For the last two days, I've been trying to think of how I would explain Gordon Solie's place in wrestling. And I've come to the conclusion that I have no business trying. His place in wrestling is he's the best play-by-play announcer ever.

I know when a person dies, we eulogize that person, maybe make them out to be more than they are. Long-time readers of mine know I have a huge problem with how loosely the word tragedy gets thrown around. Hopefully, you don't find me hypocritical for what I said above, but I really don't care. In my mind, he was the best.

You see, back in 1980, my little hometown of Knoxville, Iowa, got cable. It was amazing for me, a six year-old. ESPN, HBO, Chicago's WGN, and Atlanta's WTBS. WTBS stood for two things in my neck of the woods - Braves baseball and pro wrestling. And I would say the wrestling was by far the most popular thing WTBS offered.

WCW Saturday Night, as it was called recently, was a bastardized version of the single most influential television program in pro wrestling history, Georgia Championship Wrestling. By today's Big Two standards, it was a pile of shit. Taped on a Wednesday, in a TV studio that held maybe thirty people, it was shown every Saturday at 5:05 p.m. Central time. The matches were usually horrible squashes. Even All-Star Wrestling, our local (Kansas City) NWA territory television show, had better matches in actual arenas.

But Georgia Championship Wrestling was magical. Part of it had to do with who was on the screen. Ric Flair, the Andersons (Gene and Ole), Dusty Rhodes, Roddy Piper, Greg Valentine, Buzz Sawyer, Tommy Rich, Junkyard Dog, Ted DiBiase, and the Freebirds all gained national reputations because of that show. Wrestling on WTBS was the big-time; you'd made it when you were performing in that little TV studio.

And the guy who made you think that way was Gordon Solie.

Gordon had a distinctive voice and delivery, one I find hard to explain. Very low, but not gravelly. Authoritative would best describe it. A slight raise or lower in his voice is all it took to express the graveness of a situation. Gordon was the constant to the show, the quiet, steadying hand that kept the show going. Amazing, considering he was doing all the talking, that I recall him as quiet.

Of the Solie era on WTBS, I would say the Ted DiBiase piledriver incident is what I remember best. The Freebirds gave him I want to say four piledrivers, a couple on the exposed concrete floor. I remember thinking that DiBiase was done for. The JYD was his partner, and I think Tommy Rich was trying to join with him to beat up the Freebirds, but JYD wouldn't let him; he didn't want to watch another partner get hurt. I can still recall DiBiase, in a neckbrace, laid up in a hospital, doing an interview.

The strange thing is, I can't remember Solie's call at all from that show. In fact, I don't think I can recall any particular call of his. Yet I think he's the best ever. Does that mean I'm a mark for my childhood memories, or that Solie was the master artist, never putting himself over at the cost of the wrestlers' heat?

I wonder sometimes if the Tony Schivione bashing comes, in part, because he replaced Solie on the Mothership. As a young kid, I remember noting something was wrong as soon as I didn't hear Solie's voice to open up the show. I also remember, a few years later when we had a satellite, how happy I was to hear him again, calling the action for a Florida NWA promotion that was basically garbage. It didn't matter - Solie was calling it.

I've been wondering: do the teenagers and newcomers to wrestling even know who Gordon Solie is? Is Gordon Solie just another name to them, a legend who they never heard of, and they really don't understand what the fuss is all about? I hope not, but it may be.

I really don't have much else to say, so I'll leave you with this. You younger guys, or newcomers, if you never heard Gordon Solie, I would strongly suggest you try to find a tape where he's calling the action.

You know what, forget about it. Maybe it was all the timing, the circumstances, that made Gordon special to those of us who heard him the first time around. Maybe reviewing his announcing would lead us to say "he was vastly overrated". Maybe not.

But I'm going to go to bed tonight, same as I did yesterday, happy for having spent my Saturday nights as a grade-school kid listening to Gordon Solie call a wrestling match.

And that's the best tribute I can give to the man.

Rest in Piece, Gordon.