Announcer

A ring announcer is a paid in-ring (and sometimes, on-camera) employee for a professional wrestling event or promotion. The primary duties of a ring announcer are to introduce the participants involved in the scheduled matches to the viewing audience, be it strictly an arena audience (as in a professional wrestling house show), or a live televised event.
In professional wrestling, the common format used by most ring announcers (which, again, may vary depending on the style of the announcer) usually resembles this written example introduction of professional wrestler Hulk Hogan: "Making his way to the ring (or, depending on where the wrestler is when the ring announcer begins the introduction, "Coming down the aisle," "About to enter the ring," or "Currently in the ring"), from Venice Beach, California, weighing 303 pounds (If the wrestler being announced holds a championship title, the ring announcer will state which title it is at the point in the introduction, in the format of "He is the current _____ Champion..."), Hulk...HOGAN!"
The ring announcer also will state the stipulation required to win the contest. For example, when a ring announcer says, "The following contest is scheduled for one fall," it is being conveyed that the upcoming match is a professional wrestling match that will be contested under traditional rules that can be won or lost by a single pinfall, submission, disqualification, or count-out. However, as it has been well documented, professional wrestling promotions have invented new match types over the years, creating new stipulations and objectives that a wrestler must perform in order to win the bout. One of a ring announcer's duties is to convey those stipulations to the arena and television audiences before introducing the match participants.
Lastly, when a bout reaches a conclusion, it is the ring announcer's duty to announce the winner. The winners name is announced after the bell has been sounded and usually this announcement is performed outside of the ring.
==Notable ring announcers==
* Mike McGuirk (former WWE ring announcer during the World Wrestling Federation era of the late 1980s to the early 1990s)
* Howard Finkel (formerly the sole WWE ring announcer for the majority of their cable television and pay-per-view events.)
* Lilian Garcia (former WWE Raw ring announcer)
* Justin Roberts (former WWE Raw ring announcer)
* Tony Chimel (former WWE SmackDown ring announcer)
* Gary Michael Cappetta (former WWF, NWA, and WCW ring announcer)
* David Penzer (former WCW ring announcer and TNA ring announcer)
* "Mean" Gene Okerlund (AWA/WWE/WCW)
Category:Professional wrestling slang