Former WWE commentator Tom Hannifan has been a breath of fresh air for the IMPACT Wrestling broadcast team.
Tom Hannifan was the latest guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet to discuss a variety of subjects. When asked what his reaction was to being released by WWE, Hannifan admitted that it took him by surprise:
“It was a shock and it was a surprise. It was an emotional and heart-breaking day, but this is a business, it’s budget cuts, and the pandemic has hit a lot of different businesses in a lot of different ways. I kind of understood how things were going, Adnan Virk was brought in in April, then they made the move to Jimmy Smith. I saw the way that things were going but that’s just business. It took me a while to separate my personal feelings from what happened to a business standpoint.”
Hannifan is now the voice of IMPACT Wrestling. When asked if he kept up with the company while working for WWE, Hannifan revealed that he grew up a fan of IMPACT Wrestling and did a lot of additional research once he got the job:
“It was kind of 50/50. I was legitimately a fan, I grew up a fan of The Motor City Machine Guns, Samoa Joe, I loved the X Division. I remember Magnus’ World Title run being a big heel run. It was all these experiences where I had seen this show before, so it was just fun. I got a lot of people tweeting me saying I was fed stuff, but no, I did a lot of research.”
We all know by now that Vince McMahon is in the ears of the commentators in WWE, but Hannifan revealed that Josh Mathews is in his ear on IMPACT:
“I will get fed the occasional note from the match producer if there is something important. My executive producer is Josh Mathews, but if you told me that a few years ago I would be like what? It is wild, we have crossed paths briefly in WWE, I was getting started as his time was coming to an end. But it’s wild that you keep running across the same people, it’s like a quarterback going from one system to another but with another playbook.”
READ MORE: Tom Hannifan Wouldn’t Be Surprised If WWE Brought In More Outside Names For The Royal Rumble
What do you make of Tom Hannifan’s comments? Have you enjoyed him on commentary so far in IMPACT? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
