Greetings.
I was saddened to hear of the passing, this week, of two of my wrestling colleagues – Gene Okerlund and Michel Dubois and would like to now take this opportunity to pay my respects to them.
Gene Okerlund originally began his career – like so many others in the WWF, in Verne Gagne’s Minneapolis based AWA promotion. Initially he served as an understudy to another iconic announcer, Marty O’Neil.
Since Marty was the main play by play commentator, Gene earned his stripes doing interviews and would go on to become perhaps the best interviewer in pro wrestling – some would say pro sports, history.
One of his Minnesota cronies – Jesse “the Body” Ventura would give him the name “Mean Gene”, even though he was anything but mean and, in fact, was one of the nicest and most engaging and pleasant guys in the business.
I guess you could say that while there was rhyme, there was no reason.
In any case, after having established himself in Minneapolis, he was beckoned by his former AWA colleague Hulk Hogan to join him in the WWF, as Vince McMahon Jr. was in the process of revolutionizing the wrestling business, with the launch of Hulkamania and, subsequent to that, Wrestlemania.
Mean Gene’s main role was conducting interviews and nobody in the history of the business did it better than him. His interviews with the likes of Hogan, Macho Man, Bobby Heenan, the Million Dollar Man, Jimmy Hart, Andre the Giant and countless others became classics and were an integral component in the WWF’s runaway success.
A few years back, Gene and I were talking and I told him that I considered him to have been one of the primary reasons for the WWF’s explosion in popularity in the 1980’s.
He told me he was flattered, but insisted that Hogan, Vince and the wrestlers deserved far more credit than he did. I was taken aback with his modesty and humility and still assert that even though he never wrestled, he was every bit as much a superstar as any of his wrestling contemporaries.
Not to digress, but a few weeks back, when Vince, Hunter, Stephanie and Shane were on RAW, acknowledging that they and the WWE hadn’t been doing a very good job lately, I tended to agree and one of the areas in which they’ve been coming up short has been in doing interviews or “cutting promos,” as the boys call them.
Not to be putting anybody down, but none of the talking heads in the WWE today comes even close to Mean Gene in that regard. He, truly, was one of a kind.
Many of today’s wrestling fans might not be all that familiar with Michel Dubois, because his heyday was back in the ‘70’s, but he was considered one of the best heels of that era, working main events in several of the biggest territories in the business back then, including Montreal, San Francisco, Texas, Minneapolis and Japan.
Back then, there was a remarkable contingent of great French Canadian heels, including Mad Dog and Butcher Vachon, Gilles Poisson, Pat Patterson, Michel Martel, Don Gagne, Stan Stasiak and the Leducs and Michel ranked right up near the top of that distinguished group.
I might add that, in addition to being a great worker, he was also widely respected by his fellow workers for being a consummate professional and “one of the boys”, in the best sense of the word.
I had the honor of having Michel on my Hart Beat Radio podcast and was greatly impressed with the pride he took in having attained success in our business and for the passion he had for pro wrestling, as well.
I’d like to take this opportunity to commend him for a great career and for having been a credit to our business, in and out of the ring.
While our business is decidedly poorer for the loss of Mean Gene and Michel, it’s also profoundly richer for their monumental contributions. They may be gone, but will never be forgotten. Thanks for the memories, my friends, and may you rest in peace.
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