Jonathan Coachman says watching WWE get rid of two employees with 68 combined years at the company helped inspire what he’s now building with BTT Studios. According to Coachman, Tommy Carlucci and his wife Michelle were both fired for “no reason whatsoever.”
Speaking on Developmentally Speaking, Coachman was explaining why he wanted to build something of his own after leaving CBS. Watching people like Pat McAfee and Clay Travis helped convince him that relying entirely on someone else’s company can leave you with nothing when that relationship ends.
“We started because I left CBS. And I realized through a couple of different bad situations for me that if you don’t have your own thing—and Pat McAfee taught me this, Clay Travis taught me this, and those guys started many years ago—we’re now two or three years in and we’re really starting to get to a place where, you know, I have people walking up to me everywhere, ‘Man, I see your stuff everywhere.’”
Then came Tommy Carlucci. Jonathan Coachman says Carlucci had spent more than 32 years working for WWE before suddenly finding himself out of a job. His wife Michelle had been there even longer. Coachman knew her work personally because she handled the travel arrangements he used throughout his own WWE run.
“So, we started the wrestling side because Tommy Carlucci, who’s part of The Last Word with Gabby LaSpisa, he had been in the business for over 32 years in WWE. He gets fired for absolutely no reason.”
“His wife was in the company for 36 years. She did all the travel. Every single thing I ever booked, Michelle Carlucci did it for me.”
That’s 68 combined years between Tommy and Michelle. Coachman didn’t hide how he felt about WWE apparently deciding it no longer needed either of them.
“So, 68 combined years. Don’t need you anymore. And they were fired for no reason whatsoever.”
Instead of letting Carlucci sit at home after more than three decades in wrestling, Coachman wanted to find another use for all that experience. Carlucci thought that meant producing a show behind the scenes, but Coachman had something else in mind.
“So I said, ‘Man, Tommy, we got to get your ass off the couch. You have something to give.’ He thought, ‘What? You want me to produce the show?’ ‘No, I want you to be on the show.’”
Carlucci had never been an on-air personality before, but that didn’t stop Coachman from giving him the chance. More than two years later, he’s now hosting The Last Word alongside Gabby LaSpisa.
“We started that over two years ago, and now he’s hosting the first show that we ever did with Gabby, and he had never been on the air before.”
That success has become a pretty big part of what Coachman wants BTT Studios to eventually become. His dream is to build something big enough to give more people like Carlucci opportunities they might never otherwise receive.
“My dream is to get to a point where we have the revenue and we are like a Barstool, where we have a lot of shows in a lot of different places, and a guy like Tommy C., who people would look at and say he could never be in a speaking role, is now killing it. That’s my new dream, and we’re living it.”
Coachman’s claim that the Carluccis were fired for no reason is his account of what happened. But watching 68 combined years with WWE end like that clearly stuck with him—and instead of leaving Tommy Carlucci on the couch, Coachman gave him a microphone.
What do you make of Coachman’s comments about Tommy and Michelle Carlucci’s WWE departures? Let us know in the comments.
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