"Emotional and heartbreaking" - Tom Hannifan comments on his WWE exit

Tom Hannifan, formerly known as Tom Phillips in WWE, says the end of his nine-year run with the company came as a surprise.

Hannifan joined WWE as a backstage interviewer at the age of 23 in 2012. He went on to become a full-time commentator on several major shows, including RAW and SmackDown.

The 32-year-old said on Chris Van Vliet’s INSIGHT podcast that he did not expect to be released by WWE in April 2021. However, he understands that his departure was simply a business decision and nothing personal:

"It was a shock and it was a surprise. It was an emotional and heartbreaking 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,” said Hannifan.

In 2017, Hannifan became the fifth person in WWE history to work as the lead announcer at WrestleMania. Only Gorilla Monsoon, Jim Ross, Michael Cole, and Vince McMahon had previously been given that responsibility.

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Tom Hannifan’s replacement only lasted six weeks

Experienced sports broadcaster Adnan Virk replaced Tom Hannifan on the RAW announce team after WrestleMania 37. Unfortunately, Virk struggled to adjust to WWE commentary and left the company after just six weeks.

Hannifan added that he had no issues with WWE hiring Virk, who has since been replaced as RAW’s lead commentator by Jimmy Smith:

“I kind of understood how things were going. Adnan Virk was brought in in April, then they made the move to Jimmy Smith. I saw the way that things were going but that’s just business. It took me a while to separate my personal feelings from what happened to a business standpoint.”

Hannifan recently joined IMPACT Wrestling as the company’s new lead play-by-play commentator, replacing Matt Striker.