Joey Styles

Joey Styles
Ring name(s)	Joey Styles
Billed height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Billed weight	180 lb (82 kg)
Born	July 14, 1971 (1971-07-14) Stamford, Connecticut
Debut	June 19, 1993

Joseph Carmine Bonsignore (born July 14, 1971) better known by his ring name Joey Styles, is an American professional wrestling play-by-play commentator and former professional in the field of advertising sales. He currently works for WWE as the Vice President of Digital Media Content for WWE.com.

Career

Extreme Championship Wrestling (1993–2001)

Styles is best known for his work in Extreme Championship Wrestling during most of its entire run, from 1993 to its 2001 bankruptcy. He debuted at the Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular show in Philadelphia, PA on June 19, 1993. Styles was the sole host of ECW Hardcore TV and spent the early portion of the run as the promotion's only announcer. Providing both play-by-play and color commentary during television and pay-per-view broadcasts, Styles added his wrestling knowledge, enthusiasm, and comedy timing to the program. At Barely Legal, he became the first and only wrestling announcer in history to call a live pay-per-view event solo. Later on in the promotion, he was joined on commentary by Rick Rude on Hardcore TV, Joel Gertner for ECW on TNN, and later Cyrus for pay-per-views.

Major League Wrestling (2002–2004)

After a brief sabbatical from the wrestling industry, Joey Styles would return to wrestling announcing for Court Bauer's Major League Wrestling as the "voice of MLW." Joey's return to wrestling would be heralded as he was one of the first names to be announced by the company during its 2002 launch. Initially calling the action for MLW's home video releases, Styles's presence would grow upon MLW inking a major television pact with Sun Sports and several other international distributors. Hosting the weekly 11 pm series, "MLW Underground," Styles returned his to his roots in the booth as a solo broadcaster, praised for his calling of memorable matches including a barbed wire match between Terry Funk and Steve Corino, amongst others.

World Wrestling Entertainment (2005–present)

ECW One Night Stand (2005)

Styles signed a one night deal with World Wrestling Entertainment to call the first-ever ECW One Night Stand event, where he and Mick Foley did commentary for the show. Styles intentionally made numerous comments that made WWE staff unhappy. He made several comments that alluded to wrestling outside of the Original ECW and WWE, and made a number of quips which were considered risque for the WWE's present product. The most controversial comment came during the pre-main event match. During the match between Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka, Styles criticized Awesome for his real-life dealings with ECW's competition World Championship Wrestling and called him a "Judas". Styles further chastised Awesome by quipping that it was "a shame he didn't succeed in taking his own life." after Awesome executed a "suicide dive". (Awesome later took his own life in 2007, when he hanged himself.)

Raw and ECW (2005–2008)

Styles signed a five year deal with WWE to call the Raw brand, starting at Taboo Tuesday on November 1, 2005, working alongside Jonathan Coachman and Jerry Lawler. On the May 1, 2006 episode of Raw, Styles "quit" after a worked shoot, in which he ranted about the lack of "wrestling" and his dislike of "sports entertainment" and even WWE Chairman, Vince McMahon. In reality, Jim Ross, long time announcer of Raw was returning to his role and Joey Styles was going to call the soon to be re-born ECW. On June 13, 2006, Styles returned to TV as the play-by-play commentator for the newly-created ECW brand with Tazz, who would be the color commentator. In April 2008, Styles would leave the ECW brand, being replaced by Mike Adamle after Styles was made Director of Digital Media Content for WWE.com, the company's website.

WWE.com (2008–present)

As Vice President of Digital Media Content, Styles would work on the website, updating its design and features. Additionally, Styles also hosted a show called Oh My God! Moment of the Week that ran from September 2008 to December 2008. On the December 8, 2008 episode of Raw, Styles presented the "O M G!" Moment of the Year award at the 2008 Slammy Awards with Alicia Fox, saying his famous "Oh My God!" catchphrase.

In 2010, Styles' announcing contract expired, but he remains with the company as an non-contracted employee to the company and continues to host "History of ECW" on WWE Classics on Demand Video On Demand TV service.

Style

Styles' commentary style is highlighted by the characteristic tones of his voice. For the most part, he called the match in his normal calm, collected voice, often adding in some sarcastic comments mocking aspects of the wrestling business. However, once exciting or shocking events occur during the match, he began to screech and speak at a rapid pace, usually to yell his now signature catchphrase "Oh my God!" when a dangerous spot was executed successfully. In the days of ECW when such a spot was performed by the promotion's luchadors, he would yell "Ay Dios Mio!" (the Spanish translation of "Oh My God!").

A second catchphrase was "Catfight! Catfight!" for when females would pummel one another, such as Francine fighting Beulah during the Tommy Dreamer and the Sandman vs. the Dudley Boyz at ECW One Night Stand 2005. In a 2009 interview, Styles claimed that he always wants to, and will be, remembered for his role as an announcer for the original Extreme Championship Wrestling.

In wrestling

• Nicknames
  • "The Extreme Announcer"
  • "Stocky Balboa"
  • "The Unscripted, Uncensored, Loose Cannon of Commentary"
  • "The Voice of Extreme Championship Wrestling"

Awards and accomplishments

• Extreme Championship Wrestling

• Host of ECW Hardcore TV
• Host of ECW on TNN
• Play-by-Play Announcer

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards

• Best Television Announcer (1994–1996)

• World Wrestling Entertainment

• Raw Play-by-Play Announcer
• ECW Play-by-Play Announcer
• WWE.com Pay-Per-View backstage interviewer
• WWE.com Director of Digital Media Content

External links

• WWE Alumni Profile
• Official Website of Extreme Championship Wrestling
• Official Website of World Wrestling Entertainment

Preceded by Inaugural	ECW Lead Announcer (WWE) 2006 - 2008	Succeeded by Mike Adamle
Preceded by Jonathan Coachman	Monday Night Raw Lead Announcer 2005 - 2006	Succeeded by Jim Ross
Preceded by Inaugural	ECW Lead Announcer 1994 - 2001	Succeeded by Final