Former WWE commentator Renee Paquette (formally Renee Young) took to Twitter on January 8, 2022, to announce that her friend and former colleague, Tom Hannifan (Tom Phillips), will join the Impact Wrestling Announce desk for commentary at Hard To Kill.
Paquette wrote on her official Twitter account, “Huge news!! @TomHannifan joins @IMPACTWRESTLING as their newest play-by-play announcer at Hard To Kill! What a pick-up for them! I have Tom’s first interview as this coming Tuesday on The Sessions!! @TheVolumeSports.”
Hannifan was also spotted in Dallas, Texas, on the morning of the eighth, which led to fan speculation prior to the official announcement of his signing. According to PWInsider, Hannifan will be replacing longtime Impact announcer Matt Striker who revealed earlier in the week that he was finished with Impact Wrestling and departed from the promotion.
On his departure, Striker said on his Twitter account, “I am disappointed that my time with #ImpactonAXSTV is done. I really enjoyed that locker room. Thanks for allowing me to tell your story. Thanks, everyone. Stay safe.”
WWE legend D’Lo Brown will retain his spot on the announce desk for Impact and will be joined by Hannifan to call the play-by-play action for the Hard To Kill event. As of this Thursday’s episode, the pair will be Impact’s new commentary duo moving forward on Impact on AXS TV.
Hannifan, age 32, was a part of WWE’s staff from 2012 to May of last year in a featured commentary role for company programming. WWE released him as part of the over 80 cuts that have occurred in the past two years and which continue currently. The most recent cuts on January 6 included William Regal, Timothy Thatcher, and Danny Burch. Hannifan’s roles within WWE included producing and managing announcers as Senior manager of On-Air talent under Michael Cole.
Prior to signing with Impact Wrestling, Hannifan had transitioned to hosting Paydirt: Penn State Football Podcast, which covered college football matches and topics.
