R.I.P. Mean Gene Okerlund

-



2019 is off to a very lousy start. Mean Gene Okerlund is no more.

If you don't know who Mean Gean Okerlund is let me enlighten you. Mean Gene is that mustached semi-bald man with the super recognizable voice, who interviewed all great pro wrestling legends you know. One could blindfold a wrestling fan and play Mean Gene's voice and everybody would know who it was.

When I started pro wrestling I watched an episode of Superstars Of Wrestling. Mean Gene was the brave man who had to interview the good, the bad, the ugly and the brute in the then WWF. Before I knew wrestling was fake I feared for the life of Mean Gene. One of the wrestlers could just snap like that and assault Mean Gene during in interview. The funny thing is, they never assaulted Mean Gene during his whole career. There is no pro wrestling without Mean Gene.


Just like the movie The Exterminator, had taught me the word motherfucker, Mean Gene taught me the expression "Give me a break". Often, that was directed at another legend in pro wrestling, namely Bobby"The Brain" Heenan. When Mean Gene interview Bobby Heenan it was always great. They had great chemistry with Mean Gene being the good guy and Bobby Heenan being the bad guy.

When people ask me what I like about wrestling the old school Mean Gene stuff is definitely there. Mean Gene was a big part of wrestling.

It was known that Mean Gene was a heavy drinker and could drink a lot of wrestlers under the table, however he was never drunk during interviews and he never looked like a drunk.

Mean Gene was also known for never breaking character during interviews. Well, Dr D David Schultz is the only one who succeeded in making Mean Gene break character. Breaking character only once in probably more than thirty years is professionalism at its best.


My favorite Mean Gene things were probably his interviews with Bobby Heenan, breaking character during the Dr D David Schultz interview, his facial expression of fear when certain wrestlers got louder and louder during interviews and his characteristic voice. Next to that the man was just entertaining.





Mean Gene was the best wrestling interview ever and no one will ever touch him. No one will have that characteristic voice either. Mean Gene was pro wrestling. 

R.I.P. Mean Gene Okerlund. The voice of wrestling and a person who must have put smiles on billions of people during his career.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

List of Shame: Celebrities who signed a petition to free Polanski!

-
Image
The Oscar's is soon approaching and while this year's 55th Academy Awards will take extra precaution due to a silly incident, let’s not forget how the hypocrites from the American Academy of Motion pictures and science, awarded Director "Raping" Roman Polanski for 2004's The Pianist as best picture. As of recent, one of Polanski's biggest fans, Harvey Weinstein has received an additional 16 year sentence for rape and sexual assault but prior to his scandalous trial, which more than 80 women made allegations of sexual harassment and/or rape against the infamous producer. But prior to these allegations, leading to his sentencing, Weinstein formed a petition for the release of notorious Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski who drugged, raped and sodomized a 13-year-old girl, as a result became a fugitive from the U.S. criminal justice system, since 1978, after pledging guilty for his heinous crime. When Polanski was arrested in Zurich, Switzerland, in correlation to h
Read more

THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD!!!FACT!!!

-
Image
Written by Creepythinman Dan O'Bannon's The Return of the Living Dead is my number one favorite movie and the one I’ve watched more than any other in my lifetime and that’s because the film is a masterpiece of the zombie genre. I used to watch it a few times a week during my childhood and would have it playing in the background, when not studying or banging beaver where I would devour textbooks and pussy like a putrescent corpse eats BRAINS! But I always wondered why this movie above all others fascinated me ever so? It could be because I love zombies and have watched, read and played almost everything to do with them in every form of media. It pleases me that the living dead have rightfully taken their place as the great cinematic monster of our time when they used to be regarded as a mongrel sub-genre before George A. Romero’s seminal masterpiece Night of the Living Dead (1968) became the defining Horror movie of the last century. As I’ve said many times before, there are onl
Read more

Miami Vice: Freefall (Review and retrospective of the series finale.)

-
Image
Miami Vice finale: Freefall (1989) Directed by Russ Mayberry Reviewer’s note: Originally, I planned on doing a write up last year which was the benchmark of this episode’s 30th anniversary but was either sidetracked or too lazy. So now, here we are. We had one hell of a run, didn't we, partner." That quote pretty much sums it all! 1989, was the bookend of the greatest decade of popular culture. The 1980's was on its way out. But before fading out, there was this finale of yet another great series which defined  this exciting decade: NBC's Miami Vice 1984-1989.  This Crime Drama was innovative on so many levels, be it the implementation of adding rock songs within scenarios,  Jan Hammer's amazing soundtrack, adult subject matter that at times were disturbing,  solid character arcs, the introduction of then unknown actors like Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis and Wesley Snipes just to name a few, the bromance between Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs, gorgeous nightlife sc
Read more