It’s funny looking back on Mean Gene’s career I was initially at a loss, because I can’t remember like any big moments, any catchphrases (Besides him rattling off the number to the WCW hotline. Who is joining the Four Horseman? Get your parents permission and call 1-900-909-9900.) And that’s the best part about him innit? He was permanently fixed as the everyman roving reporter, the average joe, pointing and saying “look up in the sky!” He never wanted to be above the talent. His job was to add a certain realness and professionalism to the wacky antics of coked up roid heads who carry fake titles in a never ending carnival.
And that’s kind of big, because nowadays even non-wrestling talent want their moment in the sun. Which is fine, ok? But there was something solid about Mean Gene’s fixed place in the wrestling universe. Yeah it’s a little corny nowadays, but the guy had a bit and committed 100%. He wasn’t just the straight man in the routine, that would be easy. He was the straight man in this ABSURD universe, The way his face shook when a heel said something incendiary. The way he looked like he was listening as Macho Man went WAY off script. The way he advertised that scam hotline despite it never offering any real wrestling news and was a great way of getting punished one your mom read the phone bill..
Anyway, I didn’t think there was one Mean Gene moment that was better than others, but then I remembered how great he was when Hulk Hogan turned heel.
There are a lot of good parts to this. Like the crowd throwing trash, the way Hogan slides right into his heel turn, the way the outsiders egg the crowd on, but the best is Okerlund stomping into the ring, and demanding ANSWERS. Look at his fucking face man, Gene SOLD that sense of betrayal. His lips disappear under his beard and he’s giving Hogan a death stare. How he doesn’t waver when people are throwing shit at the ring. He uses that trash to call Hogan out, in a last second plea for sanity. God, it’s beautiful in it’s own way.
Gene Okerlund was the best, and there’ll never be another figure like him. And now he’s dead.
When a personality from that era of wrestling passes I always want people to buy this poetry/comic book called “Hold Me Gorilla Monsoon” by Colette Arrand. It truly is a beautiful work and really reflects what these people put themselves through and what it means to some of the weirdos who watch it.
