AEW Collision: Grand Slam aired on Saturday and was taped following Dynamite: Grand Slam last week.
However, one match was taped for Collision before Dynamite: Jack Perry vs. Minoru Suzuki for the TNT Championship. Fans may have noticed Ian Riccaboni making an announcement, but he did not arrive at the building in time for the match. Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez discussed this on Wrestling Observer Radio.
Alvarez: “We had an amazing television moment. It was Jack Perry and Minoru Suzuki, and this match was taped before Dynamite, but it was taped for Collision. And Ian Riccaboni is an announcer on Collision.
Meltzer: “Well, he’s usually not. He was this week because of no Nigel.”
Alvarez: “But the point is this: Ian was not in the building yet when they had to tape this match, and this match was going to be inserted in the middle of a show that he was expected to do commentary on. So of all of the ideas about how to explain Ian not being at ringside for this particular match.”
Meltzer: “He’s announcing the match. They announced it in studio.”
Alvarez: “No, well, kind of. What happened was…..”
Meltzer: “His voice was there.”
Alvarez: “I know. What happened was they had Tony and Daddy Magic do commentary and pretend that he was there, so they did not do commentary in post. Only Ian did. So they had to, like, leave spaces where he would say things, and then they did the rest by themselves. And so, like, they just pretended he was there. But like, they would do long shots, and you could see there’s only two announcers there. So then they start fighting over by the announce desk, and you know, they’re getting, like, this big close-up of the announce desk, and there’s no Ian Riccibani. So apparently, Tony Schiavone, just on his feet, thought he hid under the desk. And so then Ian Riccibani, when he did the voiceover later, he starts acting like he’s underneath the desk. But anyway, he wasn’t there. They did the entire match, pretending he was there. And they had a cover for when they got a close-up of the announcers, and he wasn’t there. He was an invisible announcer.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
