Sad 2001 Story When Howard Finkel Was Taken to “Wrestler’s Court” And Was Bullied And Humiliated

Howard Finkel passed away at the age of 69 on Thursday, April 16.

This week’s edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter featured a lengthy bio on The Fink, and included a sad story from an incident that took place in 2001 after Fink was taken off TV, but was still working live events. Finkel was reportedly put on trial at the backstage Wrestler’s Court.

Fink was supposed to take a slap from one of the female talent. Fink knew it was coming and since he wasn’t trained at taking moves, he flinched badly and the spot fell flat. Finkel was then taken to "court" because the spot came off looking bad.

 Finkel was “bullied and absolutely humiliated” while on trial at Wrestler’s Court. This was shortly after WCW wrestlers were brought over to WWE after the purchase of the company, and some believed they were doing this to show the new guys how things are handled in WWE, and Finkel was just the scapegoat.

 Dave Meltzer was told that the incident was totally uncalled for, and that Finkel was on the verge of tears. This made it even more uncomfortable for a lot of the wrestlers that weren’t into the bullying of nice people, which wasn’t a thing in WCW the way it was in WWE.

Finkel was described as devastated after the “trial” was over, and was sentenced to get slapped in the face again by another female talent. As he did before, Finkel reportedly flinched again because he wasn’t a trained wrestler. He was not taken back to Wrestler’s Court after the second incident, but he was once again berated for it.

One veteran wrestler described the Finkel incident as one of the most immature and cruel things he’d ever seen in the pro wrestling business.