WWE Tenure: 30+ years When you think of longtime WWE employees, Tony Chimel probably isn't one of the first people that you think of. But he's been there longer than just about anyone. Chimel started with the company WWF in 1983, when he was employed as a ring technician. It wasn't until eight years later that he started announcing. Not many people would have stuck with it that long. Chimel has pretty much done it all during his WWE tenure. His Twitter page proudly displays that he has been a production manager, timekeeper, truck driver, worked as security, a referee and more. He's had to to a lot of grunt work in his career, as it wasn't until 1999 that he really starting announcing full-time with the launch of SmackDown. To earn this right, he had to defeat Howard Finkel in a tuxedo match and strip him down to his underwear. Again, most people probably wouldn't have bothered. But Chimel did, and he's still announcing these days, albeit on WWE Main Event.