Line #12 Wrestling/MeanGeneOkerlund


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/geneo.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: ''[[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qHQ5Z4PKZeY I'm forever on your side.]]'']]
3
4	-> ''"The best partner I ever had. We never rehearsed or did anything scripted from a writer. Gene would ask me 'Hey big man, what do you want to do?' I would always answer 'Just follow you, brother' and it worked from 1980 - 2017."''
5	-->-- '''Wrestling/HulkHogan''' on Mean Gene, following his death
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7	Eugene Arthur "Mean Gene" Okerlund (December 19, 1942 -- January 2, 2019) was a ProfessionalWrestling announcer, backstage interviewer, commentator and former wrestler. He got his start in pro wrestling working for the Wrestling/AmericanWrestlingAssociation from 1970 until 1984, when he was picked up by the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} World Wrestling Federation]], becoming the most recognizable voice of WWF's Rock 'n' Wrestling connection. He left WWF in late 1993 and was subsequently hired by [[Wrestling/{{WCW}} World Championship Wrestling]] where he would remain until WCW was purchased by the WWF in 2001. Okerlund returned to WWF/WWE following WCW's demise and made occasional TV appearances and often appeared in documentaries. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006, making sporadic appearances on WWE programming until his death in 2019.
8	----
9	!! Tropes applying to Okerlund
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11	* DeadpanSnarker: Always, in and out of character. The guy was able to keep a straight face while "Macho Man" Randy Savage delivered a bonkers promo right next to him and when Wrestling/BookerT slipped up and called Wrestling/HulkHogan the N-word.
12	* DirtyOldMan: During WCW's Final Years, where he would practically drool over the female valets. This gimmick [[CreatorBacklash made Gene uncomfortable]], as he didn't like the fact that his kids (and grandkids) would see him like this on TV.
13	* IronicNickname: Gene was anything but Mean.
14	* JerkassBall: After Wrestling/{{Madusa}} lost her match at ''WCW The Great American Bash 1997'' and had to "retire," Gene showed up and utterly buried her, saying, "her career is finished, toast, over," with the crowd responding "Leave her alone!"
15	* NonActionGuy:
16	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3cYHHISZgE A series of vignettes]] with Wrestling/HulkHogan highlighted this, as Hogan had to train Gene to participate in a wrestling match against Mr. Fuji and [[Wrestling/GeorgeSteele George "The Animal" Steele]] at a house show in Minneapolis in 1984. For his part, Gene was more interested in cigars and sleeping in than training, prayers, and vitamins.
17	** When wrestlers would attempt to inflict violence on him, he'd often threaten them with lawsuits.
18	* PhraseCatcher: During interviews, most wrestlers, especially Wrestling/HulkHogan, would start off with "Let me tell you something, Mean Gene..."
19	** Thanks to Wrestling/RicFlair ChewingTheScenery, his interviews started with "MEEEEEEAN--WOOOOO!--BY GOOOOD, GEEEENE!" with it getting longer and longer the more fired up he was.
20	* PrecisionFStrike: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhrfZ1EJlpc There's a reason he's called Mean Gene.]]
21	* RedBaron: "Mean Gene"
22	* SeenItAll: In an interview with Harlem Heat, Wrestling/BookerT, calls out Hulk Hogan and accidentally involves the N-word. While Booker was embarrassed and manager, Wrestling/{{Sherri\|Martel}} couldn't help but laugh, Gene just turned around and interviewed Stevie Ray without missing a beat like nothing happened, especially considering that [[PrecisionFStrike he's said worse on Live TV]].
23	* TakeThat: A fairly impressive one to Wrestling/EricBischoff on the tenth anniversary show of ''Raw'': "Eric, maybe if you'd have shut up and learned how to run your company, we'd be celebrating the tenth anniversary of ''Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro''."[[note]]Denoting the fact that Raw debuted in 1993 and Nitro in 1995, which meant it would have been the 8th anniversary of Nitro, but why mess up an insult with accurate math?[[/note]]

Context Wrestling / MeanGeneOkerlund