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- The late Mean Gene Okerlund is widely considered one of the greatest wrestling broadcasters of all time, and particularly the best ever at conducting backstage interviews with major talents. One of the more interesting elements of his career was how sprawling it was, allowing him to work with a wide range of pro wrestling personalities. From Okerlund’s earliest days in the business working under Verne Gagne, to his run in WCW under Vince Russo, to his interweaving path with a number of major names like Pat Patterson, he had a career like none other and built his share of positive and negative relationships along the way.
Mean Gene Okerlund is widely considered as the best interviewer in the history of professional wrestling. His soothing voice and quick wit made him a joy to listen to, and he had great chemistry with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Bobby Heenan. However, Okerlund was also one of the nicest men in the wrestling business. The 'Mean' nickname was one of irony, as he was a gentleman off camera, but always brought the heat when he was performing.
It is hard to find somebody who has anything bad to say about Gene - much like Gene rarely said anything bad about anybody else. However, as there are always in life, Gene had some - as he would say - "long-time, close personal friends" and some people he was less fond of.
UPDATE: 2023/11/03 16:30 EST BY MICHAEL CHIN
The late Mean Gene Okerlund is widely considered one of the greatest wrestling broadcasters of all time, and particularly the best ever at conducting backstage interviews with major talents. One of the more interesting elements of his career was how sprawling it was, allowing him to work with a wide range of pro wrestling personalities. From Okerlund’s earliest days in the business working under Verne Gagne, to his run in WCW under Vince Russo, to his interweaving path with a number of major names like Pat Patterson, he had a career like none other and built his share of positive and negative relationships along the way.
13 LIKED: Verne Gagne
While Mean Gene Okerlund is generally best remembered for his run in WWE’s Golden Era and his time in WCW which spanned into the Monday Night war, he actually got his start in wrestling working for the AWA. Verne Gagne hired him after he had filled in once for Marty O’Neill and the legendary wrestler and promoter liked what he heard.
RELATED: The Rise & Fall Of The AWA Wrestling Promotion, ExplainedOkerlund discussed in his shoot interview with RF Video that Gagne not only gave him his first job in wrestling but helped shape his understanding of the business. That included Gagne protecting broadcasters from wrestlers on air, from the school of thought that physical interactions with wrestlers made announcers come across as less effective in their roles. This is the kind of old school mindset Okerlund carried into a more contemporary product and may well have contributed to a broader sense of dignity fans tend to associate with him from his heyday in the business.
12 DIDN’T LIKE: Vince Russo
While the pro wrestling business has no shortage of polarizing figures, Vince Russo is among those individuals who tend to be more universally panned. Whether it’s wrestlers who felt misused by him, fellow backstage figures who felt he didn’t know what he was doing, or a noteworthy contingent of people who felt betrayed by him at one point or another, Russo left behind a trail of individuals in wrestling who have less than complimentary things to say about him, despite him being credited with a number of good ideas.
Mean Gene Okerlund was among that chorus. Like many, he took umbrage with Russo’s decision-making during the period when he headed up WCW creative. In particular, Okerlund discussed in his RF Video shoot that Russo wrongly thought it made sense to book Okerlund and Mark Madden as wrestlers, thinking their war of words would draw money in the ring, in booking that neither participant was all that comfortable with.
11 LIKED: Pat Patterson
Mean Gene Okerlund crossed paths with Pat Patterson quite a few times. That included working with him when Patterson wrestled for the AWA, later both having their roles in the WWE Golden Era, and reuniting late in life as part of the early WWE Network reality series Legends’ House.
Okerlund cited Patterson’s tag team with Ray Stevens as one of the best of all time in his RF Video interview. Later on, he praised Patterson’s understanding of what wrestling fans want to see and suggested that was the foundation of why he was so skilled at putting together matches behind the scenes.
10 DIDN'T LIKE: Mark Madden
If you were a WCW fan in the 1990s, you probably remember Gene's hotline number: 1-900-909-9900. Gene would even get a live ad for the hotline on most broadcasts, either backstage or live in the arena. And while the hotline was Okerlund's baby, he wasn't the only one working on it.
Mark Madden was also a part of the hotline team - and the two didn't get along too well. Madden thought Okerlund's sensationalistic teasers were disingenuous, while Okerlund didn't appreciate Madden's criticism and digs at Gene's age.
