 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Thomas Hannifan[2] (1989-05-19)May 19, 1989 (age 36) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Pennsylvania State University |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Tom Hannifan Tom Phillips |
| Billed height | 6 ft 0 in (183 cm) [CONVERT][1] |
| Billed from | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania[1] |
| Debut | 2012 |
Thomas Hannifan (born May 19, 1989) is an Americanprofessional wrestlingcommentator andsports broadcaster. He is signed toTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), alongsideMatthew Rehwoldt. He was previously an announcer forWWE under thering nameTom Phillips and served at various points as the play-by-play commentator onNXT,SmackDown,205 Live,NXT UK andRaw. In 2022, Hannifan joinedImpact Wrestling as their lead commentator.[3]
Hannifan began his career in hissecond year of high school as a public address announcer for a football game. He began studying atPenn State Altoona beforetransferring toPennsylvania State University’s main campus where he pursued a major inbroadcast journalism, with a specific focus onsports broadcasting, and graduated in the year 2011.
During his tenure at Penn State, Hannifan was an active member ofCommRadio, aradio station run by the students. Post-graduation, he worked with the Student U branch of theBig Ten Network. He also provided play-by-play commentary forJuniata College's football and basketball teams in centralPennsylvania.
Approximately a year and a half after graduating from college, Hannifan received a job offer fromWWE.[4]
Hannifan conducted backstage interviews for the WWE App onRaw and was the lead announcer onSuperstars,Main Event andSmackDown, flanked by color commentatorsJerry Lawler andByron Saxton,[1][4][5] until he was replaced byNXT's play-by-play commentator Rich Brennan on the August 27, 2015, episode ofSmackDown.[6] He also served as the Social Media Lounge host on all WWEpay-per-view pre-shows untilFastlane, 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 withAlicia 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 leadplay-by-play announcer forSmackDown Live commentary team.[8] He was the lead commentator for theNXT brand tapings and broadcasts from 2014 until being replaced byMauro Ranallo in 2017. Phillips acted as lead play-by-play announcer atWrestleMania 33 on April 2, 2017, for the SmackDown brand, becoming the fifth person in the company's history to act as the lead commentator atWrestleMania.[9] Philips also led commentating in205 Live beforeVic 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 forMichael 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 onNXT UK, including Phillips.[12] On November 1, 2019, due to significant flight delays, Phillips filled in on commentary for Cole andCorey Graves onSmackDown with other substitute announcersRenee Young andAiden English on first hour andPat McAfee on second hour.[13]
Phillips also acted as lead play-by-play announcer at theRoyal Rumble on January 26, 2020, for theRaw brand; the next day, Phillips announced that he would return for his new play-by-play commentator role onRaw, replacingVic Joseph and joining existing commentatorsJerry Lawler andByron Saxton.[14] On March 12, 2020, Phillips left the announcing team onNXT UK. In April 2021, it was announced that Phillips would be replaced byAdnan Virk in his role as play-by-play commentator forMonday 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]
On January 8, 2022,Renee Paquette reported that Hannifan had joinedImpact Wrestling as the new play-by-play announcer, replacingMatt Striker. Hannifan made his debut with the promotion atHard to Kill.[3]
Hannifan is currently the co-host ofState of State: A Penn State Football Show, along with former Penn State andNFLcornerbackJustin King.
Outside of professional wrestling, Phillips has made appearances in film. Notably, he appeared as a ringside commentator in the 2015 boxing drama Creed, directed by Ryan Coogler, alongside veteran announcers Michael Buffer and Max Kellerman. His role added authenticity to the fight sequences in the film.
,Cagematch| Preceded by | SmackDown lead announcer 2014–2015 | Succeeded by Michael Cole |
| Preceded by Michael Cole | SmackDown lead announcer 2015 | Succeeded by Rich Brennan |
| Preceded by Rich Brennan | NXT lead announcer 2016–2017 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Mauro Ranallo | SmackDown lead announcer 2017–2019 | Succeeded by Michael Cole |
| Preceded by | NXT UK lead announcer 2019–2020 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Vic Joseph | 205 Live lead announcer 2019–2020 | Succeeded by Jon Quasto |
| Preceded by Vic Joseph | Raw lead announcer 2020–2021 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Vic Joseph | 205 Live lead announcer 2021 | Succeeded by Vic Joseph |
| Preceded by | TNA Impact lead announcer 2022–present | Succeeded by current |