Through The Ropes

By Josh Stewart

Spent a good portion of the week cruising at 30,000 feet and bouncing in a rental car with a propulsion system that I believe featured four mice on a wheel chasing some old cheddar. So, my mind had plenty of time to wander and, believe it or not, wrest-ling found its way into my thoughts.

When I finally got home, I checked online and realized it had been over two years since Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy, one of the greatest tag-team wrestlers in history, passed away.

I was a ring announcer exactly one time in my life. And I was a lucky guy. That one time, I got to announce "Bam Bam" coming to the ring.

Only now, I know how fortunate I was.

I had practiced for a couple of weeks — and I needed all the lessons I could get. My speaking voice is pro-bably the reason my radio career crash-ed and burned right about the time the writing career took off.

But I wanted to do well for Terry.

When Gordy showed up at the National Guard Armory in Gastonia, N.C., in April, 1997, he wasn’t trying to be a celebrity, didn’t try to big-time a soul. I walked to the pickup truck that a friend drove him to the show in, and he smiled, extended his right hand and said, "Hi, I’m Terry Gordy."

He didn’t even expect me to know who he was.

The locker room was filled with some promising talent — Steve Co-rino and Reckless Youth x- and some guys who were just happy to be getting 20 bucks and some ring time. They all wanted to talk to Gordy — all felt special to be in the same build-ing, on the same card.

I’ll never forget the moment Reck-less came up to Terry. He was as sheepish and giddy as a 10-year-old asking Michael Jordan for an autograph.

"Hi, Mr. Gordy?" Reckless asked with a stagger in his voice as Gordy’s back was slightly turned.

Gordy could have taken advantage of the fact that Reckless was "marking out," but he was too much of a gentleman for that. He offered Reckless the same kind smile he offered me, and for the next few minutes, Reckless’ eyes were fixed like a deer in headlights as he tried to pick up anything he could from the wise, old master.

Gordy was facing The Barbarian — another of wrestling’s good guys — in a main-event, falls-count-anywhere match.

I had to make a good delivery for Terry. Announcing Barbarian was pretty easy, but there was a right and wrong way to announce Terry’s name. "Don’t draw out the ‘Bam Bam,’ " my fellow promoter, Chris Stowe, kept warning me as I practiced with a mini-microphone in his office. "You gotta make it short and hard. Terry ... BAM ... BAM ... Gordy."

For the week before, I had been going,"Bammmmmm, Bammmmmm," and sounded a bit like a sick goat.

But the Fabulous Freebird had a good effect on me. Somehow, for ONE time in my life, some bass actually found it’s way into my voice.

"TERRY ... BAM ... BAM ... GORDY!!!"

Terry came to the ring, looking ready to kill - you’d think Michael Hayes and Buddy Roberts had his back.

When you get a few hours in flight or in traffic to think, you hope you can come up with a few cool memories before your mind races back to bill-paying that that dish you haven’t scrubbed in three days.

"Bam Bam" provided just such a moment. Thanks, Terry.

Contact Josh Stewart at through-theropes1@cs.com.