Show: Wrestling Epicenter
Guest: Rich Bocchini
Date: 11/01/19
Your Host: James Walsh

Rich Bocchini is the voice of the current incarnation of MLW and, as we head into the biggest night in that company’s history, he sits down with the Wrestling Epicenter to talk about his wrestling journey. This includes his time in MLW calling matches with Tony Schiavone, his time in the WWE, and his hockey career. Plus, we talk a little about the mindset behind gimmick announcer names and more. A fun listen! Be sure and check it out!

MLW Saturday Night Superfight takes place LIVE on pay-per-view this Saturday night, November 2nd from the Cicero Stadium in Chicago, IL. Check your providers for availability. Also, visit www.MLW.com to find out more about Saturday Night Superfight and all things Major League Wrestling!

To listen, visit www.WrestlingEpicenter.com. If you use this content, please link back to our site. Thank you!

Rich Bocchini:

On his thoughts heading into Saturday’s big MLW PPV:
“As I’ve said about some of the other shows we’ve done live on beIN Sports, there is no safety net when it is life. That’s a bit of an adjustment. Everybody has to work together. From Dave who is in the truck to the producers to the lighting guys, the music guys. Everything that we’ve done up to this point has prepped us for this moment. Global pay-per-view! That’s big! I like to think of MLW as the little company that could. So, I’m excited to get to Chicago and to get this thing going!”

On if MLW Superfight is “Make or Break” like ECW’s debut PPV Barely Legal was:
“That’s above my pay grade. That’s more of a Court Bauer question. What I can say is, every show I do, I want to go out and do the best show possible. I try to focus on things that I can control and not pay attention to things I can’t control.”

On who will call the PPV:
“As far as I know and as far as I was told, myself and AJ Kirsch.”

On Tony Schiavone praising him in a recent interview with us:
“Wow! You know, hearing you say that has the 12, 10 year old kid in me who sat there anxiously awaiting 6:05 on channel 17, WTBS… Tony was one of the first voices that flipped the light switch for me and made me realize, “Wait a minute, that’s an actual job? You can call hockey, wrestling, baseball?” You know, that you can make a living doing that…. Tony was one of the first voices that peaked my interest in that. So, hearing you tell me that he was praising my work, that is never going to get old for me. I loved working with Tony. As far as I know, he’s still a part of the MLW family but I know he’s really busy with all the other things that he’s doing. Honestly, I learned a lot. You mentioned the speed of wrestling. What he taught me was to be able to slow down a little bit. To take a breath and absorb things and, really, just to have a lot of fun with it.”

On WWE changing his name to Rich Brennan:
“That seems to change on alternating intervals and which ever way the wind blows with them. I think it has to do with ownership – Call it intellectual property. For instance, Corey Graves is a name that WWE owns. I don’t know that a play by play guy who doesn’t really give an opinion… I guess I don’t think that Rich Brennan was ever going to make money. (laughs) You know what I mean? I suppose the exception might be Jim Ross or, maybe, Tony.” He continues, “Michael Cole! That’s not his real name. It is Michael Coulthard. He covered wars! He would tell me some of the crazy things he saw in, I want to say, Bosnia? So, here he is – A legitimate news man and they change his name. It seems to shift. Some of the new guys they have coming in get to keep their name. It is the same for the wrestlers – Some guys keep their name and others have it changed. I guess it goes back to what I said at the beginning.. They want to own all their intellectual property and I guess it makes sense.”

On his memories of working for WWE:
“I never thought I would get there. It was always a goal. I always thought I’d be calling NHL Hockey games by now. I worked in minor league hockey for a long time. I just happened to take a weird left turn into wrestling – I’ve always loved it. But, I never thought I’d get to work there (WWE). I don’t want to sound bitter by saying this was difficult or that was difficult because, in a lot of ways, it really was a dream come true. But, it could be a very difficult place to work due to the politics – I don’t mean Democrats or Liberals. I mean politics even for the announcers. And, a lot of time, stuff goes wrong and you’re going to be the guy that gets yelled at. That’s jsut the way it is. Sometimes you’ll be working on a draft that has changed two times in the past 20 minutes but you didn’t know that and you’re out there talking about something that has now been changed and they didn’t tell you for various reasons. By osmosis, you’re just supposed to know that. You just have to have a really thick skin and, again, just focus on what you can do to be the best that you can be.”

On what matches he’s looking forward to most at MLW Superfight:
“Jacob Fatu and LA Park. That is the main event and the culmination, we think it will be the culmination of the story but who knows what is going to happen, of the story that we’ve been building towards. That is the story of Saturday night. Austin Aries versus Teddy Hart – Those guys are magicians in the ring. I almost think the sleeper could be Low Ki and (Brian) Pillman. In a lot of ways, I almost feel Pillman has been like the little brother of the Hart Foundation and I feel he thinks he has to prove himself to Teddy and Davey Boy.”