Joey Styles (born Joseph Carmine Bonsignore on July 14, 1971), is a professional wrestling play-by-play commentator and former professional in the field of advertising sales best known for his work in Extreme Championship Wrestling ('90s promotion until bankruptcy in 2001). He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment working on its ECW brand as the play-by-play commentator.

Styles worked for WWE's RAW brand with Jonathan Coachman and Jerry Lawler until May 1, 2006, when he quit after a worked shoot, in which he complained about the lack of "wrestling" and his dislike of "Sports entertainment".

Career

Extreme Championship Wrestling

Styles was the play-by-play commentator for Extreme Championship Wrestling throughout its existence. He became famous for his vast knowledge of the sport and his catchphrase, "Oh My God!" which he would yell when something dangerous/extreme would happen in (or out of) the ring (which, in ECW, was quite frequent) in sometimes a very high pitched and raspy way, unique to him. He was also the first and remains the only play-by-play commentator to call a live play-by-play broadcast alone with no color commentator on April 13, 1997 at ECW's debut pay-per-view (PPV), ECW Barely Legal and called seven subsequent pay-per-views alone as well.

World Wrestling Entertainment

One Night Stand PPV

He appeared at Shane Douglas's Hardcore Homecoming event on June 10, 2005 at the ECW Arena. He put aside past conflicts with WWE and agreed to appear at the company's ECW One Night Stand 2005 PPV, which aired on June 12, 2005, two days after Hardcore Homecoming. Styles handled play-by-play with Mick Foley on color commentary. He began a verbal tirade against Mike Awesome during the latter's match against Masato Tanaka, calling him a "Judas" and a "piece of crap" referring to Awesome defecting from ECW to World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

During this event, he made a controversial comment just before the main event. After Nova was hit over the head with a chair, Styles shouted, "That's more painful than having to be Simon Dean on national television", referring to Nova's character in WWE.

RAW brand

On November 1, 2005, he made an appearance at World Wrestling Entertainment's Taboo Tuesday PPV. Styles was brought in to fill-in for Jonathan Coachman, as Coachman had a match against Batista. Joey joined WWE's RAW as a play-by-play announcer on November 7, 2005.

On December 4, 2005, it was confirmed by WWE.com that Joey signed a five-year contract to be the official play-by-play commentator for RAW, in an earlier interview done by WWE.com, he mentioned that becoming the voice of RAW would be a dream come true for him. Styles has also stated that calling WrestleMania to be one of his lifelong dreams growing up.

However, despite being the lead announcer for RAW, it was announced that he would not provide commentary for WrestleMania 22, which instead featured Jim Ross calling the matches for RAW. Styles learned that he would not be announcing at WrestleMania 22 when he arrived on RAW on March 27, 2006. The reason for Styles not calling the event is that Vince McMahon disliked pure play-by-play announcing, and wanted a "storyteller" instead. Jim Ross had a similar problem when he first joined WWE, and Styles has credited Ross for teaching him the WWE style of commentary upon his return.

However, Joey Styles was present at WrestleMania 22, losing his "Wrestlemania virginity" as he put it, calling the hardcore Match between Mick Foley and Edge. This was Styles' idea, as he wanted to achieve his lifelong dream of calling a match at WrestleMania and pitched the idea to WWE by explaining that he had called more hardcore/ECW style matches than any other announcer in history. ^[1]

On the May 1, 2006 edition of RAW, Styles announced that he was quitting by delivering a worked shoot promo, in which he bashed Vince McMahon, WWE, sports entertainment, and the fact that people "buy into this crap". To further the storyline, his profile was removed from both the RAW superstars section and the ECW One Night Stand subsite.

