2020 Pro Wrestling Thread

No. Everything is back to being live as a result of the "essential business" stunt.

Would be funny if Triple H puts the cruiserweight belt on Drake, and Drake then resorts to different means to hold on to the title to keep his job.

 

He mentioned that he asked to work the tournament after finding out he was fired, and thanked the E for letting him work it.

 

I assumed it was a regular elimination, hed go out on his back last night almost as a hero. To have him work 3 times is just.....jesus.

Hypothetically it would be an incredible work shoot to put the belt on a guy in a mass release. In any other scenario. In a global pandemic though..... perhaps not a very good idea

 

Aw god dammit

 

Guess Heaven needed a NEEEWWWWW! ring announcer.

 

Earlier this week, someone had tweeted the clip of Howard being Punk's guest ring announcer, with the MSG crowd going ballistic. That reminded me of seeing recent pics of him not looking too good, and I got a really bad feeling.

RIP to one of the voices of my youth. So many times, I'll see the name of a random town, and I'll just imagine hearing it in Howard's voice (try it, it's fun). This one hurts.

 

I've never seen this clip until now. It's in the early to mid 90s, with Howard's feud with Harvey Whippleman. Back then, the WWF did some cross-promotion with Lawler's USWA, and Howard went down to Memphis to work with Whippleman (Downtown Bruno).



I do recall Howard doing a heel turn for a while when Lillian Garcia first came in. One fun memory was Lillian, who wasn't that good in the beginning, announcing a match, and Howard coming in, telling her to step aside as he would show her how it should be done. Howard then did his, "the next contest is scheduled for ONE FALL!!!" and the crowd popped. Always found that amusing.

 

Best ring announcer of all time, hands down.
I remember watching the monthly MSG house shows on the MSG Network back in the late 80s and early 90s. One of the weird things I always looked forward to was when he would announce the card for the following month. The style he did it in, the way he sold the matches made it seem like such a big deal that you couldn't wait to come back. Doubly so when there was a big match that was a fresh feud, where a face finally got their shot at a title. He'd announce something like, "Ravishing Rick Rude will defend the WWF Intercontinental championship ... against ... ... ... Bret ... The Hitmaaan HART!" and the crowd that was hanging on that second name would just go nuts when he finally gave it up. Great, great stuff.

 

I always loved his voice inflections when he would announce that "Mr. Volkov requests that you ... ALL RISE ... to respect his SINGING of the SOVIET NATIONAL ANTHEM!!"

And also when he would announce Mr. Fuji in an ominous voice.

 

Will always remember the promos he did for house shows during the Saturday afternoon shows in the 1980s: "Tremendous WWF action is coming to YOURRRRRRRRR AREAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

 

We're all talking about his ring announcing, but he also worked behind the scenes and was the WWE's first employee.

His most important contribution: He came up with the name "Wrestelmania".

 

It's still real to Lana, dammit!