Image credit Wrestling Inc.
Ian Riccaboni is an author, sportscaster, and play-by-play commentator for Ring of Honor Wrestling. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet from his home in Allentown, PA, and talks about being a batboy for the Allentown Ambassadors, acting in TV commercials as a child, his passion for broadcasting, how his mom would take him to wrestling events when he was a kid, paying his dues at The Monster Factory wrestling school, how he got his first break with Ring of Honor, what he learned from working with Kevin Kelly and much more!
On his first wrestling shows:
“In Allentown there’s a place called Ag Hall, which was where a lot of the WWF TV was from 1977/1978 to 1984/1985, but now it’s a building where they run the worlds largest garage sales. In the summertime, they would open up an area next to it and it’s called The Great Allentown fair. It’s kind of a grandstand, there’s a big stage like an old time movie with horse racing and the big concourse. Me, My mom and my brother went in 1991, we bought tickets, we were excited and I was a little bit nervous.”
“We went to Ag hall and we wondered where the wrestling was. It turned out it was in the grandstand section not in Ag Hall. So we turned up and only got to see the last 2 matches, the main event was Big Boss Man and IRS. 1994 was when I remember the first event, we had a superstars TV taping. I got to see Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Yokozuna, Razor, Diesel, you name it. My parents where getting bored because there were a lot of enhancement matches, but I was loving it.”
On appearing in commercials as a child:
“That’s the weirdest thing too, my mom always reminds me of this. I had a friend Tony, his mom worked for the company Kids Peace. When things came up, my friends mom would say that there’s a commercial coming up would Ian like to do it. I said sure, and as I was excited as my career progressed, my mom reminds me of these things I did to get me here. I volunteered to do school plays too, my mom has photos of me as a Mountie in the school musical.”
On how he got into the wrestling business:
“So I was 27 and my wife and I had just bought our first house. I was still working for a pharmaceutical company. I was doing a cable show where I was interviewing famous Phillies fans. One day I interviewed The Blue Meanie, he said why don’t we do it where there is a wrestling ring, lets go to The Monster Factory. I went with Larry Sharp and Danny Cage, and we had a great time. I said to Danny what if my friend [actually me] wanted to do wrestling broadcasting how would they go about that? He said you’re “friend” should learn how to set up and take down the ring, he should come to The Monster Factory and introduce himself to the wrestlers, he gave me a whole list of things to do. It’s about making yourself seem valuable without any expectation of being given anything back in return.”
On how he got into commentating for Ring of Honor:
“It is an interesting path, I thought that it was kind of rare. I’ve always wanted to do this, here’s a chance. So I started showing up, started putting up the ring and breaking down the ring with Damian Martinez, Matt Riddle, LSG. In February of 2014, Kevin Kelly came for a seminar. I said to Danny Cage Can I come to this? He said ‘Do you want a job in Ring if Honor or do you want to sit on your ass all day?’ So I said I would love to work for ROH. Danny said this might be your shot, so wear a suit and make your pitch. So I went and introduced myself to Kevin. He said we are looking to do this thing called Future of Honor. It’s either going to be individual shows or web broadcasting individual matches, but we need somebody. Kevin was doing all the events, so they needed a different voice. I started coming around in the summer of 2014 and over time if Kevin had other obligations e.g. New Japan.”
“By February 2017 I took the lead seat when Kevin signed with New Japan full time. I knew I wouldn’t be the permanent guy, but I wanted to have a shot and I got the shot and I’m still here 4 years later.”
On early memories at ROH:
“I called a lot of matches at The Monster Factory. What’s crazy is that it’s a lot of the guys that you see on TV right now. Matt Riddle, Damian Priest, LSG, Preston Vance were just working through the factory really. It was about 6 or 7 months from walking into the building before I called my first match. I think what broke the ice was me ripping matches from the secret YouTube page and putting commentary over them. I then said I would like to do this, how can we do this with a live feed and live microphones. It would be a lot easier to do this live. It took me taking that initiative to get there.”
On his first match that he called and advice from Kevin Kelly:
“It was Chris Laruso vs Cheeseburger. That was in Nashville, I texted Kevin saying I have some time off from work. If I come down, can I help set up. He said yeah and also bring your stuff. The thing I have learned the most from Kevin Kelly is preparation. That can also be anticipating moments as well as the history and the names of moves. For instance, what will I do if both men are down? What will I do if there’s a shocking roll up put of nowhere? What if there’s an unexpected moment. A lot of people don’t teach that.”
On being a more subtle commentator:
“I think that there’s something to be said for that. I didn’t really subscribe to that until I was a part of this video game that is coming out called Retromania. What was clear in the beta testing was that people were responding really negatively to my commentary. It was for different reasons, either it was too loud or it was too frequent. It was calling every move, tag and pin. There’s something to be said about not being everywhere and not being at the front of the line for everybody’s attention when they are trying to watch these athletes wrestle. That experience enforced that I can be excited, but the fans are not here to see me.”
On being a potential legend in the commentating world:
“I hope so, that would be really cool. I know it’s not a secret that I have had interest from other companies. One of the things that keeps me engaged is that there was 8 of us that could have been the guy. Ring of Honor now only has 1 television show and a few pay-per-view events. It was really neat to be the guy, be that person and have that identity. Ring of Honor have always been about the best wrestling on the planet. For me, it’s something that I can believe in. The company has always treated me well, even before the pandemic when we had my daughter, they paid me for a full month.”
On what he is grateful for:
“My family, the opportunity at Ring of Honor and my health in general.”
Ian Riccaboni can be found on Twitter here.
Video version can be found below:
