Gordon Solie called Wrestling’s Walter Cronkite because of his distinguished, educative, superb on-air presence. He could relate to regular, every-folk still remains my benchmark.
Solie commentated in Florida, Georgia, USA Championship (out of Knoxville, TN), Continental, and even at the end, for “Ring Warriors”.
He could be heard on TV outside North America and was paired with Bruno Sammartino for the very first time. He was doing voiceover work on New Japan’s great action at the time. Jim Ross is obviously right there as Gordon’s later peer with most everyone following.
From Bob Caudle who just had, what his amazing 90th birthday to Lance Russell who we lost not long after Jerry Lawler was able to bring him to one of his last public appearances at a Vegas Cauliflower Alley reunion.
WWWF’s Bill Cardille, Vince Jr on occasion, Roy Shire’s original and first voice, Walt Harris from 1961. Harris was already an established KTVU/channel two newspeople in San Francisco.
He was the sports director covering the San Francisco Giants and their training camps. If you’ve not heard Walt call action in his booth, he belongs right up there with the above greats.
Gordon Solie
We at CAC honored him onstage in 1996 in LA. The new NWA honored him in 2005, and PWI Magazine awarded him 1977’s & announcer of the Year. Plus, he was awarded in ’89, giving him their lead Editor’s Award.
PWHOFame/Museum honored him posthumously in 2004, WWE’s HOF in 2008 with Jim Ross presenting to Gordon’s five kids, WCW in 1995 and Wrestler Observer Awards as Best TV announcer from 1981-83 and elected to their HOF in 1996.
In that regard, I’ve been writing a lot about who we’d have on various wrestling Mount Rushmore’s, and Gordon, Ross, Russell would have to be up there.
But who would be the fourth stone, “talking head?” SF’s Walt Harris? Los Angeles’ Dick Lane? Midwest Sammy Menacker?
More modern-day historians might cite Joey Styles to PWG’s Excalibur now lending his verbal excellence to AEW (well, save the last few weeks at the Florida lockdowns). Mauro, who seems to call everything, including MMA and pro boxing, is one of the best.
Gordon Solie | Leaving His Mark
But Mike also grew up on and was a fan of Dick Lane and Gordon Solie’s work, and he was lucky enough to have spent more time with Gordon once Bischoff heard his work on a Vegas radio show.
Eric Bischoff initially liked Tenay’s work and hired him with some “smart fans/writers” for WCW’s 1-900 pay call line.
‘The Dean of Wrestling Announcers’
Few were as respected as Gordon Solie for all the decades he worked in and for Florida Championship Wrestling(and later for Ole Anderson’s Georgia Championship).
Please let me know if any of my fellow historian friends out there know when Gordon started exactly in Georgia(since he was so busy with Eddie Graham in FL).
Gordon was born Francis Jonard Labiak and later Jonard Pierre Sjoblom in Minneapolis. He had an amateur athletic background as he might say, before moving to Tampa, Florida in the early 1950s after a stint with the US Military.
From $5/night pay emceeing Tampa Bay, Florida shows to graduating to Championship Wrestling From Florida(CWF)’s Saturday morning tv show in late 1960, he was quickly the must-see talk of the business for the next 25+ years there.
Gordon Solie | Working With A Legend
Jack Brisco said, “if it wasn’t for Gordon, He was like Eddie Graham in learning all about someone’s high school and collegiate wrestling, and like Gagne, that’s who Eddie tried to hire.
Gordon then gets over those very amateur backgrounds. I probably would never have had Eddie put up the bond or become NWA champion without Gordon’s hard work getting me over in my early years there in Florida.
The same goes true to Jerry, Dusty, Buddy Colt, Bobby Shane, and so many others who became stars in Florida, and then tried conquering the world.”
Gordon Solie and Dean Malenko’s dad started the monthly tradition in the ’90s in Florida. They gathered as many of the classic Florida office wrestlers as possible for regular lunch meetings, beginning with the Briscos, Buddy Colt, Paul Jones, Bob Roop, and more.
Foreign Announce Team
Jody continues that tradition with those greats still alive, plus their wrestling kin, etc. I think Flair’s even attended at least one of them over the years, and tradition drove Gordon Solie to excellence.
Gordon Solie called the action on TV, and before that, in the early ’70s, it was Gordon’s educated, serious voice when wrestling friends would tape TV audio on cassettes and send them for me to listen to and return.
