The following is a written transcript of conversation that took place between Charleston Post & Courier writer Mike Mooneyham and SuperstarBillyGraham.com webmaster Steve Slagle

SLAGLE:  Hey everyone, thanks for joining us today on the "Superstar" Billy Graham website, I'm Steve Slagle, and today we've got a special interview with a man who's been a respected member of the wrestling journalistic community for over three decades now.  From the Charlseton Post & Courier, it's my pleasure to introduce Mike Mooneyham.  Mike, how're you doing?

MOONEYHAM:  Great, Steve, it's my pleasure to be with you today!

SLAGLE:  GWell, we thank you for joining us!  First of, Mike, I just wanted to...as I mentioned before, you've been a respected member of wrestling journalism for quite some time.  But, there are probably some people out there who aren't real familiar with you.  Could you just give our listeners a little history on your association with pro wrestling?

MOONEYHAM:  Sure.  I'll try to be as brief as possible, but I do go back aways -- I've been involved in the business for more than 35 years.  I started out as a writer for magazeins.  Actually, I was pretty young at the time, they didn't know how old I really was.  I got my press card and got to get into matches and cover bouts all over the southeast.  I got a real early start in professional wrestling.  Actually, my involvement and interest in wrestling sparked an interest in journalism that eventually landed me in the newspaper business many years later.  I sort of followed the business as a fan for a good many years until I got more deeply involved back in 1988 when I started writing a weekly column on professional wrestling for my newspaper, the Post & Courier here in Charleston, S.C.  Ever since then, I've been real hot and heavy into the business and really following it closely.  I've been able to renew a lot of old friendships that I started many, many years ago.  So, it's been a lot of fun for me.

SLAGLE: Well, you know, today is a bit of a sad day for a lot of people in wrestling because it's actually the day that Gordon Solie passed away.  I know that you were real close with Gordon -- can you give us a few thoughts on this great man from wrestling history?

MOONEYHAM: Yes...and great is the word to describe Gordon Solie (pictured).  He was absolutely a class act all of the way.  When I think about wrestling, and when many longtime fans think about wrestling, they make the connection with Gordon Solie.  A generation of wrestling fans grew up listening to Gordon Solie.  And, even if you didn't live in Florida or Georgia, Gordon was the Dean of wrestling announcers and his shows went out all over the country.  You couldn't help but know Gordon if you were a wrestling fan.  Gordon was a wrestling announcer for almost 40 years and the best in the business.  It's a sad day.  Gordon, you know, had been sick for awhile and you hate to see anyone pass on.  But, in Gordon's case, he was in a lot of pain.  He had suffered from cancer and, you know, he and his wife Smokey are together again.  That's all I can say...

SLAGLE:  Well, you know, Gordon Solie was pretty much my first exposure to wrestling on the Superstation, actually it was WTCG at the time when I first started watching Georgia wrestling.  Then it switched over, obviously, to TBS.  But, I was talking to Superstar about it earlier today, and he just lent such an air of credibility to wrestling.  Again, I was just a very young child at the time, but I believed.  And part of the reason I believed was because Gordon was just so convincing.  He made you think that what you were seeing was real, you know?

MOONEYHAM: That was the thing about Gordon.  He was a consumate professional.  He made fans believe, he really did.  Wrestling fans trusted him, he gave wrestling the dignity of a legitmate sporting event.  Very few in the business, certainly in the modern era, with maybe the exception of Jim Ross, have been able to come close to replicating that.

SLAGLE:  And, I think Jim Ross would be the first to admit that, even though he's a great announcer, no one can touch Gordon Solie.

MOONEYHAM:  He was The Dean.  Jim has told me on many occassions that Gordon was the best wrestling commentator ever.  Every guy that has come up since then, Gordon has been the standard by which announcers are judged.

SLAGLE: Definitely.  Now, another similar personality would be "Superstar" Billy Graham, in the sense that he was one of the best and influenced so many.  I was wondering what your first memories of Graham are?

