Former WWE Announcer Recalls “Worst Announcement Ever” At WrestleMania 19
A former WWE ring announcer recalled a time when he was told to announce something at WrestleMania 19 and he called it the “worst announcement ever.”
The role of a WWE ring announcer is an important one because they are delivering a message to the audience in the arena or stadium along with those of us watching at home. In some instances, it’s a simple case of introducing a wrestler for a match, but there are also times when they give a specific introduction that their bosses told them to do.
Tony Chimel worked for WWE for nearly 40 years from 1983 until his release in April 2020 in a variety of different roles including a ring technician and an announcer. Many fans know Tony from his work as the main announcer on Smackdown when it started in 1999 and for the most part until 2007.
In the years that followed, Chimel was most known for the way his voice cracked when he would announce WWE Hall of Famer Edge as the “Rated R Superstar” with Chimel’s voice cracking whenever he would say the “superstar” part of the announcement.
At WrestleMania 19 in 2003 in Seattle, Tony Chimel was tasked with having to introduce Limp Bizkit to the audience with a specific phrase.
If you load up WrestleMania 19 on WWE Network/Peacock you can hear Chimel’s introduction at the 13:09 mark:
“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the WWE’s favorite band in the whole world…Limp Bizkit.”
During Dylan Postl/Hornswoggle’s Going Postl podcast with Tony Chimel as the guest, the former ring announcer spoke about the worst announcement that he had to do in WWE.
“By far, the f*cking worst announcement ever by me (was introducing Limp Bizkit at WrestleMania 19).”
“This is at WrestleMania, right?… In Seattle?… But (Mark) Yeaton, he goes, he’s like, ‘Chimel, they want you to introduce the band’ and I’m like, ‘Okay,’ and he’s like, ‘They want you to say, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome WWE’s favorite band in the whole world, Limp Bizkit’ and I’m like, ‘What? Who!?…’ So I had to make the announcement and it sucked, I hated it… It’s not INXS or ‘The Who’. Who the f*ck are these guys?” (He laughed)
Sorry to Fred Durst and Limp Bizkit, but clearly Tony Chimel doesn’t think that highly of you.
