Tom Hannifan started working for WWE in 2012 as a backstage interviewer before starting on commentary. He joined Impact Wrestling, where he continues to call the action.
While appearing on Gabby AF, Hannifan shared that it was not until 2020 that he became comfortable on commentary.
“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. 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. But 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.”
(H/T to POST Wrestling for the quotes)
