Impact Wrestling’s Tom Hannifan, formerly known as Tom Phillips in WWE, made an appearance on The Corner Podcast to discuss a wide range of topics.
During it, Hannifan revealed that NXT’s Vic Joseph almost signed with Impact Wrestling before going to WWE. Tom was working in a scout role in WWE at the time when he relied on Rhino to get feedback on certain talent.
“So, my favorite recruiter that I would contact and ‘contact’ is a strong word. I would just bump into him in the TV locker room was Rhino (Hannifan laughed). So at the time, Rhino was still all over the indies but he was coming in, doing some shots with WWE as were some of the old ECW guys but Terry’s just the greatest guy. So, (Michael) Cole and I were like, ‘Oh, we should talk to some of the boys and see if they know anybody on the indie scene’ so I talked to Rhino and he told me about this guy Victor Travagliante who ironically was just about to sign with IMPACT. So we gave him a call and we gave him an audition and Cole liked his stuff and the decision was made. In comes Vic. So Vic, now Vic Joseph on NXT, I think the world of him as a person and a professional so then after about a year with him, he’s great to work with, I was like, ‘Hey Vic, we’re looking for a ring announcer. Do you know anybody?’ He was like, ‘I think I might know somebody’ and he puts me in touch with Alicia Warrington, Alicia Taylor and she’s phenomenal and she is one of one of ring announcers in this world. There are people that try and duplicate her and they shouldn’t do that. Alicia Taylor is one of one and I would argue WarGames isn’t the presentation that it is without her voice.”
Quotes via POST Wrestling