Tony Chimel Clarifies Status With AEW, Says He Was Not Let Go

Chimel clears up past comments.

Back in November 2025, Tony Chimel announced that he was no longer working with All Elite Wrestling. The former WWE ring announcer helped out with AEW house shows and got the gig via Rafael Morffi, AEW’s former Vice President of Live Events and Touring.

While appearing as a guest on HUGE POP!, Chimel clarified that he was not let go by AEW.

“I would like to clarify something I said on some other podcast about six months ago about AEW. 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 — or we’re not talking right now on good terms but, everything’s fine and I was not fired so, maybe I didn’t come across the right way of how I put that.”

After Chimel’s comments in November, a coworker at AEW reached out to him.

“Well, it actually wasn’t the internet. It was a fellow coworker which I don’t wanna say but, they were a little upset that, ‘You never got fired!’ I can still work for ‘em if they wanted me to, you know? But I just wanted to clear that up…”

Chimel stated that he was on a per-appearance agreement with All Elite Wrestling. He would consider returning to the company if they asked him to.

“Right. Yeah, correct,” Chimel responded to the podcast co-host saying that it sounded like Chimel was on a pay-per-appearance agreement with AEW. “They downsized to smaller arenas and I think that what I was doing really wasn’t (that) big of a deal there… But I’m still in contact with some people there and I had a great time working there and would think about coming back if they ever asked but, yeah, that’s the way that is now.”

For two decades, Chimel was part of the WWE and is best known for his time as the ring announcer for SmackDown.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit HUGE POP! with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.