Wrestling commentator Tom Hannifan has shared some big words about the current era of TNA.
A former part of WWE from 2012 to 2021, Hannifan left the promotion to join TNA Wrestling in 2022. He arrived as the new play-by-play announcer, where he replaced Matt Striker. While Hannifan joined the promotion when it was still Impact Wrestling, and later rebranded into TNA.
During his recent interview on B4theBell, Tom Hannifan commented on the current status of his promotion. Addressing the time from when he joined TNA to now, the announcer compared the current era of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling to the 2014 to 2016 era of WWE NXT.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s (TNA Wrestling) booming at this point in time. We were talking about it like a couple weeks ago. We were at some shows recently and we were like, ‘Man… the crowd was good but a little quiet tonight’ and I was like, ‘You know what? We’re getting spoiled.’ Because when I first started with the company, you were happy if there were 400 people in the audience and this was when it was first IMPACT Wrestling and it was a little culture shock for me admittedly and now getting to the point where we just put I think about 4,000 people in the building for Rebellion.
The tickets are on sale for Slammiversary where the Islanders play out on Long Island and we haven’t announced a match yet and I think I checked. It’s like 2,600 tickets according to WrestleTix are gone so I don’t know any inside information. I just read stuff online but, it’s just at a really cool point and then doing this stuff out here in Irvine (California).
To me, ever since I joined the company and especially now, it feels a lot like 2014 to 2016 era NXT, where you have those guys that it’s like, hey, I don’t quite know them but I’m familiar with them or I’ve heard of them on the indies or young guys or something like that but then you’re bringing in the Samoa Joes, the Bobby Roodes, the Eric Youngs.
Ironically, all TNA guys but Shinsuke Nakamura and then you have the backend of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, those guys. So I think we have that nice balance of obviously The Hardys, Nic Nemeth. A lot of guys that worked in WWE at one point. Brian Myers, Moose, Eddie Edwards. Dirty Dango, J.D.C., whatever you wanna call him.
We have this great group of veterans and then we have all these guys that if you don’t know, you should know and then we have maybe the hottest act in wrestling in Joe Hendry and there’s (these) great opportunities as well for our women’s division now that Jordynne Grace is off to NXT at this point in time. Masha Slamovich has done well. Tessa Blanchard came in December I wanna say but there’s just a big opportunity at this point so, that’s how it’s always felt to me is that it feels like 2014, 2016 NXT but that’s just my opinion.”
H/t Fightful
On May 23rd, TNA is set to host their Under Siege special. Current TNA World Champion Joe Hendry is also set to defend his World title against Trick Williams on the upcoming Battleground PLE.
More Update On TNA’s Blood Ban
A few weeks ago, Mike Johnson of PWInsider reported that TNA had put an immediate ban on blading or heavy bleeding. The reasons behind the ban were cited to protect the talent and make the promotion future-proof.
Later, Jon Alba of The Takedown on SI reported that TNA talent and officials reached out to indicate that the meeting was misrepresented. Company President Carlos Silva clarified that there was no blood ban in place.
In other news: Kofi Kingston has issued a warning to WWE fans.