Matthew Rehwoldt thinks that, as a TNA Announcer, his superpower is making people excited about things that excite him, as a wrestler and wrestling fan, Last Word on Pro Wrestling can exclusively reveal. Alongside Tom Hannifan, Rehwoldt has been a part of the TNA announcer team for four years.
In an interview with Last Word on Pro Wrestling and WorldWide Wrestling, Matthew Rehwoldt discussed various subjects. This includes AJ Styles’ retirement, his duo with Tom Hannifan, how to adjust to a new audience due to the TNA deal with AMC, how different live announcing is from taping announcing, his favorite memories of the last four years, if he will wrestle again, and his personal spotlight on a TNA talent.
Will AJ Styles come back to TNA Wrestling?
“Someone like AJ Styles will always have the eyes of the wrestling world glued on him because of what he’s done in companies like TNA and WWE. He put the gloves down, and then he put them back on. So, he gets all the blame for all the scrutiny he’s getting. I’m just going to put that on good old Uncle Allen there. It left a lot of questions in a lot of people’s heads.
“I’m of the ilk that I know AJ Styles as a person, and when he says something, he means it. As far as I’m concerned, he’s done. He said he was done. He’s done. It wasn’t maybe the exact timing everyone thought it would be, but then again, it’s wrestling. The ‘never say never’ possibility is there. As a fan, as the little kid inside of me, I don’t want to get excited about anything or assume anything. If he ever pops up anywhere else, I’m just going to smile because more AJ Styles is good for me in the world of pro wrestling.
The premiere of #TNAiMPACT on @AMC_TV is already off to a PHENOMENAL start. @AJStylesOrg
Watch Thursday Night #TNAiMPACT on TNA+: https://t.co/uQB9XKpvkP pic.twitter.com/jkpDaooBYa
— TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) January 16, 2026
Adapting to the AMC audience
“That was a big thing. Tom (Hannifan) and I even discussed it in the weeks leading up to the AMC premiere. We had to skirt this line, because we will still have a large audience of people following us over the years, who watch us every week for years. So, we can’t treat them like they’re idiots, but we also have to assume that there will be many thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe, people who have never seen TNA or haven’t seen it in 10 years or something like that. So, we do have to treat it a little bit as a primer.”
“We don’t want to be overexplaining for many, many minutes on end, but just in case there are those people who are turning it on for the first time. We have to fit in a little bit of that background, a little bit of who this person is, what they have done, what they have accomplished, both in recent and overall history. So, we definitely made a conscious effort to incorporate more of that into the show, especially at the AMC premiere.”
.@DramaKingMatt and @TomHannifan run down #TNAGenesis and the @AMC_TV premiere of Thursday Night iMPACT!
WATCH #TNAiMPACT on TNA+: https://t.co/EkIqqcvwIi pic.twitter.com/zodNrPDHcE
— TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) January 9, 2026
Being the color commentator
“It has been an incredible journey. You said it right there. I joined during our first shows, when they allowed crowds back at the shows. That was in that little studio in Nashville, with 200 people. But after months of not being in front of any audiences, those 200 people felt like a million. It was amazing. But then to see that, and then go on the road for five or six hundred people, as we kind of started getting the brand back out on the road.
“Then, the growth from all of that, as the roster kept getting better and people kept tuning in more, there was this undercurrent of, ‘hey TNA is doing some pretty good stuff,’ like our PLEs would pop off and people to say, ‘damn, this match was great, that match was incredible, this promo was awesome,” and just continued momentum. Now, what we did last year, selling out buildings with 7,000, 8,000, nearly 9,000 people in some cases, it felt so gratifying.
“To your point, it felt like it was, ‘this is the place to be.’ It felt very akin to other locker rooms I’ve been in. There was this special sauce happening right now, this special kind of magic happening. That’s what I feel very fortunate, very grateful to have been part of this roster during this incredible period of change and growth.”
