Subhojeet Mukherjee on May 6, 2026
Tony Schiavone is pushing back on criticism surrounding AEW’s recent Will Ospreay and Jon Moxley storyline — and he specifically called out wrestling media for being wrong about how the angle was presented on television.
After Bryan Alvarez called out AEW for not showing key footage of Death Riders kidnapping Will Ospreay before his segment with Jon Moxley on the April 29 edition of AW Dynamite, Tony Schiavone stepped in with a direct response.
Speaking on the What Happened When podcast, Schiavone pushed back hard on the criticism — and said the decision was intentional from a production standpoint. He started by addressing Alvarez’s take head-on, even noting that Dave Meltzer didn’t agree with it either.
“Bryan Alvarez did say something the other day that I thought was probably wrong—and well, it was wrong—and even Dave Meltzer disagreed with him. And that was when we were setting up the angle between Will Ospreay and Jon Moxley.”
Schiavone then explained what AEW’s production team actually decided behind the scenes — choosing to explain the previous events through commentary rather than replay them on screen.
“We had a meeting and we were talking about this, and we thought instead of showing what had happened, we will talk about what had happened and then show what happened since then.”
According to him, the choice wasn’t about missing content — it was about avoiding repetition and keeping the show moving forward.
“And we didn’t want to get B-roll footage where we’re talking about it and send you the footage that was very similar. So, we decided we would tell you what happened instead of show you what happened.”
Schiavone leaned on his experience in television to back up that call, saying that not every moment needs to be visually shown for the audience to follow along.
“I’ve been in TV a long, long time, and I know you don’t have to show them everything. A lot of time, you can depend on your announcers to tell them what happened instead of show them what happened.”
He also made it clear that this wasn’t just a one-off decision — it’s part of how live TV sometimes has to be structured, especially with limited time. And finally, Schiavone summed up AEW’s mindset — sometimes it’s about pacing just as much as storytelling.
“And Bryan—again, a lot of respect for you, buddy—I think you’re wrong this time. And this comes from a lot of experience. You can tell them what happened. You don’t always have to show them what happened. Not only that, we got a lot going on—a lot. So, we need to keep moving sometimes.”
Bottom line — Tony Schiavone believes AEW made the right call by trusting commentary and storytelling rather than replaying footage viewers had already seen on Collision. Bryan Alvarez criticized the execution, but Schiavone is standing firmly behind the company’s approach.
Do you think AEW should have replayed the Death Riders kidnapping segment on Dynamite, or was Tony Schiavone right that commentary alone was enough to explain the story? Let us know your thoughts.
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
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