Veda Scott reflects on calling AEW’s Deadly Draw Women’s Tag Team Tournament during the summer of 2020 and working alongside legendary wrestling announcers such as Jim Ross, Taz, and Tony Schiavone
During the summer of 2020, AEW hosted its inaugural Deadly Draw Women’s Tag Team Tournament. During the tournament, many special guests from around the world of women’s wrestling made appearances. Shaul Guerrero was a ring announcer during the tournament. Dasha, who is usually holding a microphone, stepped into the ring. In addition, Ariane Andrew wrestled during the tournament, and Veda Scott was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to call the matches in the tournament.
Over two years later, a full-time career as a professional wrestling announcer is now her goal. During a recent appearance on Fightful’s Grapsody podcast, she reflected on her time working for AEW, calling it the best experience in her announcing career.
“Sometimes I feel like, ‘Oh, should I still be talking about this two years later, two and a half years later, whatever it was?’ But, like yes, because it truly was, to this day, the best experience of my announcing career. It changed everything for me; it was an absolute life changer and a career changer for me,” she said. “Obviously, it happened during COVID, so this was during those Jacksonville tapings where I’m pretty sure there weren’t any fans at all, it was just the wrestlers around the ring, or maybe it was towards the end where they started to let in a select group of people. So, in general, these were closed tapings. During the pandemic, I didn’t take any wrestling bookings. I kind of thought that I was just on a long break, there were much more important things going on, and I didn’t know if I was ever going to wrestle again or what. We all were kind of in that place. There were some bookings happening, and I wasn’t taking them, and I didn’t know what was going to go on. Long story short, I got contacted about AEW, which was kind of surprising to me because, again, I thought like, ‘Okay, you’re just not gonna be doing this as long as the world is in chaos.’ There was a process involved in talking to lots of people and kinda getting vetted for this position, and then it was established that maybe I would do commentary for this women’s tag tournament. The whole thing was set up as a way to bring in some women of independent wrestling, and a lot of them are paired up with AEW people, and they would just kind of launch a bunch of new people. I don’t know if it was always the plan to bring someone in to do commentary or if it became the plan; anyway, they asked me to do it, and I was really lucky. “
Continuing, Scott says the experience was incredible. In addition, having friends such as Nicole Savoy, Rachael Ellering, and Big Swole there, as they were all getting significant opportunities of their own, made the experience even more extraordinary.
“That was a very long explanation for the fact that it was incredible. I was brought in to do the first… at the time, it was like two days of tapings, I want to say, they used to do like two weeks on, two weeks off, or a week on, and a week off, I think. So I came, and we did the first couple rounds of stuff, and it was great. It was so cool to be calling matches for people like Nicole Savoy, like Big Swole, Rachael Ellering was there. Like people that I had known and been friends with for years, seeing them on this huge, huge stage and getting to even be a little part of that was the coolest thing. To see these people who had been grinding for so long get these huge opportunities, that was so cool,” she said.
Regarding getting to work alongside Tony Schiavone, Scott credited him with “steering the ship” and said that any hint of chemistry they appeared to have, is a testament to how good Tony is at his job.
“I did the tournament, and I did it with Tony Schiavone. There was a shifting of voices at that time. I had actually never met Tony Schiavone until that day, and I didn’t know that I was doing the tournament with him, and he didn’t know it either until very shortly before, so he had like no rapport going into it. That’s how much of a fucking rockstar professional Tony Schiavone is. People always say that I had great chemistry with Tony or whatever, but I had never met this man beforehand. That’s how professional he is. That’s how good he is at his job,” she said. “I had done announcing for Ring Of Honor before, but the level of production was different at the time. This was like my biggest gig ever, and I know what I’m doing, maybe, but I’ve never done it for AEW. I’ve never worked on TV. Yes, it was Dark, but it’s the same setup. It’s the same production. I’m just like, ‘Don’t fuck this up. Don’t be so bad that they fire you during the broadcast.’ I had Tony Khan on my headset, and I was just ready to hear him like, ‘We’re gonna wrap this up, now.’ That is just a testament to how good Tony Schiavone is. He was able to steer this ship with someone who is completely new to him as a person, let alone a broadcaster. It went really well, and then I got asked to come back for the next tapings, which I wasn’t sure that I was going to do. Tony Khan asked me to come back the next time, and I was like, ‘Okay, I will literally do whatever.’ So I came back, and I got to film the semi-finals, and then the finals, like you said, were on an episode of Dynamite, which was taped.”
Furthermore, Scott would say that it didn’t occur to her at first that she would be calling the tournament finals on AEW Dynamite, equating the experience of working with Jim Ross and Taz to be something akin to a coma dream. She also spoke about working with Excalibur and Taz during some tapings of AEW Dark following the tournament’s conclusion.
“I don’t know why, but it didn’t compute with me that I would also call the finals on Dynamite. I was unaware of this fact until they had to start getting me ready to do TV, like real TV, like ‘sit next to Jim Ross’ TV,” she recalled. “I didn’t get it. I don’t know. Then it was like, ‘Oh, this is not real. It’s unfortunate that I have passed away before I get to be on television, and this is some sort of coma dream.’ But yeah, I got to do that, and I got to talk to Jim Ross, who is amazing and has such a presence. I also worked with Taz a bit. I wrapped it up, and everything went well. Everyone said it was great and awesome, I was super pumped, and I was ready for it to air. It started airing, and I got all of this feedback, and then I got another email [asking me to come back again].
“I thought I was done-done, but they actually had me come back to Jacksonville and film two more weeks of Dark tapings,” she continued. “So I got to work with Excalibur and Taz together for the first time, and like that was a total bonus to me, that was completely unexpected. Excalibur, I told him this too. Sitting next to him is such an education in commentary. Same with Tony Schiavone and same with Taz, who does a very different thing than they do, but he does it so well.”
Speaking about the legitimacy of the former ECW World Champion as an announcer, Scott credits “The Human Suplex Machine” with having fun behind the headset while retaining his aura as a badass wrestler from his years in the ring.
“It’s crazy when you think about someone like Taz, as long as he’s been an announcer… think about this. He’s been a commentator for like two decades, and he still has every bit of legitimacy as a wrestler and as a fighter. When he talks about the leverage on a suplex or when he talks about different holds, you believe him 100%,” she said. “The only person that I can think of that with maybe that same level of legitimacy is when Samoa Joe was doing some commentary, but that’s even different because he was a lot closer to his wrestling career. For Taz to have that fun personality on commentary but to also maintain that legitimacy as a fighter, I think that’s incredible to me. Balancing that line and not losing that credibility is so impressive, I think, and it’s why he is so good.”
Overall, she credits everyone behind the headset in AEW for being so helpful. The only negative Veda Scott could conjure up regarding her experience with AEW is that she has yet to have a chance to do it again.
“All of them were so helpful in giving me little tips here and there, and I don’t know, I have nothing negative to say. The only negative thing is I want to do it again. I want to do more. I had such a great experience. Obviously, things are a little different now that they aren’t down in Jacksonville and that they’re touring again. I don’t know. I would obviously like to walk right up to Tony Khan and be like, ‘Excuse me, I think I could do really good work for you, like please?’ [laughs]. With that not being possible, I guess the only recourse is to keep doing what I’m doing, and hopefully, someone notices,” said Scott.
As Scott continues to work towards her goal of a full-time announcing job, she spoke elsewhere in this interview about potentially working with Tony Khan again now that he’s acquired Ring of Honor. Fans can read her comments here.
Fans looking to follow Veda’s journey can follow her on Twitter and Instagram. More of Veda’s links, including her booking information, can be found here.