What’s the story?
As reported by Cageside Seats, the reason behind Tom Phillips being replaced by Vic Joseph on 205 Live is that the WWE want him to focus on his other duties in the company. The cruiserweight-based show has seen a number of changes to the commentary team since it was first created following the success of the Cruiserweight Classic.
In case you didn’t know...
Tom Phillips has been on the verge of making headlines for quite some time now, with a lot of fans waiting to see if he’d be punished for the leaked messages that he supposedly sent out a few months back.
Phillips, who has been with WWE for a few years now, has slowly been rising up the ranks of the company especially following the departure of Mauro Ranallo.
The heart of the matter
According to the aforementioned report, former House of Hardcore announcer Vic Joseph is climbing the WWE ladder much quicker than many had anticipated. He’s been given the 205 Live play-by-play job in addition to starting on Main Event, and the company are apparently very high on him.
The reason for the switch, however, is that they want Tom Phillips to focus on SmackDown Live and NXT as opposed to them being unhappy with him.
What’s next?
We’ll see if Joseph will sink or swim over the course of the next few weeks and months, but having Corey Graves alongside him should make the transition a lot easier. Given the unpredictable nature of the commentary tables these days, there’s every chance that Vic could once again be promoted, this time to the main roster, within the next twelve months.
Author’s take
It’s great to see WWE taking a chance on someone like Joseph, and simultaneously we’re happy to see that Phillips isn’t being punished due to issues in his personal life. In this line of work, everyone seems to make mistakes, and it’s important for WWE to distance themselves from that instead of getting too involved.
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