MOONEYHAM: I remember Superstar as far back as the early seventies in California.  That flamboyant blond hair, the muscular...and you gotta remember, back then in the late-sixties and early seventies, wrestlers by and large, the physiques weren't anything like they are today.

SLAGLE:  Probably a lot closer to your average truck driver or warehouse dock worker or something.

MOONEYHAM:  Yeah, your average guy, that's right.

SLAGLE:  They were great athletes, though, I'm not...

MOONEYHAM:  Yeah, great athletes and tough as nails.  You couldn't find a profession with tougher guys.  But, as far as the physiques, you didn't find the chisled physiques back then.  Superstar was the exception, and that certainly made him stand out from the beginning.  The flamboyancy of his character, the hair, the colorful ring attire, and a great gift for gab.

SLAGLE: Because nobody was really doing that at the time.  We say nowadays, in the year 2000, "A colorful blond muscleman" and, you know, that's the way they all are.  But back then, no one had ever seen any one like Graham.  I mean, they had Buddy Rogers and of course Gorgeous George, who were very flamboyant, but Graham just seemed like an anomaly.

MOONEYHAM: He was the exception.  And, that's what made him stand out.  As far as cutting a promo, you didn't find a lot of colorful, exciting promos back then, either.  For the most part, they were basically "I'll get you this Saturday!" or "I'm gonna do this..."  Billy, he had a little of that Mohammed Ali.

SLAGLE:  Yeah, and he didn't necessarily have to stand there and scream into a microphone, either, to get his point across, like a lot of guys did.

MOONEYHAM:  He was an excellent interview.

SLAGLE:  Now, growing up in the Mid Atlantic states, I'm assuming that your initial exposure to Graham was through the magazines?

MOONEYHAM:  Actually, I had a fan club as far back as the late sixties, so I had correspondents all across the country.  We'd exchange tapes, programs, fan club bulletins, etc.  So, I pretty much had kept track of everything that was going on in the country, kind of like, um, like an introduction to the newsletters.

SLAGLE: Well, the reason I ask is because most people became aware of Superstar because he was on virtually every magazine cover from, like, 1976 through 1979....

MOONEYHAM: He absolutely was.  I guess the guys who were on covers the most were Superstar, Mil Mascaras, Bruno Sammartino, guys like that.

SLAGLE:  Dusty...

MOONEYHAM:  Yeah, Dusty Rhodes.  But, yeah, he was a fixture on the magazine covers.

SLAGLE:  Actually, I got a tape the other day of Graham when he was in the Carolinas, this was, I believe, around 1985.  Anyway, there were some great clips and it was pretty cool to watch, there's angles with him against Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express, awesome stuff.  To have those types of personalities going against each other, it was awesome.  I mean, Ric Flair...

MOONEYHAM:  Man, I just wish fans from today could see some of this stuff!  They think they have some hot angles today, but the stuff today can't touch that stuff.  I mean...the Carolinas was noted for some really great angles, especially back in the eighties and Billy was part of a lot of them.

SLAGLE: I remember one in particular, a classic angle that I got to see again -- I remember it from when it was happening and then got to see it again recently where Superstar was feuding with Paul Jones.  Well, actually, Jones had him under contract and he was holding him against his will.  It was really funny because the banter between the two, Jones was constantly sucking up to Graham but when he wasn't around, he'd be bad-mouthing him to the fans.  And Superstar, he wasn't having any part of it.  It was a really entertaining angle, some really great stuff.

MOONEYHAM:  And the thing about Paul Jones was that he was actually one of the worst interviews!

SLAGLE:  Yeah, yeah...but Superstar, he carried him.

MOONEYHAM:  He did, yeah.  But, Superstar was, I haven't seen many more entertaining guys.  He made a huge splash in the Carolinas.  He also introduced a character that was pretty unique back then.  He was a karate-type guy.  He came out to "Kung Fu Fighting" when not a lot of guys had entrance music.  Billy could sort of change characters at will and just do the best interviews you'd ever heard!