Former WWE NXT Announcer: “Tom Phillips is a great announcer, but a terrible human being”
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Former WWE/NXT announcer Alex Del Barrio (Alex Reyes when he was with WWE) was on a recent edition of the podcast Just Another Wrestling Podcast where he talked about his time with WWE, specifically on its NXT brand and delivered some newsworthy tidbits.
Del Barrio was highly critical of current RAW play-by-play announcer Tom Phillips during the interview, dating back to when they worked together in WWE’s developmental system.
“Tom was going to be my equal,” Del Barrio said. “He was going to do Florida live events with me and I was also told during this process that I would eventually, in a couple of months, be the No. 2 NXT play-by-play guy where we’d alternate people the way it used to be back in 2012 and 2013. Well, that just never happened. And it never happened because they put Tom in charge of me. Well, Tom, and I’ll say this a million times, I think Tom is a great announcer, but I think he’s a terrible human being.”
Phillips was added to the RAW team at the end of last year, when he suddenly replaced Vic Joseph. Prior to that, Phillips was the play-by-play voice of SmackDown prior to its move to the FOX network. Once on FOX, Michael Cole assumed Phillips’ duties and Joseph took over for Cole on RAW.
You can listen to the entire episode by clicking here. Other topics included how Alex received his stage name, who his favorites to interview were, and also he gives insight into some backstage politics. You can follow the JAW Podcast on Twitter @JAWPodcast and follow Del Barrio @AlexDelBarrio.
