Former WWE ring announcer Howard Finkel died today/Wednesday April 16, and he is being remembered by all of those associated with professional wrestling as one of the best, if not the best, wrestling ring announcers of all time…And he was, he did an outstanding job, and he had the voice inflection to prove it….
Background on Howard Finkel from Wikipedia:
Finkel died on April 16, 2020, at the age of 69. He had a stroke a year prior and was in bad health preceding his death.
Many nice things being said about Howard Finkel today and here is one of those statements from our friend, Bruce Mitchell, from the PWTorch and PWTorch.com….Bruce himself is one we have dubbed as the “King of the Ring Reporters” and deservedly so, with the work he has turned in at The Torch over the past years…
Bruce said this today, and no disrespect to Bruce or to Howard Finkel for this Bruce Mitchell comment, I just don’t agree with Bruce here…
Here the Bruce Mitchell comment….
God speed to Howard Finkel, by my estimation the best ring announcer in the history of all combat sports.
The comment by Bruce was from Twitter and when I read it, the first name I thought of when I read the Tweet from Bruce was, Michael Buffer…
Buffer in professional boxing, professional wrestling and in Buffer in the UFC…
Here is one of the trademark deals that makes Buffer stand out and I don’t think Howard Finkel had anything like going for him…
Buffer began using the phrase “Let’s get ready to rumble!” in 1984. By 1992, he acquired a federal trademark for the phrase. As of 2009, the catchphrase has generated multi-millions in revenue from licensing the trademark.
Hey, and it’s not about the money that Buffer put together….Listen, I am sure Howard Finkel was a great guy and I can tell by all of the reaction that I have seen today about his passing, that Howard Finkel was loved by nearly everyone in the wrestling business…
Finkel by all accounts was great person and he has the friends that can prove it and maybe Michael Buffer is not such a great guy and he may not be remembered in the same regard as Howard Finkel…I’m just saying here and now, that I think Michael Buffer was a better ring announcer that Howard Finkel was…
Michael Buffer’s “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble” is a part of Pop Culture history…You don’t even have to know who Michael Buffer is when you hear that catchphrase, “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble”…People that have heard it over the years just know it….
I’m just saying Michael Buffer was a better ring announcer than Howard Finkel and that’s all this is about….But, I still say that Bruce Mitchell has lost his mind….What was he thinking???
Maybe the respect he had for Howard Finkel got the best of Bruce, and on the day when Howard Finkel has just passed away, I guess we can’t blame Bruce for that…
RIP:Howard Finkle
Bruce Mitchell stunned, but he has responded/reacted…
Bruce Mitchell
@mitchellpwtorch
Definitely.
Howard Finkel better than Michael Buffer? Has Bruce Mitchell lost his mind???(YES!!!)/But let’s look into this and find out why??? » Greensboro Sports
Interesting note here from Mike Mooneyham, with the Courier-Post Tribune, out of Charleston, South Carolina…
Howard Finkel told Slam Wrestling in a 2014 interview that he originally pitched the “Wrestlemania” moniker to Vince McMahon when the concept was first formed.
Recalling the huge impression The Beatles had created in 1964, Finkel approached McMahon during a meeting while brainstorming for a name.
“This was 1984, so I said 20 years ago four guys from Liverpool came across the shores to the United States and made a phenomenal impression on everybody. They called that Beatlemania. So I said, ‘There was Beatlemania. Why can’t there be Wrestlemania?’”