10 Wrestlers You Didn’t Realise Were Vitally Important To Their Promotions
1. Howard Finkel
Howard Finkel elevated every last WWF Championship win with that beautiful voice of his. The tone perfectly intersected enthusiasm and gravitas. With every pronouncement, Finkel turned a result into a moment. His cadence was so iconic and just...correct, that every one of his successors attempted to imitate the inimitable.
Finkel was more than a vital onscreen presence.
He was a smart and, before it was very cruelly deemed he had outlived it, useful presence. When Vince McMahon struggled to come up with a name for the flagship event that would change the complexion of the industry forever - his 'Colossal Tussle' was an unwieldy indulgence of his wordplay - Finkel pitched 'WrestleMania' as a riff on the Beatlemania craze that swept through the United States two decades prior. It was such a simple and yet inspired idea that an entire generation of wrestling fans knew its name before they knew of its inspiration.
A deeply knowledgable and inspired figure, Finkel's mind shaped much of the early Golden Years, and he doubled in an administrative capacity for the WWF. That might read as unglamorous, but pro wrestling to this day has a peculiar habit of being something of an organisational sh*t-show. Even in the otherwise switched-on AEW, every other YouTube clip is misspelled, and they double-booked the challenger for a Women's Title match with an indie on January 1. That is to say nothing of the hilarious escapades of WCW and TNA.
Finkel was a great man, a dedicated man, and the true unsung hero of the game.