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So You Think You Can Dance?

Posted: Jun 15th 2012 By: CMBurnham

Some of the most unappreciated people in the wrestling industry are the ring announcers. They're interchangable, often unnamed and seen as only serving to read information on a card and then go sit down.

Most ring announcers take great pride in what they do. Some just happen to stumble into the position by accident.

Rarely is there any interaction from ring announcers. But when multiple federations run in the same area, sometimes even the ring announcers get caught up in the territorial conflict.

For 2 months, MSWA and SWCW have been waging a territorial war. MSWA ring announcer C. M. Burnham has been interrupted on more than one occasion by SWCW ring announcer Milton Winkelman when SWCW talent has been involved in matches on these cards. Some of the things that Milton has said have been derogatory and personal, but that's to be expected when the bulk of the SWCW roster is there to back him up.

When no SWCW stars show up for the event, though, it's a different story, as Milton found out last Sunday. Winkelman ended up being the only representative at the MSWA event and MSWA owner Bad Boy called him out to the ring to have a little fun.

As Winkelman joined Burnham and Bad Boy in the ring, the owner said that he understood that Winkelman was the only SWCW representative there that week, but it put him in a bad position. Winkelman isn't a wrestler or even a referee, he's just a ring announcer. But he also knew that Winkelman was looking for a job with MSWA again. He proposed a dance-off in the ring between Winkelman and Burnham. Before that event happened, though, he needed Winkelman to get on his knees and admit to everyone present that MSWA was better than SWCW. Winkelman seemed reluctant to do this, but eventually humbled himself before Bad Boy and told the crowd that his first announcing job had been at MSWA and there was no way to deny that it was better than SWCW.

After that, music began to play and Milton attempted to two-step his way back into a job. He did an admirable job as it was obvious that he was terrified to be doing this in front of the assembled crowd. When he was done, it was Burnham's turn. The MSWA ring announcer had classical dance training, although that would give him little assistance in this case. When the techno-music hit, Burnham did everything he could to feel the beat and let everything shake to the fans' enjoyment. And they DID enjoy it as the cheers broke out shortly after the dancing began.

When it was over, Bad Boy asked for the fans' vote and it was overwhelmingly in favour of Burnham. Winkelman was dejected and then had salt rubbed in the wound when Bad Boy informed him that there was never actually a job opening in MSWA for him anyway, at least not in front of the crowd. However there was a need to have some toilets cleaned and that seemed to be an opening that Winkelman was willing to accept.

Later in the show, Burnham called out Winkelman again to sweep the ring in order to ensure the main event would be a "clean" match and Milton complied, shoving a push-broom around the ring before being ordered to the back again.

It's lonely at the bottom, but after associating with the arrogance of the SWCW faction, perhaps a big dose of humility will serve Winkelman well.