Howard Finkel

Howard Finkel (June 7, 1950 – April 16, 2020) was an American professional wrestling ring announcer, backstage worker, and occasional professional wrestler, best known for his appearances in WWE.

Finkel was born on June 7, 1950, in the city of Newark, New Jersey, and grew up with a Jewish family.

He began working for Vincent J. McMahon's World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in 1975, and was a Madison Square Garden ring announcer since 1977.

Finkel was WWE's longest-serving employee (40 years) and was widely regarded as the greatest ring announcer of all time.

Finkel, debuted as a ring announcer at Madison Square Garden on January 17, 1977.

By 1979, he was the World Wide Wrestling Federation's lead ring announcer for its biggest events.

He became the first WWE employee on April 1, 1980, and later its longest-serving.

Throughout his career, his distinctive voice was sometimes used in the title sequence for the company's various television programs.

His 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.

He came up with the event name "WrestleMania", as well as Ricky Steamboat's "Dragon" nickname.

In 1984, he became WWF's lead ring announcer for television tapings, replacing Joe McHugh.

Finkel appeared at every WrestleMania from 1985 to 2016.

Finkel did the voiceover in the intro for the WWE.com video show, The Dirt Sheet, and also conducted interviews for various WWE.com programs.

He was WWE's chief statistician.

On January 19, 1987, Finkel was presented a plaque by Gene Okerlund, commemorating ten years of announcing at Madison Square Garden.

In 1993, at the Roman-themed WrestleMania IX, he was introduced in a toga as "Finkus Maximus".

In 1995, Finkel took a seven-month hiatus from ring announcing on pay-per-views and television broadcasts (but not at house shows) and was replaced by Manny Garcia.

He returned to full-time ring announcing at Royal Rumble 1996.

By 2000, Howard Finkel had taken a lighter schedule with the additions of Lilian Garcia and Tony Chimel to Raw and SmackDown, respectively, but he still announced for some of the WWF/E's pay-per-view events.

By 2006, Finkel was rarely heard from even at pay-per-view wrestling events.

However, he regularly announced at house shows and introduced the WWE Hall of Fame inductees at WrestleMania.

He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009.

Finkel himself was inducted on April 4, 2009, by Gene Okerlund.

Because Finkel was one of that year's inductees, SmackDown announcer Justin Roberts replaced him in introducing the group at WrestleMania XXV.

Finkel's television appearances were sporadic, at major pay-per-views and occasional episodes of Raw and SmackDown.

On September 7, 2009, he announced in special guest host Bob Barker's The Price is Right-inspired segments.

He was in the background of the Decade of SmackDown celebrations on the October 2 episode.

Finkel returned to ring announcing (for one night only) on the November 15, 2010, "Old School" episode of Raw.

He appeared on an episode of NXT, in an "Outthink the Fink" challenge.

During a 2011 interview, Finkel said his knowledge of history had also played a part in the talent relations and creative departments during the early days of the WWF.

In an interview on March 28, 2011, Finkel stated his favorite (and career-defining) accomplishment was announcing at WrestleMania III, in front of over 93,000 fans.

On November 20, 2011, at Survivor Series in Madison Square Garden, Finkel was the special ring announcer for CM Punk, in his WWE Championship match against Alberto Del Rio.

On April 13, 2012, Finkel appeared on the "Blast from the Past" episode of SmackDown.

On July 23, 2012, Finkel was a special ring announcer on the 1,000th episode of Raw.

In 2014, Finkel was a cast member on the WWE Network original reality show, Legends' House.

He also served as the off-screen announcer for the network's comedy series, The Edge and Christian Show.

Finkel regularly appeared in the WWE web series The JBL and Cole Show, until the show's cancellation in June 2015.

His role in announcing the WWE Hall of Fame inductees at WrestleMania passed to other ring announcers in the WWE beginning in 2017.

On January 22, 2018, at the 25th anniversary of Monday Night Raw, Finkel was the announcer to introduce The Undertaker, although it was a recording due to him being unable to attend the event.

During the final years of his life, Finkel worked in a backstage role for WWE.