Veda Scott is grateful for those who have helped guide them along their commentary journey.
Veda Scott is keen on making commentary work full-time for themself. As with any goal, the path to get there may be long, but Scott’s journey has led to them sitting beside some of wrestling’s greatest broadcasters. As Scott continues shaping their own voice behind the commentary desk, they shared some of the figures who’ve helped guide them along the way.
Speaking with WrestleZone‘s own Ella Jay, Veda Scott clarified that they didn’t have a specific mentor in the commentary department, but they have been fortunate to receive guidance from some prominent names.
“I always love whenever I have the chance to work with Ian [Riccaboni],” they began. “That’s great because we’ve known each other for a long time. And as he always points out, sometimes during a broadcast, we actually are from neighboring hometowns. So, our families knew each other. Our dads actually played music together like we didn’t know each other. We both went to college in New York City. We didn’t know each other until wrestling, but we were on these kinds of parallel paths. Now, we’ve kind of diverged in that. He has a wonderful family and two adorable children and I couldn’t raise a potato. But until that point, we were on very parallel paths. So, it’s always cool to get the chance to work with him and see that.”
Outside of Riccaboni, Veda Scott also received the chance to work beside some legendary names in All Elite Wrestling. In August 2020, Scott joined Tony Schiavone to call AEW’s all-women’s tag team tournament. Jim Ross and Taz were later added to the team for the finals. Scott also went on to call a few matches for AEW Dark afterward.
“I mentioned before doing some stuff with AEW. I’ve said this in a bunch of interviews, but I’ll say it again because I cannot understate what a master class in broadcasting those three weeks were for me,” Veda said, “particularly because I was someone who had done quite a bit of commentary in terms of like I’ve done Shimmer and a bit with Ring of Honor, but before Ring of Honor was like big. A lot of it was in post-production and when it was live, it was like smaller productions. It wasn’t the level that AEW is at. And even though a lot of these were like for YouTube or taped, it was still like all like live to tape. The chance to sit with Tony Schiavone, with Excalibur, with Taz and just basically learning on the job, like how the f*ck to do this.”
“And I’m talking about, partly how to call wrestling, but how to do a lot of the production aspects of things that need to be constantly happening. Having someone in my ear on a headset. If it wasn’t new, it was not to that level before. And they are just all so just giving and instructive. I just learned so much in just a short period of time. And then I was able to gobble up that knowledge and then continue to kind of spin that off into my own thing and then continue to keep their tips and things in mind. They were all super positive.”
“The feedback was constantly positive, but when you’re calling matches with Tony Schiavone, who makes it seem so effortless and you know that there’s a ton of effort and work behind it, but he’s just so good. And same with Excalibur and same with Taz, even when he’s in an analyst position, you’re with people who are just like, it’s just happening. You have no choice but to keep up and think that that’s an environment that I like to be in. It’s high pressure. And I think that that’s, that’s something where I tend to do pretty well. It’s motivating for me like a sink or swim kind of thing.”
Since Scott’s last AEW appearance, the company has widened their broadcasting team with other voices. Scott admits there are moments of frustration in seeing that. But more than anything, they’re extremely thankful for the time they did get to spend there.
“I had a great experience there, and then, of course, they’ve expanded over time. And as they’ve expanded, communications have happened and not happened. On the one hand, I could be frustrated about that. And there’s moments where I am, but also, I look at like the direction they’ve gone and who is in like certain positions. And it’s like, yeah, well, I also don’t have, 15 years of WWE experience. I don’t have that. And I can see why that is something good to have in a broadcasting position. So, I’ve just kind of taken that time, taken all their advice, taking all their teachings and continued to do my thing, collect as much information as I can, listen very, very critically and carefully to how good wrestling announcers do things.”
Watch our full interview with Veda Scott below:
