Pro wrestling interviewer ‘Mean Gene’ Okerlund dies

MINNEAPOLIS — Eugene “Mean Gene” Okerlund, whose deadpan interviews of pro wrestling superstars like “Macho Man” Randy Savage, The Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan made him a ringside fixture in his own right, has died. Tor Okerlund said his father, who had undergone three kidney transplants, fell a few weeks ago “and it just kind of went from bad to worse.” Okerlund started as an interviewer in the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association. He moved to WWE — then the World Wrestling Federation — in 1984 and hosted several shows, including “All-American Wrestling,” ’'Tuesday Night Titans” and “Prime Time Wrestling.” Besides being the company’s lead locker room interviewer, he also provided ringside commentary. Jesse Ventura, who wrestled as “The Body,” dubbed Okerlund “Mean Gene.” Ventura told the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Wednesday that in an interview he “laughingly called him ‘the Mean Gene Hot Air Machine,’ and the ‘Mean Gene’ stuck.” Ventura called Okerlund “the best at what he did, the best straight man interviewer in wrestling history.” “You only had to tell him once” how to pitch and sell a wrestling story, Ventura told the AP about Okerlund’s knack for salesmanship.