ECW brand

Styles remained under contract with WWE after he quit RAW; however, making his next appearance at WWE vs. ECW Head to Head. Here, he provided commentary with Tazz and announced that (now former ECW Representative) Paul Heyman had reinstated him as commentator of the new ECW brand of WWE. He provided commentary for ECW One Night Stand 2006 on June 11 and now announces ECW's weekly show on Sci-Fi. Styles' style of announcing has been forced to change on the new ECW brand. World Wrestling Entertainment and Vince McMahon believed Styles could not tell a story like fellow announcer Jim Ross. Many critics believe the old style of Joey Styles fit more with the product.

The styles of Styles

His most telling characteristic is his voice. For the most part, he calls a match in his normal calm, collected voice. However, once exciting or shocking events occur during the match, he begins to screech and speak at a rapid pace, usually to yell "Oh, my God!," when a dangerous spot is executed successfully. In the days of ECW, when such a spot was performed by the promotion's luchadores, he would yell "Ay Dios Mio!". He is also known to screech "Catfight!! CAAATFIIIIGHT!!!" once a fight breaks out between two female wrestlers.

The night that Styles quit RAW, his screeching voice was poked fun at by Edge, the Spirit Squad, and finally by Jerry Lawler, who was the person in the storyline that ended up setting Styles off, thereby beginning the now infamous segment.

Quotes

• "Oh, my God!"
• "¡Ay, dios mio! ("Oh, my God!" in Spanish)
• "Catfight!! CAAATFIIIIGHT!!!" - When a fight breaks out between two female wrestlers.
• "I do not call wrestling matches as if they were a story, I call them as if they are actual sporting events."
• "RVD's feeling a little froggy!" - In reference to Rob Van Dam before he does his signature move, the Five-Star Frog Splash.
• "Joel Gertner's dead! Joel Gertner's dead!" - After a spot where New Jack landed on Joel Gertner through a table from the balcony of the Hammerstein Ballroom.
• "I'm Joey Styles and welcome to Extreme Championship Wrestling."
• "It's Sabu, ECW'S Evel Knievel."

Trivia

• Prior to signing with WWE, Joey Styles was the co-owner of the wrestling news website, 1wrestling.com
• The man who was originally going to be the commentator for ECW was Mick Karch. When Paul Heyman gained control within the company, one of his first moves was to give the job to Joey Styles.^{[citation needed]}
• Styles still owns the former ECW website domain, ECWWrestling.com, which now redirects to his WWE profile.
• He used to work as an intern for the magazine, Pro Wrestling Illustrated, before becoming the commentator for ECW.
• Styles is also the man who named Kurt Angle the "The Wrestling Machine," named John Cena's submission hold the "STFU", and named Rob Van Dam's "5 Star Frog Splash" as well as many other ECW wrestlers' moves.
• Before accepting the job to become the announcer on RAW to replace Jim Ross, WWE had wanted to replace Jim Ross with UFC announcer Mike Goldberg, but Goldberg turned down the offer due to not having any knowledge of pro wrestling and has gone on record as never having liked pro wrestling in the first place. After Goldberg was offered the RAW position, Styles (who was under a part-time WWE contract to call ECW branded shows) went public about considering Goldberg's spot at UFC. Styles remains a huge MMA fan who has done some announcing for King of the Cage.
• Styles also appeared in the video game ECW Hardcore Revolution as a hidden character. Styles performed his character's finishing move The Celestial Splash himself and it was motion captured.
• On their 1997 fourth joker's card album, The Great Milenko, the Insane Clown Posse' song What is a Juggalo?, during the verse, "He Sabu'd your momma through a coffee table", Joey Styles can be heard in the background screaming "OH MY GOD!".
• At ECW One Night Stand 2005 and 2006, Joey Styles used the line, "Referee John Finnegan to officiate this match, the poor bastard." While the line was used at each pay-per-view, it was a line he also used several times during his run in the original ECW. Since ECW had a limited audience, many believe he came up with the line recently, which is not the case.

Accomplishments

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• 1994 Announcer of the Year
• 1995 Announcer of the Year
• 1996 Announcer of the Year

References

External links

• WWE Profile