Announcer Gary Michael Cappetta On His Favorite Matches He’s Called, WWE Evolving Their Live Events

– Gary Michael Cappetta spoke with Wrestling Inc for a new interview discussing his lengthy announcing career. Highlights are below:

On his energetic announcing style: “You know what the secret is? If you’re a fan that comes through. You can’t fake that. So that when I was giving you a rousing introduction of whichever wrestler it was, it was because I was excited. I’ve always been a fan and that’s the secret sauce.”

On his favorite matches he’s called: “I break it down to decades because four decades I’ve been involved. One was when I was with the WWF, it was Superstar Billy Graham—when he was the champion—Bruno Sammartino was coming back for his title. I was the house announcer for the WWF in Philadelphia at the Spectrum. Three months in a row, 19,500 people, sold out. That was a series of three matches. Move into the ’89-’90, it was Ric Flair [versus] Ricky Steamboat, three matches in Chicago, Nashville, and New Orleans. I knew at the time, you could just feel the importance of that.”

On WWE evolving their live tours: “We’re so fortunate today that we have so many different alternatives. If you’re talking about WWE, they’re looking for a different feel. They’re looking for a festival experience, not so much a dirty, kind of, drag down kind of match. Even though they talk that way. If you go to see one of their live shows, half of the show is the guys and gals taking selfies on the way to the ring, wrestling is a little bit of it. They don’t even announce the main events or the matches in advance, so it’s a whole different feel. Nobody does what they do, better than they do. But there are different—Ring of Honor, which I did backstage interviewing for—it’s more of my style of wrestling, even though it’s really today, really current and cool, they stick with the traditional of wrestling.”