Tom Hannifan Credits Pat McAfee For Announcers Being Able To Show More Emotion

In an interview with Busted Open Radio, Impact Wrestling’s Tom Hannifan gave Pat McAfee credit for his animated performances on commentary, saying it allowed other announcers to show more emotion. Here are highlights:

On Pat McAfee’s commentary: “I think the beauty of Pat McAfee is that he made it okay for commentators to jump up and down and literally get on the desk. I mean [Michael] Cole’s not doing anything like that but we all feel that emotion so, if anything it’s just kind of loosened everybody up in commentary in all of professional wrestling.”

On having to unlearn things from WWE while working for Impact: “It’s been great [at IMPACT Wrestling]. I think one of the first tapings I did, I kept saying the word ‘superstar’ and you guys are like, ‘You don’t have to say that man. You can say wrestler, you can say whatever you want.’ Even Scott D’Amore being like, ‘You can say belt. You can say that for the title’ so it was just a lot of things that I’ve had to, you know, habits that — that’s the way that WWE likes to do things. I did that for nine years and I’m unlearning a lot of things and all of you at IMPACT Wrestling have been extremely patient with me but you talk about getting excited about stuff, the ‘Styles Clash’ in the middle of [Josh] Alexander and Moose [at Rebellion], I jumped out of my freaking chair. I’m sure the spy cam, if they record it, still has that footage. I was on my feet when Josh won the title. It’s just you feel this stuff and it’s any commentator.”