It’s somewhat interesting to me that I’m often times more saddened and upset by the passing of wrestling personalities over wrestlers themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I’m always sad to hear of when familiar wrestler names to the wrestling I grew up watching are announced as being among the recently departed, but there’s no denying that it’s the guys that weren’t even full-time wrestlers, or even wrestlers themselves, are the ones to elicit the most reaction out of me, because I think often times, wrestlers come and go, but it’s the guys like the announcers, commentators and managers that are the spice that makes professional wrestling so intriguing to a nerd like me.
The passing of “Mean Gene” Okerlund basically means to me, that the voice of professional wrestling has died. Obviously, I’m not old enough to have really heard other iconic voices like Gordon Solie, and today’s wrestling industry is a microcosm of society itself, and no one voice is ever allowed to stick around long enough to become the icon that Mean Gene was. Make no mistake though, Mean Gene was a prominent voice all throughout the 80s, into the 90s, and even kept his career going well into the 2000s, for WCW before returning to the WWE for his eventual career wind down.
As I often wax poetic, Mean Gene was there before I even got into wrestling, as the unnamed interviewer interviewing the troika of the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, Andre the Giant and even Virgil in the WWF Superstars arcade game that was basically my gateway into wrestling fandom. And as I often cite, it was a random Sunday afternoon in which I watched my first ever wrestling telecast, an episode of WWF All-American Wrestling, hosted by none other than, Mean Gene Okerlund. The main event was Superfly Jimmy Snuka versus Black Bart.
And over the next three decades of watching wrestling, Mean Gene was always there. Whether it was being immortalized in the aforementioned greatest wrestling game ever, or being at Hulk Hogan’s side after he won the world championship at Wrestlemania VII before getting a fireball thrown in his face by Sgt. Slaughter, or when after my sabbatical from wrestling in the 90s (my parents cut cable and I couldn’t watch 😢) and I watched my first episode of WCW Monday Nitro, only to see Mean Gene still present, schilling the WCW 1-900-909-9900 Hotline but only with your parents’ permission.
Even after WCW was bought and dissolved in 2001, Mean Gene was back in the WWE family, where he’d make sporadic appearances, and over the last few years, participated in original WWE content, like the Legends House which I didn’t actually watch, but can at any time on the WWE Network.
Throughout all these decades, it goes without saying that Mean Gene was the voice of professional wrestling. I asked myself and some of my also-wrestling fan friends if anyone could possibly challenge Mean Gene for the mantle of such. Good ‘ol JR Jim Ross comes to mind, as does Vince McMahon himself, and even Tony Schiavone have some unforgettable voices that have seen plenty of exposure throughout the years. But none of them, even the owner of the WWE have had the on-screen longevity as Mean Gene does, and just about anyone could be put through the audio test of hearing Mean Gene’s voice, and regardless of context, know it’s professional wrestling.
This isn’t a trip down memory lane that came unexpectedly or unanticipated, as he was 76 years old and was definitely no youngster. But it’s still sad all the same, because as a lifelong wrestling fan, to say goodbye to the voice that transcended literal decades is one that definitely tugs at the heart strings. But it goes without saying that Mean Gene has gone to a better place, leaving the world that was privileged to have housed him, worse off than it was.
