Last week we lost a true wrestling legend when Gordon Solie passed
away at age 71. Gordon was a hero to us. His announcing got us hooked on
pro wrestling. He could make us mark out at just about any angle or any
match because, at his best, Gordon Solie had no peer. It is with great
sadness that we say goodbye to someone who brought us so much joy. We know
the last few months of Gordon's life were painful and we can only hope
that now his pain has ended and he is in a better place.
What follows is the Gordon Solie Tribute we wrote when, in 1999, we
presented him with the Wrestling Perspective Editors' Award For Lifetime
Achievement.
Rest In Peace Mr. Solie.
This article was originally published in Wrestling Perspective #77
1999 Editors’ Award For Lifetime Achievement: Gordon
Solie
Quite simply, we along with thousands - or even millions - of other
longtime wrestling fans grew up watching and listening to Gordon Solie.
Whether it was as the lead announcer for Georgia Championship Wrestling
or Championship Wrestling from Florida, Gordon was there not only calling
the action, but enhancing it and making it something memorable. If you
were fortunate enough to hear it, you’d never forget Gordon’s call of Terry
Gordy piledriving Ted DiBiase on the old WTBS studio floor or his announcing
of the amazing Barry Windham-Ron Bass saddle match from Tampa.
Gordon’s voice, brilliant insight and genuine love for this business
made everything he called better. With his voice and credibility, he made
stars out of dozens of wrestlers including Roddy Piper, Don Muraco, Tommy
Rich, Windham, Brad Armstrong and Mike Rotunda. He made heroes out of Dusty
Rhodes, Tony Atlas and Blackjack Mulligan. He made Kevin Sullivan and Buzz
Sawyer sound like dastardly villains. He gave a forum to some of this business’
greatest stars and pushed them to legendary heights.
During an interview with Wrestling Perspective (appearing in Issues
55 and 56), Gordon described his legendary voice as “16 pounds of gravel.”
To us at WP, it’s music to our ears. Gordon was the first announcer we
ever heard with an encyclopedic knowledge of wrestling holds, but at the
same time, he let the wrestlers be the focal point of the program. That
selflessness is something that many of today’s announcers should learn.
Perhaps referring to Gordon as the Dean of Wrestling Announcers isn’t
really fitting. Deans are bureaucrats, Gordon is anything but. He
spent his career working in the trenches. For several years,
Gordon flew back and forth between Florida and Georgia every week to call
matches for two promotions. He worked hard at his craft, and in his
prime, there wasn’t another announcer who called a match as well as Gordon.
Never has an announcer been able to build a match, convince the audience
that a false-finish was the finish, or get an angle over like Gordon.
When he said the match was over, or that an injury was career threatening,
you believed it. Why? Because Gordon had credibility.
He created a trust between himself and the audience and he never broke
that trust. That trust meant he could sell an angle or a match, which
he did brilliantly. Gordon Solie’s body of work represents wrestling
announcing's paradigm - a paradigm that may never be equaled.
There are numerous people in this business worthy of receiving the Editors’
Award and many were considered. But there are few, if any people in wrestling
who have had the impact and influence on the editors of Wrestling Perspective
as Gordon Solie. He’s much more than the Dean of Wrestling Announcers,
he’s a wrestling legend. Congratulations Gordon. You deserve this and many
other honors.
This article is Copyright © 1999, 2000 Wrestling Perspective.
All Rights Reserved. This article may not be quoted, reprinted or distributed
without written permission from Wrestling Perspective publishers Paul MacArthur
and David Skolnick.