Last night was Monday Night Raw‘s return to WWE’s old stomping grounds (not to be confused with WWE Stomping Grounds), Madison Square Garden in New York City. Steve Austin was there to give the event a sense of gravitas, and even hit AJ Styles with a Stone Cold Stunner, but it turns out he wasn’t even the only WWE legend lurking around the place.
Howard “The Fink” Finkel, WWE’s most acclaimed ring announcer, was backstage at the event. Finkel started announcing for WWWF in 1975 and was already part of WWF when the company incorporated under that name in 1980. From there he stayed a fixture for 20 years, becoming increasingly involved in storylines throughout the 90s. He mostly retired around the turn of the century, but kept making regular appearances in the years after, as by that time the sound of his voice was basically synonymous with WWE. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009.
Finkel survived a stroke in 2018, and has made fewer public appearances since, but he was hanging out backstage with the boys last night, as we can see from Instagram posts by Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins.
Even if he’s not necessarily up for appearing on camera at the moment, just having the Fink there with the talent must have made the Madison Square Garden show feel that much more like a homecoming for WWE.
