I have a fondness for many of the old-school ring announcers. They all had a a certain flair for the dramatic, and made the introduction of any match seem special. The art of classic ring announcing went the way of the old smoke filled rooms that were the classic old venues in pro-wrestling.
One of my favorites might surprise you; the great Joe McHugh of the old W.W.W.F.
McHugh was a wrestling and boxing announcer going back to the 1950s, most famously with wrestling fans at the W.W.W.F. television tapings at Allentown, Pennsylvania's Agricultural Hall. When I first saw WWF "Championship Wrestling" on WOR-9 out of Secaucus, NJ in around 1981, I thought to myself, "Now THAT is a ring announcer."
This is an audio clip of McHugh introducing "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers at the Philadelphia Spectrum in the mid-1980s. I loved the way McHugh included the historical mention of Rogers being the only man (at that time) to have held both the NWA and WWF world titles. Those details mattered, and meant something to fans in that era.
The audio of that introduction is included here:
I always thought Joe McHugh and Raleigh's Joe Murnick (my favorite ring announcer of them all) were kindred spirits, at least in their ring announcing style, and both with accents of speech that clearly demonstrated from where in the country they hailed. They are both at the very top of my list.
(Edited from a post originally published January 2018 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.)
