Veteran pro wrestling commentator and ring announcer Lenny Leonard is stepping down from the business.
This afternoon, Leonard announced on Twitter that he would no longer be involved in professional wrestling going forward. His bio now reads, “Kid from Queens who moved to Florida a LONG time ago & ended up with a great job at a bank, an absolutely wonderful woman & 3 amazing kids. I tried my best”
Leonard, who has been in the business since 2003 or earlier and has worked for a variety of promotions, noted in today’s Twitter statement that there are only so many spots for ring announcers on the indies, and it became clear that he would not be able to work for one of the televised wrestling companies. His complete statement is as follows:
“Didn’t want to make a big thing of it because it’s not how I do things, but a few people have noticed & reached out so I thought I should confirm what some figured out by virtue of the name/profile changes here.
I have decided to step away from wrestling going forward. After close to 2 decades I just think it’s time to call it a day. Evolve being sold to WWE and the pandemic closing Japan off to me for the last 3 years pretty much put the wheels for this day in motion a while back. There are only so many spots for announcers on the indy scene and it was very clear that there was not going to be a spot for me being part of one of the televised companies.
After Evolve, I had a blast doing stuff with GCW and the feedback from fans and talent was always great but I haven’t really figured into their plans since Mania weekend in Dallas, as KG & Prazak have been & will continue to be awesome in their roles there.
I had been working a bit for Jonathan Gresham on Terminus and Maria Kanellis-Bennett/Bobby Cruise on Women’s Wrestling Army, but the last 2 times Gresh reached out I had to decline due to real life conflicts. I don’t think it’s fair to him to not be able to count on his announcer being available every show, but with my ‘shoot job’ in the Executive Office of a very large financial institution managing the Auto & Student Lending Divisions, mid week shows were tough for me to pull off.
I thoroughly enjoyed working with WWA as well but had been feeling for some time that this day was coming, and when the September shows had to be moved, I saw that as the final sign I had been waiting for to call it a day. Alyssa Marino is going to be awesome no matter who they partner with her down the road.
I’m not using the word retire, not because I plan on coming back, but because wrestling announcing was never my career, but simply something I did. It’s probably a bit of semantics on my part, but I don’t think you can retire from something that wasn’t the primary way you supported your family and paid your bills.
Now the Lord knows I tried a few times to make that happen but it was never meant to be. I will say however that based on some of the things my friends have gone through the last few years, I can’t say I’m all that mad about it though. [wink emoji] [man shrugging emoji]
Can’t possibly thank everyone here, I’ll probably have to write a book to do that [wink emoji]… so let me just say if you were in the ring, the locker-room, the crowd, in front of your tv or your computer while I had a microphone in my hand talking about wrestling, you enabled me to live out a childhood dream and see the country/world for close to 20 years & I couldn’t possibly repay you for that, so simply allow me to say thank you, and for the last time, ‘so long from the Sunshine State.’
–Lenny ‘Leonard’ Thomas”
On his official Twitter page, Leonard is responding to the high praise from viewers, wrestlers, and other professionals. You can check out his tweets below:
A “Lenny Leonard” update (1/2) pic.twitter.com/dNK0wtQqsa
— Lenny Thomas (@LTFromAstoria) August 23, 2022
A “Lenny Leonard” Update (2/2) pic.twitter.com/vrQoMHnlYT
— Lenny Thomas (@LTFromAstoria) August 23, 2022