9 LIKED: Hulk Hogan
It doesn't come as a surprise that the chemistry between Gene Okerlund and Hulk Hogan extended behind the scenes as well. Having met in the AWA, Hogan insisted on bringing Mean Gene to the WWE, knowing their on-screen chemistry would benefit him and the company. Turns out, on this one, Hogan was 100% right.
He would also later induct Mean Gene in the WWE Hall of Fame and paid tribute to his friend on an episode of Monday Night Raw, shortly after Gene's passing.
8 DIDN'T LIKE: Tony Schiavone
Bobby Heenan's dislike for Tony Schiavone is well-documented, so it comes as little surprise that Bobby's good friend Gene Okerlund wasn't all that fond of Tony either.
RELATED: 10 Things Fans Forget About Gene Okerlund In WCW
While Okerlund stated in a 2006 RF Video shoot interview that he liked Tony as a person, he conceded that "Tony watched out for Tony and, in doing so, had a tendency to bury people along the way." So it is fair to say that Tony wasn't Gene's favorite colleague.
7 LIKED: The Iron Sheik
Mean Gene had good chemistry in front of the camera with most people he interviewed. He was also a good promo himself and could get the most out of even an average talker or turn an interview around with his quick wit. One person though that was hard for Gene to control was The Iron Sheik.
His antics, mixed with his thick accent, made Gene break character on many occasions and created many now-famous bloopers. What may be surprising is that the two got even better along behind the camera. So much, in fact, that Gene was the Sheik's Best Man for his wedding in 1976.
6 DIDN'T LIKE: WCW Production
As mentioned before, Gene was easy to get along with, so it is hard to find many specific people that Gene actually didn't like - so we are stretching our definition here a little bit to include the WCW production team. Of course, it wasn't that Gene didn't like the people on the team as much as he didn't think they matched up to what he was used to from the WWE.
RELATED: 10 Funniest Mean Gene Okerlund Moments Ever
In the aforementioned 2006 RF Video shoot interview, he called the WCW production team "lousy," "unorganized," and "shoddy," with "no preparation or direction" - which, in fairness, can be extended to WCW in general.
5 LIKED: Jesse Ventura
If you want to know how easy Gene was to get along with, imagine this: Gene had always had a good relationship with Hulk Hogan and Jesse Ventura, even after the two musclemen had their falling-out.
Neither man held it against Gene either and stayed friends with Okerlund until his passing. Fun fact: Ventura was actually also the one who came up with the "Mean" moniker as a rib.
4 DIDN'T LIKE: Billy Robinson
Again, it is hard to say whether Gene actually didn't like Billy Robinson--but he admitted to being afraid of the British grappler.
Gene described Robinson as "very explosive, very volatile" and admitted to being scared of Robinson. And let's be honest: who likes somebody who they are afraid of?
3 LIKED: Andre the Giant
Andre the Giant could be notoriously stubborn when it came to people: he either liked you or he didn't. Given their mutual love for drinking and playing cards, it is no surprise that the giant got along splendidly with Mean Gene.
RELATED: 10 Backstage Stories About Mean Gene Okerlund We Can't Believe
The interviewer is said to have had one of the closest relationships anybody in wrestling had with Andre and Andre opened up to Gene on more than one occasion.
2 DIDN'T LIKE: Ultimate Warrior
Over the years, there were quite a few people recounted difficulties working with the Ultimate Warrior. Mean Gene Okerlund was no different.
He called the Warrior the "most impossible guy" to work with on interviews and even went so far to say that he didn't understand what Warrior was saying when they talked privately on the phone. Okerlund also remembered Warrior holding up Vince McMahon for money before SummerSlam 1991. He said that Warrior couldn't be trusted afterward and in fairness to Gene, he was probably right.
1 LIKED: Bobby Heenan
Mean Gene and Bobby Heenan were quite posssibly the best at their respective crafts in the history of pro wrestling; Gene as an interviewer and Heenan as a manager. Heenan and Okerlund first met in Verne Gagne's AWA and became instant friends. The two would follow each other into the WWE and later WCW.
Equipped with quick wits and the love for a good drink, both men remained best friends until Bobby's passing in 2017.
