Tom Hannifan, formerly known as Tom Phillips, reflects on his run as a member of the WWE RAW commentary team.
Hannifan spent several years with WWE, and he joined the RAW commentary team in 2020. The company released him in May 2021. Hannifan joined IMPACT Wrestling in January 2022.
Speaking on Gabby AF, Hannifan looked back on his time on RAW. He described how he only started to feel comfortable during this run(H/t Andrew Thompson of POST Wrestling for the transcription)
“I personally felt like I didn’t get quote-unquote comfortable and not like mastery by any means but just like, I felt comfortable at the desk until 2020, which I started in 2012 so, eight years of ups and downs, I was put on shows, I was taken off shows, I was given other chances, tried to reinvent myself, worked with a bunch of different partners and it wasn’t until I got put on Raw in 2020 that I felt like, man, I just have better control of this because to use the sports analogy, the game slows down for you and I was beginning to piece together the psychology side of wrestling but, especially for network television, it’s understanding what the production team needs and the execution of the television broadcast.
“That’s the first priority,” he said. “Then, it’s calling a match and then it’s like, oh, having all of the emotion that goes into it so I’d say the biggest thing for me going into it is making sure my emotion matched the moments because you can try and handle all these other — we call it traffic — the traffic elements of the show.”
Tom Hannifan: I’ve Come Into My Own
Tom Hannifan went on to describe how he has made some mistakes, but he believes he has come into his own in recent years. He also stated that he knows there are things he can do better.
“There’s calls that I listen back to where I’m like, ugh, you just didn’t hit that because a fan knows it too when it’s like, there’s something happening on my screen and you’re either not talking about it or you’re talking about it and you don’t have the same enthusiasm and passion I think you should have.
“I’ve definitely had moments like that, but I feel very strongly that in the last few years, I’ve come into my own and that especially with IMPACT/TNA that I’ve been given this chance to try a lot of new things and I’m just really happy with where my work is at but at the same time, I’m like, I know I have plenty of things I can do better.”
At TNA Hard To Kill, Hannifan will call the action as the company kicks off a new era.
Click here to see what Hannifan had to say about how his preparation has chanced since he joined IMPACT.
