Tony Chimel Released By WWE
Chimel was one of 10-15 people released last week.
Around 10-15 people have been let go as part of the latest round of WWE releases, including long-time ring announcer Tony Chimel.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reports that the cuts went down last Friday. Spanish-language announcer Jerry Soto was also amongst the names released, according to SuperLuchas, with much of the rest of the employees said to be Stamford-based behind-the-scenes crew members.
Chimel is the most notable of these names as he started working as a WWE announcer all the way back in 1989, having previously served as a ring technician for the promotion. Primarily operating on house shows or as Howard Finkel’s backup on television, Chimel became SmackDown’s full-time ring announcer when the show debuted in 1999, also working pay-per-views, before he was switched to ECW in 2007.
Stints on Superstars, NXT, and Main Event followed, as well as a second run on SmackDown, though Chimel went on hiatus from WWE in 2015. He had made only a handful of televised appearances for the promotion over the past few years, having primarily worked behind the scenes up until his release.
Chimel is known for his booming voice and particularly over-the-top introductions for Edge, which was constantly played up by the promotion.