Ladies and gentlemen, standing at five foot nine, weighing in at 212 pounds....from
Robbinsdale, Minnesota... "Mean" Gene Okerlund!!
Gene
Okerlund debuted as a wrestling color commentary announcer in early 1974, filling in for the sick regular announcer. He didn't receive his moniker until later in the decade when
Jesse "The Body" Ventura started calling him "Mean" Gene as part of a plot.
Okerlund began his career in the
American Wrestling Association, like many other superstars of the 80's. In 1984,
Vince McMahon, Jr. developed the World Wrestling Federation and recruited many of the AWA's stars including Okerlund,
Hulk Hogan,
Jesse Ventura, and
Bobby Heenan.
"Mean" Gene soon became the staple voice of the
WWF. On March 31, 1985, Okerlund was honored by being asked to sing the American national anthem at
WrestleMania I.
Okerlund stayed with the
WWF for nine years before leaving in 1993 to work for
Ted Turner's
World Championship Wrestling. In the
WCW, Okerlund became much more involved in plot lines, even
turning heel at one point, associating himself with the
Millionaire's Club. Later he even faced off in a match versus fellow announcer Mark Madden as part of a storyline.
In 2000 Turner sold the WCW to Vince McMahon and the WWF (who were in the middle of changing names to the
WWE). Okerlund was part of the sale and came back to the WWE.
Shortly after returning to WWE programming, Okerlund experienced
kidney failure in 2004. In dire need of a kidney, Okerlund was blessed when a fan offered to donate his kidney. Okerlund returned to television in April of 2005 and continues to host interview bits for the WWE's
RAW.
Sources:
http://www.wrestlinginformer.net
My Uncle Paul, who is ridiculously obsessed with wrestling.
belgand says: re Mean Gene Okerlund: I cannot upvote this without at least a cursory mention of Mean Gene's Burgers.
I tried googling Mean Gene's Burgers (and other varients of the phrase) but couldn't really find anything useful. It appears that it's a burger "chain" (maybe ten stores tops) that have appeared around the country. The first one opened in Charolette, North Carolina, but from my understanding of everything, none of them are open anymore.
If anyone knows anything more about the store, please /msg. Thanks.