6 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Hell In A Cell 2017
Ups...
6. Some Love For Greg Hamilton
For fans of a certain age, no one will ever be able to top Howard Finkel. The iconic WWF/E ring announcer was the voice of a generation of youngsters who dreamed of hearing themselves announced as new champion.
But WWE has had a dearth of ring announcers in recent years, with the company turning to less-than-adequate, unmemorable barkers. While JoJo might be beautiful and have an incredible singing voice, it’s hard to imagine anyone envisioning walking down the ramp to her ring introductions.
But SmackDown ring announcer Greg Hamilton deserves a little credit. He seems to have gotten some of the best parts of the job down. His cadence in introducing wrestlers is great – listen to him run down AJ Styles’ intro. His inflection works really well too – listen to him introduce Shinsuke Nakamura. And he gets something right that JoJo constantly fails to do: knowing that that the fans today often repeat “one fall” as part of their audience participation routine, Hamilton actually waits for them to do their bit before continuing.
Sure, Hamilton is no Finkel, but hearing him Sunday night was a reminder that some ring announcers are better than others, and Greg is pretty good.