#MichaelCole Was Instrumental In Shaping Tom Hannifan’s #WWE Career

Things have been going pretty well for Tom Hannifan right now, but there was a time after his WWE release that he didn’t know whether he would continue in the pro wrestling business. The former Tom Phillips was let go by the WWE in April 2021. He ended up joining Impact Wrestling and assumed his commentary role at the company’s Hard to Kill PPV.

Hannifan sat down with Chris Van Vliet for an interview. He spoke at length about how Michael Cole was instrumental in helping him shape up as his role as a commentator in WWE.

“When I hear I’ve got 10 seconds, I’m like, ‘God, that’s an eternity,” he said. He continued, “You know what I mean? Yeah, and it just — it took me a long time, and I learned so much from Michael Cole and I really respect his style because he is largely a minimalist.”

He then shed some more light on how Michael Cole helped him out.

“He doesn’t say gigantic or artistic phrases or anything like that. He’s not trying to write a poem or anything, he is delivering information when it has to be delivered quickly and succinctly.

“So that comes back to that same mentality. So honestly, when I’m told in my ear, ‘You got 10 seconds,’ I’m like, ‘eh, that’s not that bad.’ That’s a nice runway, I’m really happy about that.”

The 32-year-old said Cole was very patient with him and that he taught him to be patient with his responsibilities as a commentator and backstage interviewer in Vince McMahon’s conglomerate.

“While I did not have a ton of patience, he was very patient with me, but it was just to be patient and to keep working. To not get too frustrated and give up on a circumstance. Because there were a lot of things.

“I would get out on a show, I would get taken off a show, moved around. It was kind of a carousel there for a while. It was just where they needed me at the time, and I was so freaking young and I just kind of thought, ‘Oh, you know, I’m going to come in here and they’re going to do all this stuff.’

“I had to learn a lot. So for him to be patient with me and then to teach me patience over the year, granted, I’m still not perfect, nobody is. But I think that would be my biggest takeaway.”

Hannifan said he finds comparisons to Michael Cole flattering and that he picked up on a lot of things from WWE’s lead commentator. He revealed he receives tweets all the time from people saying he “sound exactly” like Cole, which he sees as a compliment.

Thanks to Wrestling Inc for the transcription. What’s your take on this story? Sound off in the comments!