Howard Finkel

Howard Finkel

Howard Finkel (June 7, 1950 – April 16, 2020) was an American professional wrestling ring announcer, employed by WWE.[2] He began working for Vince McMahon Sr.'s World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in 1975, making him the company's longest tenured employee, and was a ring announcer since 1977.[1] Widely regarded as one of the best ring announcers of all time,[3] Finkel was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009.

Finkel, a native of Newark, New Jersey, is the WWE's first employee after having been first hired in 1975 by Vince McMahon, Sr. for what was then known as the WWWF. Finkel debuted as a ring announcer at Madison Square Garden on January 17, 1977. By 1979, he had become the organization's lead ring announcer for their biggest events. Finkel became the first employee of the WWE on April 1, 1980 and had been the longest lasting employee until his passing.[4] Throughout his career, Finkel's distinctive voice was sometimes used in the title sequence for the company's various television programs. Finkel's signature call was his announcement of a new champion following a title change, in which he would place extra emphasis on the word "new", in order to draw the greatest reaction from the crowd.[5] Finkel came up with the event name "WrestleMania", as well as Ricky Steamboat's "Dragon" nickname. In 1984, Finkel became WWF's lead ring announcer for TV tapings, replacing the retired Joe McHugh. During a 2011 interview, Finkel said he had also played a part in the talent relations and creative departments during the early days of the WWF.[6]

On January 19, 1987, Howard Finkel was presented a plaque by Gene Okerlund, commemorating ten years of announcing at Madison Square Garden.[7] In 1993, at the "Roman"-themed WrestleMania IX, Howard Finkel was introduced in a toga as Finkus Maximus.

In 1995, Finkel took a seven-month hiatus from ring announcing on PPVs and Television broadcasts (but not at house shows) and was replaced by Manny Garcia. Finkel returned to full-time ring announcing at Royal Rumble 1996.

Finkel in storylines

As an announcer, Finkel was generally separate from the scripted angles, but occasionally he became part of the company's storylines. In November 1990, Finkel played a tangential role in Curt Hennig defeating Kerry Von Erich to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship after he accepted a bribe from Ted DiBiase (whom Von Erich had recently attacked on The Brother Love Show) to let him take over as guest ring announcer for the match. DiBiase would eventually help Hennig to win the title by hitting Von Erich with the championship belt and afterwards taunted Von Erich over his defeat.

1992 saw the beginning of a feud with manager Dr. Harvey Wippleman, who would regularly complain about Finkel's announcing. In 1992, Finkel was attacked by Wippleman's wrestler Kamala; at WrestleMania X Wippleman berated Finkel and tore off part of the announcer's tuxedo, who finally retaliated by pushing the manager to the ground. This led to Finkel's first match on January 9, 1995; on Monday Night Raw, he won a tuxedo match over Wippleman, by stripping him to his underwear.

Finkel became involved in a feud between X-Pac and Jeff Jarrett, when Jarrett shaved the already near-bald Finkel's head. This feud culminated in a Hair versus Hair Match at SummerSlam 1998, with Finkel in the corner of X-Pac. X-Pac won the match and Finkel assisted him in cutting Jarrett's hair.

In August 1999, Finkel became a lackey of the recently debuted Chris Jericho. On August 26, during the pilot episode of WWF SmackDown, Jericho encouraged Finkel to attack SmackDown announcer Tony Chimel and take back his place as lead announcer. Finkel ran down the aisle, shoving Chimel and ordering him to step aside. As Finkel started to announce, Chimel threw Finkel from the ring. While Jericho helped Finkel to the back, they crossed paths with Ken Shamrock, who jostled with Jericho. Jericho convinced Finkel to distract Shamrock during his match. After Finkel berated Shamrock, Shamrock began twisting Finkel's finger, permitting Jericho to hit Shamrock from behind with a steel chair. Several weeks later, Finkel adopted the role of El Dopo, a masked referee who unfairly officiated a Shamrock match, awarding the win to Curtis Hughes.[8] On the October 14 episode of SmackDown!, Jericho defeated Hughes with help from Finkel, but gave Finkel to Curtis Hughes after the match.[9] Four days later on Monday Night Raw, Curtis Hughes bet and lost Finkel in a game of poker, to The Acolytes.[10]

On an August 2002 episode of Raw, Finkel turned heel and began a brief feud with Raw ring announcer Lilian Garcia over the lead spot, before both were attacked by 3-Minute Warning.[11] The following week, Garcia defeated Finkel in an evening gown/tuxedo match with help from Trish Stratus and Stacy Keibler, who were insulted by a remark made by Finkel.