Gordon Solie In Georgia Championship Wrestling
What a voice, knowledge, attitude and thought, delivery, and more. Gordon Solie offered everything. He showed he’d lost none of those skills cohosting the too-brief, syndicated Pro Wrestling This Week weekend tv show in the late ’80s.
We all knew he’d finessed his chops for Eddie Graham’s promotion in Florida, for which he was best known.
When Ole Anderson wisely hired him to call his GCW weekly show on WTBS, Gordon slightly altered his Florida/Graham signoff of “so long from the Sunshine State,” to “so long from the Peach State of Georgia.”
Gordon rarely ever was involved in an angle where anyone would even touch his suit jacket lapel. Most really only recall that happening during the Muraco attack on Gordon (at the commentary desk), with Gordon’s color commentator, Roddy Piper, turning their face to kick off an in-ring feud between Muraco and Piper.
Piper and some of the talent were doing the drive from Charlotte and MidAtlantic’s equally fantastic TV-to-work shots for Ole, which was the magic of GCW because Gordon would perfectly sell the surprise of big names that would be popping in. Sometimes, Eddie Graham regulars like Abby, BJ Mulligan, and Mark Lewin to feud.
A Legend Commentating on Other Legends
Twice, Gordon stood there commentating on who could be in Dusty Rhodes’s surprise box when Mad Dog Vachon popped out one time and George Steele on another. Dusty went nuts, and Gordon held his composure as only he could.
The Cauliflower Alley Club’s board once put Gordon on for the few years we had him there. He’d first attended a CAC when we had our first ancillary one in 1993, Springfield, MA that Tom Burke helped put on since he lived there.
Gordon was there with his lifelong best Florida pal, wrestling legend Don Curtis (of the great Mark Lewin/Don Curtis tag team of the early ’60s).
Smoking and some alcohol would take the life of his cherished wife, Smokey, and later Gordon himself. It was after his voicebox was so cruelly taken away by cancer.
Gordon only lasted a few months with the voicebox, so at odds with the fabric and being of who he’d always been to his core.
Gordon Solie | The Best Voice in the Business
And yep, the rumors were true. Even if Gordon had a pop or two prior to a tv taping, he’d still nail commentary with no one being the wiser. He would save the production staff who helped prepare him for on-camera.
When CWF wound down without Eddie Graham at the helm in 1987 and folded into Crockett, Gordon would instead work for Continental. But he would eventually return to Atlanta and “Sound, Center Stage but in a limited capacity.”
Once WCW was born out of the NWA’s ashes on Ted Turner WTBS circa 1992, Gordon was brought back again for duties, for instance, for events such as Slamboree weekly updates and interviews, after having done some decent work on/off since 1989 for what most thought of as GCW’s follow-up programming.
That was the year of promise with Eddie Gilbert briefly head-booker and Flair v Steamboat 5-star amazing classics. Too bad Gordon wasn’t there to help Jim Ross call them.
Solie’s Influence
Not long after Florida fell, Bill Watt’s UWF was equally purchased and folded into the NWA on WTBS. Jim Ross came in as lead to Schiavone in the former Crockett’s NWA circa 1989.
It was nearly all that was left of the real NWA, as GCW was long gone with Black Saturday. This was followed on the famous cable net where Tony Schiavone had a brief run commentating on WWF.
Many would’ve liked to have seen a strong and healthy Gordon paired with than the top announcer already in Jim Ross for NWA.
Gordon ended up being used later primarily for interviews and unique features. He was no longer in the commentary booth, which was a shame.
They had so many guys rotating in and out doing commentary, from Chris Cruise to the absolute best at the time doing color in Terry Funk, Cornette, Heyman, and even Lance Russell!
Any time Gordon was paired with Lance, everyone was in heaven. Although it was only for a few shows, it still showed their collective majesty at the mike.
When Gordon’s kids published a book of his short stories, poetry, and reflections, “Gordon Solie…Something Left Behind,” it became the talk of wrestling and a best seller.
Years before that, in ’87, there was even a limited-release Gordon Solie’s Championship Wrestling Trivia board game.
In New York, Jim Cornette beat me in an auction bidding war for that game at 1992’s Weekend Of Champions.
So long from…
Planet Earth, Gordon, at least for the time being. That is until we all meet again (said with Gordon’s sly wink to end each broadcast).
