Popular WWE Name Credited For ‘Creating Positive Changes’ In Wrestling

WWE

Pat McAfee has become one of the most popular names in WWE since his addition to the SmackDown broadcast team alongside Michael Cole back in June 2021.

McAfee’s infectious energy has helped elevate both the product as a whole, and also Michael Cole, but it’s not just in WWE that McAfee’s energy has helped raise the commentary for.

Former WWE announcer and current IMPACT announcer Tom Hannifan (Tom Phillips) spoke to WrestleZone about how he feels like the art of wrestling commentary has evolved over the years, just like the in-ring style has.

Tom agreed, before specifically naming Pat McAfee as someone who has created ‘positive changes’ in commentary across the whole business.

He said:

“I think yes [it has changed], but at the same time, its roots are still the same. There’s still the formulaic style of in-ring performance that we then follow. So naturally, that style is constantly being reinvented or borrowing from the past to make the present feel new. So, there’s things that we have to follow in there, but there’s just basic wrestling psychology that’s always going to live on.

“So, if you’re not hitting that on commentary, then you’re not learning wrestling commentary. You need to be able to understand that psychology in order to communicate the emotion of what’s going on, in order to be able to tell the story of what the fan is seeing in front of them. You can call every move till you’re blue in the face. You can talk about every championship and promotion country that somebody has wrestled in. That’s all well and good. But if you don’t get the moment and the emotion across, it just doesn’t matter.”

“So, it’s funny you say that [about the evolution of broadcasting]. I think a guy like Pat McAfee has done a lot to change wrestling commentary simply because he was an outsider coming to WWE and was given different opportunities to express himself, that all of a sudden you see Michael Cole jumping up and down. You don’t think he didn’t want to do that for 25 years? Well, yeah, it’s just loosened things up. There’s changes and that’s a good thing. So, I think it’s reverberating throughout the business.”

Hannifan spent over eight years with WWE before his departure in May 2021, with him joining the IMPACT Wrestling announce team in January 2022 at the Hard to Kill event.

McAfee made his return to commentary at the 2023 Royal Rumble event in a moment that was a genuine surprise to Michael Cole and Corey Graves.

quote via WrestleZone

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• announcing
• Tom Hannifan
• pat mcafee
• wwe

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