RIP Lance Russell

[tdmoon]

Hard for me to believe, but I haven't seen any mention of this here. Lance Russell is a true legend of wrestling, one of-if not the-best announcers to ever call a match. Russell was a calm and reasonable voice in the wild and woolly world of Memphis wrestling. He was an incredible interviewer who could lead even the greenest of rookies through a passable promo. Russell is a member of the NWA Hall of Fame, the Wrestling Observer's Hall of Fame and the USWA Memphis Wrestling Hall of Fame. He was also, by most accounts, a genuinely nice man who truly loved professional wrestling.

He passed away at the age of ninety-one after complications from a fall in his home. His daughter just recently died after a long battle with cancer and he lost his wife of sixty-seven years two years ago after a lengthy illness. He is survived by two sons, Lance, Jr. and Shane. They don't get any better or smoother than Lance Russell, a true class act. RIP, Banana Nose.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I'm ashamed to say that I forgot about it. With all the news coverage of what's going down on Puerto Rico, Las Vegas, another storm heading for the Gulf Coast and an overall lack of conversation about Lance Russell, it just slipped my mind.

Lance Russell was the voice of Memphis wrestling, plain and simple, and he was someone who always struck me as being in the same league as Gordon Solie and Jim Ross in terms of ability, knowledge and passion for wrestling. However, when it comes to fame, I don't think Russell was on their level considering that Solie and Ross were prominent figures in much bigger promotions than Memphis. Jim Ross cut his teeth in the NWA Tri-State promotion, which would become Mid-South Wrestling and later the Universal Wrestling Federation, before heading to Jim Crockett Promotions/WCW and, of course, WWE. Solie was the voice of Championship Wrestling from Florida, primarily, for 20+ years, although he'd also been significant in Georgia Championship Wrestling and, of course, Mid-Atlantic/JCP/WCW. Russell did go to work for WCW circa 1989 but he wasn't really the same.

So yeah, not that many great commentators left now that Russell's gone.