Howard Finkel (June 7, 1950 – April 16, 2020) was born on June 7, 1950, in the city of Newark, New Jersey. He was an American professional wrestling ring announcer, backstage worker, and occasional professional wrestler, best known for his appearances in WWE. He began working for Vincent J. McMahon's World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in 1975, and was a Madison Square Garden ring announcer since 1977. Finkel was WWE's longest-serving employee (40 years) and was widely regarded as the greatest ring announcer of all time. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009.

Finkel, debuted as a ring announcer at Madison Square Garden on January 17, 1977. By 1979, he was the World Wide Wrestling Federation's lead ring announcer for its biggest events. He became the first WWE employee on April 1, 1980, and later its longest-serving. Throughout his career, his distinctive voice was sometimes used in the title sequence for the company's various television programs. His signature call was his announcement of a new champion following a title change, in which he would place extra emphasis on the word "new" in order to draw the greatest reaction from the crowd. He came up with the event name "WrestleMania", as well as Ricky Steamboat's "Dragon" nickname. In 1984, he became WWF's lead ring announcer for television tapings, replacing Joe McHugh.

By 2000, Howard Finkel had taken a lighter schedule with the additions of Lilian Garcia and Tony Chimel to Raw and SmackDown, respectively, but he still announced for some of the WWF/E's pay-per-view events. By 2006, Finkel was rarely heard from even at pay-per-view wrestling events. However, he regularly announced at house shows and introduced the WWE Hall of Fame inductees at WrestleMania. Finkel himself was inducted on April 4, 2009, by Gene Okerlund. Because Finkel was one of that year's inductees, SmackDown announcer Justin Roberts replaced him in introducing the group at WrestleMania XXV. Finkel's television appearances were sporadic, at major pay-per-views and occasional episodes of Raw and SmackDown. Finkel appeared at every WrestleMania from 1985 to 2016.

During the final years of his life, Finkel worked in a backstage role for WWE. He was WWE's chief statistician. Finkel was also a cast member on the WWE Network original reality show, Legends' House.

As an announcer, Finkel was generally separate from the scripted angles, but occasionally he became part of the company's storylines. 1992 saw the beginning of a feud with manager Dr. Harvey Wippleman, who regularly complained about Finkel's announcing and often making comments on his appearance. Later that year the feud turned physical when Finkel shoved Wippleman before being triple teamed by Wippleman, Kim Chee and Kamala. When Wippleman dropped the doctor gimmick, the feud would cool off until WrestleMania X, when Wippleman berated Finkel’s appearance again and tore off part of the announcer's tuxedo, who finally retaliated by pushing the manager to the ground before being confronted by Wippleman’s Adam Bomb before being saved by Earthquake leading to the start of their match. The ongoing feud would lead to Finkel's first match on January 9, 1995; on Monday Night Raw, he won a tuxedo match over Wippleman, by stripping him to his underwear.

In August 1999, Finkel became a lackey of the recently debuted Chris Jericho. On August 26, during the network debut episode of WWF SmackDown, Jericho encouraged Finkel to attack SmackDown announcer Tony Chimel and take back his place as lead announcer. Finkel ran down the aisle, shoving Chimel and ordering him to step aside. As Finkel started to announce, Chimel threw Finkel from the ring. While Jericho helped Finkel to the back, they crossed paths with Ken Shamrock, who jostled with Jericho. Jericho convinced Finkel to distract Shamrock during his match.

After Finkel berated Shamrock, Shamrock began twisting Finkel's finger, permitting Jericho to hit Shamrock from behind with a steel chair. Several weeks later, Finkel adopted the role of "El Dopo", a masked referee who unfairly officiated a Shamrock match, awarding the win to Curtis Hughes. On the October 14 episode of SmackDown!, Jericho defeated Hughes with help from Finkel, but gave Finkel to Curtis Hughes after the match. Four days later on Monday Night Raw, Hughes bet and lost Finkel in a game of poker, to The Acolytes. Finkel turned heel on an August 2002 episode of Raw and began a brief feud with Raw ring announcer Lilian Garcia over the lead spot, before both were attacked by 3-Minute Warning. The following week, Garcia defeated Finkel in an evening gown/tuxedo match with help from Trish Stratus and Stacy Keibler, who were insulted by a remark made by Finkel.

Finkel died on April 16, 2020, at the age of 69. He had been unwell since a stroke in February 2019.

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