Howard Finkel was an American professional wrestling ring announcer, best known for his appearances in WWE.
30 Facts About Howard Finkel
2.
Howard Finkel began working for Vincent J McMahon's World Wide Wrestling Federation in 1975, and was a Madison Square Garden ring announcer since 1977.
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Howard Finkel was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009.
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Howard Finkel was born on June 7,1950, in the city of Newark, New Jersey, and grew up with a Jewish family.
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Howard Finkel, debuted as a ring announcer at Madison Square Garden on January 17,1977.
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Howard Finkel became the first WWE employee on April 1,1980, and later its longest-serving.
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Howard 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.
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Howard Finkel came up with the event name "WrestleMania", as well as Ricky Steamboat's "Dragon" nickname.
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On January 19,1987, Howard Finkel was presented a plaque by Gene Okerlund, commemorating ten years of announcing at Madison Square Garden.
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In 1995, Howard Finkel took a seven-month hiatus from ring announcing on pay-per-views and television broadcasts and was replaced by Manny Garcia.
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Howard Finkel returned to full-time ring announcing at Royal Rumble 1996.
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In November 1990, Howard 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 to let him take over as guest ring announcer for the match.
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Later that year the feud turned physical when Howard Finkel shoved Wippleman before being triple teamed by Wippleman, Kim Chee and Kamala.
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Howard Finkel became involved in a feud between X-Pac and Jeff Jarrett, when Jarrett shaved the already near-bald Howard Finkel's head.
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X-Pac won the match and Howard Finkel assisted him in cutting Jarrett's hair.
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Howard Finkel ran down the aisle, shoving Chimel and ordering him to step aside.
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Several weeks later, Howard Finkel adopted the role of El Dopo, a masked referee who unfairly officiated a Shamrock match, awarding the win to Curtis Hughes.
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Howard Finkel turned heel on an August 2002 episode of Raw and began a brief feud with Raw ring announcer Lilian Garcia over the lead spot, before both were attacked by 3-Minute Warning.
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Howard Finkel himself was inducted on April 4,2009, by Gene Okerlund.
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Howard Finkel returned to ring announcing on the November 15,2010, "Old School" episode of Raw.
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Howard Finkel appeared on an episode of NXT, in an "Outthink the Fink" challenge.
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On November 20,2011, at Survivor Series in Madison Square Garden, Howard Finkel was the special ring announcer for CM Punk, in his WWE Championship match against Alberto Del Rio.
23.
On July 23,2012, Howard Finkel was a special ring announcer on the 1,000th episode of Raw.
24.
In 2014, Howard Finkel was a cast member on the WWE Network original reality show, Legends' House.
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Howard Finkel served as the off-screen announcer for the network's comedy series, The Edge and Christian Show.
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Howard Finkel regularly appeared in the WWE web series The JBL and Cole Show, until the show's cancellation in June 2015.
27.
On January 22,2018, at the 25th anniversary of Monday Night Raw, Howard Finkel was the announcer to introduce The Undertaker, although it was a recording due to him being unable to attend the event.
28.
On June 14,2020, at the Backlash PPV, a recording of Howard Finkel introducing both Edge and Randy Orton to the 'Greatest Wrestling Match Ever' was played, introducing the pair of combatants.
29.
Howard Finkel died on April 16,2020, at the age of 69, from COVID-19.
30.
Howard Finkel had been unwell since a stroke in February 2019.