why wasn’t that open?’ So I try to let Excalibur, who is, a frigging savant with all the stuff that he knows. Like he called the side slam the other day, something I still don’t even remember what the hell he called it. That’s just a side slam, isn’t it? ‘That’s a enziguri unicorn whiplash.’ So all I can do is just be honest, and again, it comes back to authenticity, which is something I preach about a character in the ring too. If you’re doing a character and it doesn’t come from an authentic place, the fans can smell it, and I think the past couple of weeks, I’ve really been able just to let loose and relax and just be kind of my authentic self. Some of it’s going to be stupid because, hey, in a drawer full of knives, sometimes I’m a spoon. I’m not very sharp. That’s just part of it. But then other times I try to be funny and insightful, and then also some things I can kind of protect the talent a little bit from the announced position and try to throw a different flavor onto it and try to help the talent get over. Because that’s my main thing. I want to see the talent grow, and do well. I want to make that connection, help make the connection between the talent and the audience so the audience watching understands and also do my job, which is be entertaining. So hopefully we’ll be good at it. So, you know, I know I was real happy with Dynamite and we did Collision right after. I was real happy with that. I feel like it’s getting a better flow to it.”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Wight spoke about the moment he knew that his time as an active WWE superstar was coming to an end. You can read more about that here.
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