Tom Phillips released by WWE

[Big Red Machine]

https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/tom- ... wwe-342496

By Josh Nason | @joshnason | May 27, 2021 9:23 am

After nearly ten years, Tom Phillips is no longer with WWE as he has been released.

The news was first reported by Fightful and also confirmed by Spectrum Sports 360's Jon Alba.

His release comes in a week that saw a large group of company cuts that affected several departments, mostly in the WWE Network, WWE Studios and advanced media departments.

Less than two years out of Penn State, Phillips (Tom Hannifan) started with WWE in 2012 as a backstage interviewer. He eventually made his way to the announce desk and during his tenure, he performed play-by-play duties for every show the company currently has (Raw, SmackDown, NXT, NXT UK, 205 Live and Main Event) in addition to pay-per-views. He also commentated on the now-defunct Superstars.

The 32-year-old was replaced on the Raw commentary team by Adnan Virk last month. Virk was then replaced by Jimmy Smith after Virk and WWE parted ways on Tuesday. At the time of the Virk hiring, WWE said Phillips would return to 205 Live and would "oversee special projects for WWE’s programming on Peacock and at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando" in addition to his role as senior manager of on air talent.

Phillips, who recently changed his social media handles to his real name, has yet to comment publicly, nor has WWE.

[cero2k]

Well, at least no one can't complain about all these play-by-plays being hired while they had a competent one in Phillips there, being unused.