Tom Hannifan

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Thomas Hannifan (born May 19, 1989) is an American professional wrestling commentator and sports broadcaster. He is currently signed as a play-by-play commentator to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He was previously an announcer for WWE under the ring name Tom Phillips and served at various points as the play-by-play commentator on NXT, SmackDown, 205 Live, NXT UK and Raw. In 2022, Hannifan joined Impact Wrestling as their lead commentator.^[3]

Career[edit]

Early broadcasting career[edit]

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Hannifan's first broadcasting experience was as a public address announcer for a football game in his sophomore year of high school, where he also ran track and field. He attended Penn State Altoona and then Pennsylvania State University's main campus, majoring in broadcast journalism with an emphasis on sports broadcasting, graduating in 2011. During his time at Penn State, Hannifan was actively involved in CommRadio, the student-run radio station.^[2]

After working with Big Ten Network's Student U branch and graduating from Penn State, Hannifan did play-by-play for Juniata College's football and basketball teams in central Pennsylvania for $50 a game. While doing that in the summer of 2012, he was waiting tables to stay afloat financially. A year and a half out of school, Hannifan received a job offer from WWE.^[4]

WWE (2012–2021)[edit]

Hannifan conducted backstage interviews for the WWE App on Raw and was the lead announcer on Superstars, Main Event and SmackDown, flanked by color commentators Jerry Lawler and Byron Saxton,^[2][4][5] until he was replaced by NXT's play-by-play commentator Rich Brennan on the August 27, 2015 episode of SmackDown.^[6] He also served as the Social Media Lounge host on all WWE pay-per-view pre-shows until Fastlane (2017), when Charly Caruso took over the Social Media Lounge, and conducted backstage interviews for WWE.com.

In the summer of 2014, Phillips entered into a brief storyline with Alicia Fox, where he was stalked and tormented by her on a number of occasions, both ringside and backstage.^[7] Hannifan, as Tom Phillips, served as lead play-by-play announcer for SmackDown Live commentary team.^[8] He was the lead commentator for the NXT brand tapings and broadcasts from 2014 until being replaced by Mauro Ranallo in 2017. Phillips acted as lead play-by-play announcer at WrestleMania 33 on April 2, 2017, for the SmackDown brand, becoming the fifth person in the company's history to act as the lead commentator at WrestleMania.^[9] Philips also led commentating in 205 Live before Vic Joseph replaced him.

In 2017, a Twitter user named Melissa posted screenshots of explicit conversations she alleges happened between her and Phillips while they were engaged. After the news broke, Phillips set his social media accounts to private.^[10]

Phillips filled in for Cole on the October 2, 2017, Raw so that Cole could attend the wedding of his son.^[11] On October 5, 2019, WWE announced that a new commentary team would be on NXT UK, including Phillips.^[12] On November 1, 2019, due to significant flight delays, Phillips filled in on commentary for Michael Cole and Corey Graves on SmackDown with other substitute announcers Renee Young and Aiden English on first hour and Pat McAfee on second hour.^[13]

Phillips also acted as lead play-by-play announcer at the Royal Rumble on January 26, 2020, for the Raw brand; the next day, Phillips announced that he would return for his new play-by-play commentator role on Raw, replacing Vic Joseph and joining existing commentators Jerry Lawler and Byron Saxton.^[14] On March 12, 2020, Phillips left the announcing team on NXT UK. In April 2021, it was announced that Phillips would be replaced by Adnan Virk in his role as play-by-play commentator for Monday Night RAW.^[15]

On May 27, 2021, WWE announced they had released Phillips from his contract, ending his nearly nine-year tenure with the company.^[16] In January 2022, Phillips revealed his reaction to his WWE release, stating “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.... It took me a while to separate my personal feelings from what happened to a business standpoint."^[17]

Impact Wrestling / Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2022–present)[edit]

On January 8, 2022, Renee Paquette reported that Hannifan had joined Impact Wrestling as the new play-by-play announcer, replacing Matt Striker. Hannifan made his debut with the promotion at Hard to Kill.^[3]

Other media[edit]

Hannifan is currently the co-host of STATE OF STATE: A PENN STATE FOOTBALL SHOW, along with former Penn State and NFL cornerback Justin King.

Hannifan was also the host of one of WWE's most popular YouTube series, 5 Things, until October 21, 2015, when Kyle Edwards replaced him.^{[citation needed]} Phillips resumed the position in 2016 after Edwards was released from WWE.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Tom Hannifan on WWE.com
• Thomas Hannifan at IMDb
• Tom Hannifan's profile at Cagematch.net