Tom Hannifan discusses the underlying beauty of Josh Alexander's World Title victory at IMPACT Rebellion.
Last weekend at Rebellion, Josh Alexander completed a six-month odyssey back to the World Title by defeating Moose and becoming IMPACT's World Champion for the second time. His first reign ended mere minutes after capturing the belt when Moose used his Call Your Shot opportunity and snatched the title from Alexander in front of his wife and son.
Appearing on a recent edition of Busted Open, Tom Hannifan, the voice of IMPACT Wrestling, shared his belief that what happened with Alexander at Rebellion served as an analogy for the company as a whole. IMPACT, much like Josh, has had its struggles in the past and has been forced to retool whether it be due to roster turnover, financial difficulties, ownership changes, or anything else.
“I think the beauty of what happened at Rebellion was that Josh was this analogy for the company in a lot of ways. I said it on the broadcast that he worked 17 years to become World Champion. That was taken away from him at Bound For Glory, and you have to rebuild yourself. He rebuilt himself in this six-month span to prove that he could be World Champion legitimately. I think it’s an analogy for IMPACT Wrestling just because this is a company that has had some fantastic times, was innovative in its heyday, has had some challenges, I think everyone will acknowledge that within IMPACT Wrestling. The pandemic was difficult for IMPACT Wrestling and companies all over the world. But it’s the courage and tenacity of the people in IMPACT Wrestling that keep this thing moving forward now for 20 years. That is no small feat. So I think it was emotional, obviously for Josh. It was emotional for us on commentary and for the entire company,” Hannifan said.
Alexander would defeat Moose once again on the first episode of IMPACT following Rebellion. After that bout, he was greeted by Tomohiro Ishii, who Scott D'Amore handpicked to be Alexander's next challenger for the belt at IMPACT Under Siege. The updated card for that event can be seen here.
Elsewhere during the interview, Hannifan discussed the differences between doing commentary for IMPACT and WWE. You can find his comments here.
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