Lee Marshall (Lee Marshall)

Lee Marshall

Lee Marshall (born Marshall Aaron Mayer; November 28, 1949 – April 26, 2014) was a professional wrestling announcer formerly of the American Wrestling Association (AWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Women of Wrestling (WOW!).

Marshall joined the broadcast team when the AWA Championship Wrestling show was on ESPN. A big deal was made by Rod Trongard about Marshall being from Los Angeles. During his AWA stint he called matches alongside the likes of Eric BischoffVerne GagneGreg Gagne and Ray Stevens.

He later joined WCW (World Championship Wrestling), where he was known as “Stagger Lee”. Marshall was the co-host of WCW Thunder alongside Bobby Heenan and Tony Schiavone. He interviewed and announced alongside Mike Tenay and Scott Hudson on WCW Saturday Night as well. A staple of WCW Monday Nitro was his regular cracking of “Weasel” jokes directed at Heenan, which would conclude his road reports. He was also known for traveling across the country to host Nitro parties for WCW, while keeping in contact with WCW Monday Nitro through updates by telephone.

Marshall was also one of the announcers at the 1996 World War 3 pay-per-view at the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia, working Ring #3 with Larry Zybysko. During the early stages of the three-ring, 60-man Battle Royal, the Four Horsemen and the Dungeon of Doom battled outside the ring and in the ensuing fight, Marshall was knocked down and repeatedly kicked legitimately to the head and chest by the Dungeon’s Faces of Fear team of (The Barbarian and Meng) while lying on the floor and could be heard yelling “What the heck is going on out here?”. After the fight moved back toward the locker room, Marshall managed to get himself up and, after some difficulty (and questioning why former wrestler Zybysko didn’t come to his aid), finished commentating the match from his designated announcing position.

Exchange between Marshall and Zybysko after Marshall managed to get back to announcing.

  • Zybysko “How you doing?”
    Marshall “How’m I doin’? What do you mean how am I doin’? How do you think I’m doin’ with you standing there while I get my brains kicked in? That’s how I’m doin’!”.

In 1986, Marshall was the ring announcer for the Los Angeles portion of WrestleMania 2. He was also involved in the Great Western Forum-based Women of Wrestling promotion and served as its play-by-play announcer. He was partnered with company owner David McLane, who served as the color commentator on the syndicated TV show, and worked with Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, the color commentator on the WOW pay-per-view on February 4, 2001. He received by far the most votes in the fan based WOW-FAN awards beating out David McLane and Julie Day as the “Announcer of the Year”.

Marshall was also a longtime radio announcer, working at such stations as KABC and KGFJ (now KYPA) and KBLA and KHJ in Los AngelesKRIZ in Phoenix and CKLW in Windsor, Ontario,Canada (Detroit). At CKLW, he was one of the anchors for the station’s “20/20 News” updates, and at KDAY, he was “King News”, bringing attention to the issue of gang violence. Marshall made an appearance in rap video “We’re All in the Same Gang” as King News telling the gangbangers “they just don’t get it.”

His bass voice is notable within announcing circles, holding the premiere position in that field, the voice of Tony the Tiger (succeeding Thurl Ravenscroft), a position for which Marshall was contracted until 2014.

 

Born

  • November, 28, 1949
  • USA
  • Ventura, California

Died

  • April, 26, 2014
  • USA
  • Santa Monica, California

12458 profile views