The final inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2009 will be legendary ring announcer and noted company man Howard Finkel. Frankly he is more than deserving of the honor.
“The Fink,” as he is commonly referred to, is credited as being on of Vince McMahon’s first employees in the World Wrestling Federation and is currently the longest tenured employee on the payroll. By 1980 he became the company’s lead announcer for all their big events, and he has become synonymous with the calls of many of the WWF’s most famous matches. He is most famous for his trademark of emphasizing and stretching out the word “new” when he announced a brand new champion. Any long-time fan of pro wrestling knows exactly how it sounds and probably has his or her own version of the call.
Through the ‘90s Fink got himself involved in numerous storylines, including an infamous rivalry with manager Harvey Whippleman that concluded with a series of tuxedo matches between the two. After being the company’s chief ring announcer for around twenty years he passed the torch to Lilian Garcia early on in the new millennium. Finkel now works primarily behind the scenes and backstage at live events. He also runs his own features and appears regularly on wwe.com.
He no longer does ring announcing full time but still makes appearances at major pay per views, including WrestleMania. In the past few years it was Fink himself who would get the honor of announcing that year’s Hall of Fame class to the live audience. I guess someone else will get that honor this year.
Fink has also been credited as the man who coined the now famous “WrestleMania” pay per view name.
Howard Finkel is more than worthy of this induction for all the years of backstage work he has put in as well as iconic voice that has become such an integral part of WWE events through the years.
Class of 2009 WWE Hall of Fame inductees:
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin
Terry Funk & Dory Funk, Jr.
Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat
"Cowboy" Bill Watts
"The Birdman" Koko B. Ware
The Von Erich family
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