My radio show partner Evan Ginzburg who lived mere blocks from Georgie,  came up with calling her wrestling’s Den Mother.   That couldn’t be truer, as she touched everyone’s life in the business. From the top, top stars; the McMahon and Carter families more recently to nearly all fans.

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There was only one Georgie.  She was much more than a dedicated fan: Georgiann Orsi has been a major part of wrestling since the late 50’s, and later ran her own fan clubs for Chet Wallack first, and then Buddy Rogers and Bruno Sammartino.  She was much much more than someone who laboriously catalogued everyone’s birthday in the industry, and every indie show, fanfest and convention.   She was pretty damn incredible, and at her age working circles around far younger cub reporters.

My first contact with her was when she penned the fan club columns in several U.S. newsstand wrestling magazines in the late 60’s .  She looked at one of my earliest Sheik fan club newsletters and said, “Needs some work, Hon.”  That was Georgie.  We’d kept in touch since then, through the original/real WFIA great days of the 70’s and beyond.  She was always sitting in her regular seats at Madison Square Garden as well as in Boston, RollaRama, Sunnyside Gardens and later the Nassau Coliseum as Phantom and Potshot Bill well know.   She kept her latest bulletin, the Chatterbox newsletter going for some 20 years, and in the last few she said her readers motivated her to keep doing it when she wanted to go strictly to online reporting.

And she kept in touch with everyone in the biz from the Shawn Michaels, to the Mick Foleys, to the Heymans: everyone in the biz, but she always made time for even the most casual of fans.  She’d often counsel kids who’d come up to ask her advice at indie shows wanting to do their own radio shows or newsletters to “go get a journalism degree first!  Get some experience before you jump in there, because you’re going to need it.”   She was completely honest with everyone,  and maintained her ethics always.

I first heard the sad news from Chris Cruise after running into the house to pick up his call yesterday, after a devastated Bruno had left us vmails.  To say everyone is in shellshock is underselling it.  There is no replacing this Superwoman who often was the person the top folks went to, to doublecheck facts.  She always had the scoop and had often done much of the legwork on breaking big stories, obits and more.   I’m sure every show this weekend globally will have moments of silence and 10 bell counts, including the huge Wrestle Reunion convention in Los Angeles and the ROH and PWG shows this Friday and Saturday nights respectively.  Please keep her in your thoughts, for well over 50 years of service to the industry and everyone in it.

Georgie is survived by her husband George and Rocky, her famous Siamese cat she loved so much.  They were a dedicated couple, as whenever George was ill,  she stopped what she was doing to dedicate 100% to helping him recover; as he did when she had her leg issues.  Any of you that knew her, knew like Penny Banner, she liked to be the first in  getting her Christmas cards out.  In return?  All she wanted was anything having to do with Elvis Presley and she said she was tickled when I found and sent her a line of Elvis Christmas cards just last month.  Chris Cruise reminded me how much she loved going to gamble and see shows along the Jersey boardwalk and she’d given me her own colorful review recently on MTV’s Jersey Shore show (”a disgrace!”).  What a character, and we’re all missing her terribly right now.

Funeral arrangements:

Thomas Quinn & Sons Funeral Home
35-20 Broadway
Long Island City, NY
718-721-9200

The wake is today, Tuesday from 7-9 pm and tomorrow, Wednesday from 2-5 pm and then 7-9pm.   The Funeral Mass is Thursday.

– Photo and article by Dr. Mike Lano, DDS