The Evil History Of Pro Wrestling | WWE’s Treatment Of Howard Finkel
In addition to playing a dirty old man who said that Stacy Keibler was interfering with something in his trousers, Fink played a deranged, slut-shaming has-been. (In reality, Garcia has revealed that Finkel could not have been more helpful to the person who had succeeded him in his dream job).
The Garcia feud was awful. As part of the angle, Trish Stratus stood up for Garcia and slapped Finkel in the face. Finkel flinched in the moment before the slap because he was not a trained professional wrestler. This was execrable stuff. Who cares about how badly it was performed when the idea was so unworkable?
The damn boys, that’s who. According to the April 27, 2020 Observer, Fink was taken to Wrestler’s Court: an exercise in harassment and bullying masquerading as a means of settling disputes beyond the glare of management. What was Finkel’s “crime”: exposing the business? In 2002? Would any of the wrestlers who delighted in this twisted procedure have been remotely good at ring announcing?
The story, which Lance Storm backed up on Wrestling Observer Live in 2024, was that Finkel was used as an example to the rest of the roster, which was in a state of turnover resulting from the purchase of WCW and the promotions from Ohio Valley Wrestling. Storm revealed that he spotted Finkel in tears afterwards, embraced and apologised to him, and felt like a coward for not calling out the “f*cking bullsh*t” that was “just wrong”.
When it came time for Finkel to literally show ass for his crimes in a second angle - in those ever-present big red underpants - Jim Ross mentioned that they were stained. Jerry Lawler said he saw skid marks. Ross, to be fair, was just doing his job. It must have been nice seeing somebody else on the receiving end of it.
In an old ROH shoot interview, William ‘Paul Bearer’ Moody and Jim Cornette also shed light on how Finkel was treated.
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