Howard Finkel dead at 69

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Bandit
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Howard Finkel dead at 69

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Worst week ever for WWE.

He had an incredible voice and WWF in the 80s and 90s wouldn't be the same without him. He made matches feel special.

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Re: Howard Finkle dead at 69

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Terrible news.

RIP Fink.


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Re: Howard Finkel dead at 69

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He was recruited by Don King to announce and turned down big money because he loved the wrestling business so much.

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Re: Howard Finkle dead at 69

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Dr. Zoidberg wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2020 12:37 am Terrible news.

RIP Fink.

I'm glad they got referees better outfits. That guy looks like he's there to do work on the boiler room.

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Re: Howard Finkel dead at 69

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A great story about how that was his real voice even when he was just on the phone


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Re: Howard Finkel dead at 69

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Big Boss Man
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Re: Howard Finkel dead at 69

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Very sad news, The Fink was in my opinion the greatest ring announcer. Its not an overstatement to say he could and should have been announcing the big marquee boxing fights too. Vince really lucked out having Mean Gene, Jesse, Bobby, Gorilla and Fink as part of the WWF broadcast team. RIP Howard :(






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Big Boss Man
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Re: Howard Finkel dead at 69

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- One of only two ring announcers to be voted into the WON HOF (the other being Jimmy Lennon Sr.).

- His health issues were kept very private. Jerry Lawler mentioned in an interview that Finkel had a stroke in 2018 but no one was able to confirm that.

- He was one of the first subscribers to the WON, but did so under the name of his (then) girlfriend, Cathie Nickerson. One of his early jobs was to Xerox copies of the newsletter and to hand them out to all of the higher ups in the WWF. He was also asked to report on the happenings with the IWA. (* I assume this means the NWA)

- As the business evolved, he was tasked with checking all the big wrestling hotlines, internet newsletters, etc and put together a daily report for Vince called "The Finkel Report".

- At live shows, Finkel would grab the hammer for the ring bell on near falls like he was about to ring it to really sell to the fans nearby that it could be the finish.

- In the early 90's, an athletic commission needed Hogan's blood to test in order to license him for an event. For obvious reasons, the WWF didn't want to send Hogan's blood, so they had Finkel do a blood draw and sent that instead.

Credit: Wreddit
Also and I'd be interested to see if these shows are up on Network/YouTube

- Fink filled in doing play by play for the WWF in the mid 80s. Dave said he was very good at.

Image

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