IMPACT play-by-play commentator Tom Hannifan recently appeared on the NotSam Wrestling podcast to discuss his time in WWE, which included Hannifan revealing that he was pulled from last year’s WrestleMania 37 pay-per-view due to catching COVID-19. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says he got pulled from Mania 37 because he had tested positive for COVID:
Yeah, the night before [WrestleMania 37, I tested positive for COVID-19]. Heartbreaking. That sucked. Yeah, it was the right precaution at the moment and… awful and that happened to a lot of people. Not just… not just WrestleMania but different pay-per-views and such where it was like last minute and be like, so and so in a major match can’t go.It was terrible because obviously, we saw where things went with the Raw team so I was like, ‘Okay, well maybe I’ll get this chance to finish things strong with Byron and Joe’ who I love and respect and really enjoy working with and that’s just not what happened so um, yeah, that really sucked.
Says he takes responsibility for fans not enjoying his Mania 36 call:
Weird. Really weird [Hannifan said about being on commentary in the empty Performance Center]. Like you mentioned, soundtracks where I wasn’t really happy with it; Edge and Randy Orton at WrestleMania, wasn’t thrilled with my call and nor was the internet, so I’ll take full responsibility for that. But, it was like, all right, this is an empty building and it’s like you’re trying to lay out so you hear the guys talking and saying all the things and all the points of contact and they’re bashing into things so like, it’s just a guessing game at first and then you slowly get used to it and you understand you’ve got to ramp things up.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)
