AEW commentator Tony Schiavone has pulled back the curtain on the memorable closing angle from the October 29 “Fright Night” episode of AEW Dynamite, admitting he was “skeptical” that “Hangman” Adam Page could pull it off. The segment saw Schiavone at ringside dressed as the Phantom of the Opera—a call-back to his own costume from WCW’s Halloween Havoc 1990. However, in the show’s closing moments, it was revealed that “Hangman” Page had disguised himself as Schiavone, allowing him to get the drop on his Full Gear opponent, Samoa Joe, and attack him with a beer bottle.
Speaking on his What Happened When podcast, Schiavone revealed that the entire angle was Page’s idea and had been in the works for weeks.
“It was a very, very good angle. I didn’t know what to expect… Hangman had talked to me about this for a couple of weeks, and I was like, ‘Sure, whatever you want to do, it’s it’s fine.’ And I, to be honest with you, I wasn’t sure what day it was going to happen. He had talked about it for a couple of weeks, then all of a sudden hit me. Of course, the Halloween edition, right?”
Schiavone also shared the hilarious details of Page’s preparation, which included studying his every move and even adding some extra “padding” to the costume, much to Schiavone’s chagrin.
“…he had to kind of put a little padding on his midsection, and I said, ‘Hang on just one second. I don’t think I’m that fat.’… Then he was saying he said, ‘I need to watch you walk to see how you walk.’ And I was walking backstage, and he was watching me, and then he would start walking. I said, ‘You walk like an old man.’ I don’t walk like an old man. Then I thought, well, I am an old man, so maybe I do… he did have it as a matter of fact, I guess… I have this neck thing that my neck was operated on back in 1995. And so because of it, I said, ‘My neck kind of leans to the left a little bit.’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’ve noticed.’”
Despite his initial doubts, Schiavone was thrilled with the final result, which got a massive reaction from the live crowd.
“To be very honest with you, I was kind of skeptical about it, as I am many things that we do. But hey, he pulled it off, man. He really did. And congratulations for that. The fans really popped, and it was uh it ended up being pretty cool.”
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