The Tom & Matt duo
“Tom was the one who suggested that I try out commentary all the way back in WWE, and I’m very thankful to him for doing that. Originally, I wasn’t sure if that was something I wanted to do, but he really encouraged me, and I’m so glad that I did and that he did. He gave me great guidance. He gave me great training. Then, people like Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness, working with them, really helped me fall in love with the art of what we do. So, yeah. And then Tom and I did NXT UK together a couple of times.”
“So, by the time he showed up at TNA, he was not a stranger in the least. And so, when they asked me if I wanted to join commentary because he needed a partner, I was like, yeah. From that very first time we did it, which I believe was in February 2022, the rapport was already there. We didn’t have to spend weeks kind of, “how do you work? How do you do it? We already kind of had that vibe. So we just locked in right away and have just grown ever since.”
The Hardys joined @DramaKingMatt and @TomHannifan to reflect on their unforgettable history with Team 3D.@MATTHARDYBRAND @JEFFHARDYBRAND @TestifyDVon @bullyray5150
WATCH #TNAiMPACT on TNA+: https://t.co/tT7U8jSMmD pic.twitter.com/01XbLhMGdp
— TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) October 17, 2025
Wrestlers make their job easy
“I mean it. We said what we meant in El Paso. And look, there are incredible broadcasters out there, like when the wrestling is not good, when you could tell the people in the ring, they don’t care. I’ve seen it on many different shows in my career. I’ve been on hundreds of thousands of shows, from independent to WrestleMania, and everything in between. When you don’t feel it in the ring, when the people in the ring aren’t feeling it and everything, it makes it really hard for the commentary to like, “I’m going to try to cover up for that. I’m going to try to make this seem like more than it is because something’s not happening in the ring.” That’s really hard. It’s like dragging a rock.”
“Our roster, one, they’re all full of so many legitimately wonderful people, so we like to work with them. And, second, they’re so good at what they do that. I don’t want to take away from what we do because we’re very good, but it feels sometimes like we just sit back and think, it’s so good, and they’re telling good stories. So it’s not like we have to shoehorn these stories in there. They’re making it known. They’re telling it. We are just adding window dressing, adding a little bit of spice, a little bit of flavor here, but they do such a good job of getting the work done, getting the storytelling done in the ring, out of the ring, that we’re just there to kind of help move the machine along. And so I love being a part of that roster, a part of that group, and it’s one of the honors of my life.”
Two men help make every second of every TNA event better – @TomHannifan and @DramaKingMatt were the TNA All Stars for our El Paso events! Plus a bonus TNA All Star award for Riley, an essential part of TNA behind the scenes. pic.twitter.com/FXM3YRQ8eZ
— TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) December 8, 2025
The Microphone is his Superpower
“Sitting behind this microphone, I think, will be my lasting legacy in this business. I think it is my true superpower. Um, my superpower, I tell everyone, is making people excited about the things that excite me. And I think that goes back to even the days of Vaudevillains. I think of Rusev Day, my superpower came from getting people hyped up about Rusev. Now, in this role, I’m getting people to be invested, to care, to get hyped up about Leon Slater and Mustafa Ali, the System, Mike Santana.
“Mustafa Ali is somebody you could put this entire company on his back. His creative work, his dedication to his stories that he’s in, his character work, he’s one of the best in- ring performers, I think, on the planet today. His having a World Championship reign, at some point, is inevitable. ”
Watch the full interview with Matthew Rehwoldt below:
More from LWOS Pro Wrestling
Header image credit – TNA Wrestling – Stay tuned to Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on Matthew Rehwoldt, Thursday Night iMPACT, TNA on AMC, TNA Wrestling, and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world. As well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. Catch Thursday Night iMPACT on AMC in the US, Sportsnet in Canada, and TNA Plus worldwide. All TNA events, shows, and previous episodes are available on TNA Plus and the TNA Wrestling YouTube channel.
