During the purging of their roster for budgetary reasons, the WWE let go backstage people and announcers as well as wrestlers, but when they let Tom Hannifan go, it was a shock since he was one of the best announcers.
It was a strange time in the WWE and may still be going forward, but other companies benefited from it and one of the is Impact Wrestling.
Tom is now the voice of Impact and he’s been doing an awesome job as he’s worked seamlessly with anyone he’s been paired with, and they may have struck pay dirt with him and Mathew Rehwoldt.
It’s still early, but I really enjoyed them last night. They had a vibe about them that was similar to Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura. Not at their level as no one’s that good, but they were pretty solid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLUqFjLo9j0
Making a new home
Before Tom could find a new workplace, much less get used to it, he had to leave WWE and that was a rough one for him, as he explained in an interview with Chris Van Viet. Special thanks to mandatory.com for the transcript.
“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.”
As it turns out, Tom grew up as a fan of Impact and said he was a fan of the Motor City Machine Guns, Samoa Joe, and the X-Division. It was great research but he did a lot on his own so he could hit the ground running.
It really shows as he sounds like he’s having fun as his voice has a certain bounce to it and his laugh sounds genuine.
He did mention how one thing that’s similar is he has someone in his ear like in the WWE, but while it’s been reported that Vince McMahon is in WWE commentators’ ears, it’s slightly different in 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.”
Like a new quarterback, Tom seems to have settled into his new position and he’s been an energetic breath of fresh air that’s helped lift Impact’s presentation.
What do you think of Tom Hannifan’s job so far in Impact Wrestling? Let us know in the comments below.
SUBSCRIBE NOW: Get The Overtimer’s Hottest Stories, Breaking News and Special Features in your email, CLICK HERE!
Remember to stay up to date with the latest news on TheOvertimer. Don’t forget to visit ScreenJuicer for great videos, news, and gameplay!
