Ring of Honor's Ian Riccaboni approaching lead announcer role with humility and gratitude

Professional wrestling is usually unkind to those that are modest.

It is an industry built upon men and women that are outspoken, even to the point of being braggadocios and/or arrogant.

Those are not traits solely reserved for the villains either. Even the good guys have to have an air of self-assurance about them.

Ian Riccaboni has every reason to embrace that feeling of self-assurance. In only three years, the Allentown native has gone from just another wrestling fan with a knack for talking to the lead television announcer for one of the premier wrestling promotions in the world in Ring of Honor.

But it is not Riccaboni's style to pat himself on the back. He is more comfortable being thankful for the opportunities he has been granted.

Riccaboni is always quick to praise the people that have helped him along the way. People like Ring of Honor ring announcer Bobby Cruise.

People like Danny Cage, who helped train him at the Monster Factory in Paulsboro, N.J.

People like wrestler Colt Cabana, who helped put a nervous Riccaboni at ease before Ring of Honor's 15th anniversary pay-per-view back on March 10.

And people like Kevin Kelly, whom he looks up to as his mentor and a big brother of sorts. Kelly was the lead announcer for Ring of Honor before parting ways with the promotion back in February, which gave way for Riccaboni to assume the role.

Even though Riccaboni sits in the same chair that his mentor used to sit in, he still doesn't refer to himself as the "voice" of Ring of Honor.

Nope, Riccaboni is simply too modest to so something like that. He'd rather pass that title to ring announcer Bobby Cruise due to his tenure with the promotion and relationship with its fans.

His sense of gratitude and humility was instilled in him long before he entered the wrestling business. It began along with his humble beginnings in the Lehigh Valley.

Riccaboni's parents are normal, everyday people. When Riccaboni was born his father was working three jobs. His mother was once a manager at McDonald's.

But as Riccaboni grew so did his family's affluence. He saw his family go from living in a trailer park to being able to vacation at Disney World.

With that growth came lessons. Among those lessons were to appreciate any and every opportunity that came Riccaboni's way, including the opportunity to be the lead announcer of a prominent wrestling promotion.

"Anytime that there's an achievement in my life, I think back to how hard my parents worked and I never want to squander that," Riccaboni said during an interview with philly.com.

"I've always been taught that some of the gifts or opportunities that we receive aren't always afforded to everybody no matter how hard they work, no matter how much effort they put in," he added.

Now that Riccaboni is Ring of Honor's lead announcer, his humility may be put to the test. That is because he now opens himself up to the criticism — constructive or not — from the very people that listen to him on a weekly basis.

Since there are so few prominent play-by-play announcers in professional wrestling, they can sometimes make for easy targets for wrestling fans.

Like anything else, Riccaboni plans on approaching any interaction he has with fans in a modest fashion and take any feedback under consideration, as long as it is constructive.

"I've talked to Kevin Kelly for hours and one of the things he and I worked on a lot is making sure I'm able to paint the picture in the most efficient way possible," he said. "Sometimes, I do kind of talk quite a bit."

"Sometimes, these folks — and I don't want to enable them — are on the money with some of the things that they're saying," he added.

Although fans may be on the money sometimes, he will still mostly differ to his more experienced colleagues at Ring of Honor, including Kelly, who still works with the company, but not in a full-time capacity.

"I realize that there are only maybe eight or nine national or international level play-by-play guys out there and it's just really humbling to be a part of that group," Riccaboni said. "It's something that I don't want to take for granted."

Not taking things for granted was one of the many lessons Riccaboni learned from his parents growing up.

Moving forward, Riccaboni plans on instilling those lessons into his infant son, Zach, with the hopes that he one day showcases the same gratitude and humility his father does.

"I've always been thankful for everything that I've had, but since becoming a dad, I've really started to frame things differently and look at things in a different light," Riccaboni said.