Eugene Arthur Okerlund (December 19, 1942 – January 2, 2019) was an American professional wrestling interviewer, announcer and television host. He was best known for his work in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and World Championship Wrestling. Okerlund was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006 by Hulk Hogan. He was signed to a lifetime contract with WWE and later worked for promotional programs. He has been described by some journalists as the best interviewer in the history of professional wrestling.
Professional career
Early career
Eugene Arthur Okerlund was born on December 19, 1942, in Brookings, South Dakota to Arthur and Helen Okerlund. He grew up in Sisseton and was raised on an Indian reservation. He graduated from Sisseton High School in 1960. He was an all-around athlete, participating in basketball, baseball, football and track. After studying broadcast journalism at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln), Okerlund landed a job as a disc jockey at KOIL, a popular radio station in Omaha, Nebraska. Okerlund later moved to Minneapolis where he worked for WDGY as a radio host under the alias of Gene Leader. He later left that position to become Program Director at KDWB. Okerlund also worked in Minneapolis for a local television station in the front office.
Okerlund played with the Harold Johnson Orchestra and fronted the band Gene Carroll and the Shades. The band released "Is It Ever Gonna Happen" on the album In This Corner, on Norton Records in 1962.
American Wrestling Association (1970–1984) Okerlund left the radio industry for a position at the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in 1970, where he occasionally filled in for ailing ring announcer and interviewer Marty O'Neill, eventually becoming O'Neill's permanent replacement by the end of the decade. While there, Jesse "The Body" Ventura gave him the moniker "Mean" Gene. According to Ventura, “In an interview, I laughingly called him ‘the Mean Gene Hot Air Machine,’ and the ‘Mean Gene’ stuck, I’m proud that I gave him a nickname that will stick with him forever.” His first interview was with Nick Bockwinkel and Bobby Heenan, acting terrified when both were jumped from behind.
World Wrestling Federation (1984–1993) He stayed with the AWA until the end of 1983, when he was one of many AWA personnel to join the expanding World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
He stayed with the WWF for nine years as their top interviewer and was a host of such WWF shows as All-American Wrestling. He sang the national anthem at the inaugural WrestleMania and Tutti Frutti on The Wrestling Album. Okerlund's interviews were memorable, most notably those involving Hulk Hogan, who began his interviews with “Well, you know, Mean Gene …”. He also notably teamed up with Hulk Hogan to face the duo of George Steele and Mr. Fuji in a winning effort. At SummerSlam 1989, Okerlund was booked to do an interview with Intercontinental Champion Rick Rude prior to Rude's match with The Ultimate Warrior. However, the planned backdrop for the interview inexplicably fell backwards, infamously causing mayhem backstage. At Survivor Series 1990, Okerlund was next to the giant egg where it hatched and out came the Gobbledy Gooker (played by Héctor Guerrero). As fans in attendance at the Hartford Civic Center started to boo, a rock and roll rendition of "Turkey in the Straw" began to play and Okerlund and Guerrero danced in the ring.
World Championship Wrestling (1993–2001) Okerlund appeared at SummerSlam 1993 and made his final WWF appearance of the 1990s on the September 18, 1993, edition of Superstars. He then left the WWF entirely when his contract expired. He stated in an RF shoot interview, that although he probably could have re-negotiated a new contract, he was never actually offered one, thus opting to become an interviewer for World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He claimed at the time of his hiring with WCW that he had not been on speaking terms with McMahon for the past few years he was working in the WWF.