Joey Styles
Joseph Carmine Bonsignore, better known by his stage name Joey Styles, is best known as "the Voice of ECW". He was the first, the last, and the only play-by-play announcer in the wrestling business to call entire live pay-per-views solo (that is, without a color commentator to give him some breathing time and explain moves - "wasn't done before me, hasn't been done since!", in Joey's own words). Styles was well-loved by fans for his commentary skills and snarky attitude, and when ECW folded, it took a while, but he eventually signed with WWE and took up the play-by-play mic on Raw and later WWE's ECW brand. He was Kicked Upstairs in 2008 and currently serves as the Director of Media Content for WWE.com.
Joey is not related in any way, shape, or form to AJ Styles - though they are both phenomenal.
The Other Wiki has a full article on his life and career.
- Ascended Fanboy: Styles was a huge wrestling fan, and he was barely out of college when he auditioned for the ECW play-by-play position. Fast forward fifteen years, and he's one of the most respected commentators in the business.
- Beware the Nice Ones: The nerdy-looking, glasses-wearing journalist/commentator? Once legitimately punched out John Bradshaw Layfield.
- Big OMG: His Catch Phrase.
- Bilingual Bonus: During the lucha libre matches in ECW, he would yell "AY DIOS MIO!" instead of his trademark "OH MY GOD".
- Catch Phrase: "OH MY GOD!". Also, "CATFIIIIIIIGHT!".
- Combat Commentator: Unlike the usual wimpy backstage announcers, in ECW, Styles wasn't above hitting back when heel wrestlers picked on him.
- Cool Old Guy
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Styles once knocked out John Bradshaw Layfield for messing with him one too many times on a trip to Iraq.
- Dramatic Pause: Actually invoked by name a few times.
- HSQ: Joey will let you know when this is going down.
- Kicked Upstairs: Styles retired from announcing and currently runs WWE's website.
- Large Ham
- Megane
- Non-Action Guy
- Only Sane Man: Frequently. Especially when Paul Heyman is around.
- Poor Man's Substitute: Averted; most of the IWC feels that Styles was more than a worthy successor to Jim Ross as play-by-play announcer of Raw. He's also, in fact, been the object of other PoorMansSubstitutes (Michael Cole and Josh Matthews in WWECW).
- Red Baron: "The Voice of ECW", "The Unscripted, Uncensored Loose Cannon of Commentary".
- Ultimate Job Security: Let's face it - any other person would've been fired from WWE for what Styles' said and done on his Twitter account alone. He keeps his job most likely because Vince McMahon doesn't want angry smarks burning WWE Corporate Headquarters down the next day. Let's run down a partial list of Styles' Twitter shenanigans:
- He revealed Bryan Danielson's return just minutes before it actually happened.
- He revealed Aksana's removal on NXT Season 3 before it was shown, then apologized for the reveal and insulted NXT at the same time a week later.
- He insulted WWE's ECW brand by saying it wasn't anything compared to the old ECW.
- He actually acknowledges (and rips on) TNA, something WWE goes out of their way to avoid doing at all.
- Of course, also using his Twitter account to run down Barack Obama and the Democrats generally comes in handy too, as this chimes with Vince's personal politics.
- He's now decided to mock the new WWE policy of never using the word "wrestling". Not that this is the first time he's done that.
- Vocal Evolution: In the early days of ECW, Joey was a lot less calmer and lower pitched to the point that it was borderline Dull Surprise. It's especially noticeable when you hear Joey yelling "Oh My God" in 1993 and then hearing him say it 12 years later at the first One Night Stand.
- Worked Shoot: One of the most infamous (and best) examples is the aforementioned "I Quit" promo.
- Wrestling Psychology: Styles was one of the first commentators to take the fans seriously and use the technical names of moves (i.e. "enzuigiri", not "an amazing kick!"), as well as Lampshading when wrestlers botched moves.
- Yes-Man: Is one of the few WWE employees to not be this to Vince McMahon. See Ultimate Job Security.