Tony Chimel now brings his years of ring announcing experience to the Land of the Extreme, after being a mainstay on the SmackDown brand since 1999.
Chimel’s career with WWE started well before that, however. Back in November 1982, in fact, while growing up in South Jersey, about 30 miles from Philadelphia — and living near the home of WWE Hall of Famer Gorilla Monsoon.
“During the summertime or on weekends, Gorilla Monsoon’s son, myself and some other buddies would help set up the ring,” he recalls. “We would help in places like the Capital Center, Scranton, Baltimore and Philadelphia. When Vincent K. McMahon took over the company, he wanted to hire Gorilla’s son to set up the ring, and said he could have a friend help him out. He chose me.”
Ring announcing wasn’t what Chimel originally intended on doing. That opportunity just happened upon him.
“Back then you would be at the event, and someone wouldn’t show up,” he explains. “So, someone would ask you, ‘Hey, do you want to do this? We’ll pay you $50.’ That’s just the way the business was in those days.”The travel can be tough sometimes for Chimel, mostly because it means being away from his home just north of Philadelphia, where he lives with his wife Dawn, and their three children: Jessica, Jordan and Joey.
“Being on the road can be fun, too,” he points out. “You get to hang out with the guys. You have your family at home, and your family on the road, too.”
Chimel also acknowledges his third family: The millions of our fans who attend WWE live events and tune into WWE programming every week. It’s that family, he says, which makes entering ECW’s squared circle and stepping up to the mic a feeling that will never grow old for him.
