RIP Mean Gene Okerlund

It was just the other night that I was watching a DVD of Survivor Series, in this DVD Hulk Hogan lost the belt to the UnderTaker. Awile after this Mean Gene Okerlund went down in to the catacombs to interview thr new Champion the UnderTaker. Throught the whole DVD I was pretty much sat going to my daughter oh this is The Mountie, this is the Beserker and going on to give her mini histories of each individual including things such as how long there careers went on, what there highlights were. Then like the very next day I was reading through stuff on the internet and I was very sad to learn that good old  'Mean' Gene Okerlund had passed away.

WWE posted the news of Okerlund's death on their official website but no cause of death has been given as yet, Mean Gene was 76. The man had a career within the wrestling industry which spanned over five decades, I dont think I would be wrong in saying that within the wrestling industry Mean Gene was one of the finest ever interviewers and presenters. Yes the wrestlers have always done a great job in providing entertainment but people like Mene Gene were always there to add a layer of polish and professionalism to procedings, if it wasnt for Mene Gene then the WWF/WWE would not have been as enjoyable as it was for kids like me, if it hadnt been for the work of those around the ring in none wrestling roles such as Mene Gene, Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby the Brain and various others then we all proberbly would have been a lot quicker to realise that what we were essentially watching was a bunch of oily men performing pantomime slap fighting. Mean Gene made not only mine but so many other peoples childhoods just that little bit more magical.

Mean Gene was Born Eugene Arthur Okerlund on the 19th of December in 1942 in Sisseton, South Dakota. Originally he started out as a radio broadcast journalist before becoming an interviewer forthe AWA (American Wrestling Association). When Vince McMahon began purchsaing the territories in the mid-'80s, he ended up being Okerlunds new employer. As an announcer Mean Gene  would turn out to be one of McMahon's most valuable employees. Mean Gene would stay with the WWF for nine years as their top interviewer, and was also the host of various WWF shows. In a world full of cartoon wrestlers Okerlund was the perfect touch of class brought to procedings, and his presence would be much appreciated on shows such as Prime Time Wrestling and he would appear in some capacity at pretty much every major PPV, he even sang the national anthem at the first WrestleMania. Stupidly WCW failed to offer Okerlund a new contract and so he was snapped up by the WCW in 1993, something which I think really helped lend the WCW as a company a real sense of legitimacy.

Okerlund would return to WWE at WrestleMania X-Seven for the 'Gimmick Battle Royal' following the WWE's purchase of WCW, he was given a contract from there on and would sparodically appear, in 2006, he was very rightly inducted into the WWE's Hall of Fame.

Rest in Peace Mr Okerlund you will be very much missed

A look at the WWE hall of fame 2008

Ok so you have most likly gatherd from the title of this thread that I am back to talk once again about the WWE hall of fame and about those who were inducted in to it in 2008. Now as always I will be talking about the people based on my knowledge of them and my opinion on them so I apologise if anyone thinks I dont do a person justice I fully admit that others might know far more about an individual or hold them in far higher regard than I do. I also feel that I need to add that this is not a great Hall of Fame year for me, sure I have witnesed most of those involved do there thing but its a little short on individuals I hold dear.

Ok so I have decided to keep the person I know the most and whoise career I have enjoyed the most to last as I will proberbly have the most to say about them and I would like to end on a high as apposed to end this post just dribbling and rambling about stuff I dont really know much about so without further adu here goes.

Gordon Solie was inducted in to the hall of fame this year and he is one of those people who managed to get inducted despite never as far as I know having actually worked for the WWE in any capacity. He had however worked as a play-by-play announcer for Georgia Championship Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Florida, USA Championship Wrestling, Continental Championship Wrestling, and WCW (World Championship Wrestling). I am not very familiar with his work at all but I do know that he is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential wrestling announcers with good old JR (Jim Ross) stating that he was the most significant influence on his own career as an announcer. I kind of have to say with this one that if JR believes he belongs in the hall then he belongs in the hall.

Eddie Graham, was inducted into the hall of fame this year, during his time in the world of wrestling he was a wrestler a promoter and a booke. The guy had a long career debuting in 1947 and retiring in 1980 but as he retired before my birth and before wrestling really started to be regularly recorded and saved he is not a person I am very familiar with at all, sure I have heard the name come up but I dont really feel qualified to talk about him. I will say however that I am glad that the WWE recognises people whoise glory days predate the company.

Mae Young, unfortunatly for a lot of people she will be known as that old Lady who had a think with Mark Henry and gave birth to a hand. Yes she was used by WWE a lot in her latter years as joke fodder but when it comes to female wrestlers she is actually a pretty darn important one and one who I think is worth a spot in any wrestling hall of fame. Young is believed to have competed wrestling in seven diffrent decades. There is some debate about when exactly she started but it is known that she was wrestling in Memphis, Tennessee on December 7, 1941, which just so happens to be the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. During World War 2 with many men absent fighting overseas Young not only flurished herself but also helped other Women get into the world of wrestling expanding their role in the sport. While working for Championship Wrestling from Florida, she became the NWA Florida Women's Champion(1 time) and she was also at one point the National Wrestling Alliance's United States Women's Champion, as well as also once holding there World Tag Team Championship (with Ella Waldek), I know some people will stop me and say that anyone can be given a belt but look at it this way people are not given belts unless companies know the belts are safe in there hands and that they will bring asses to seats. Yes her latter days in the WWE might have ended up a little comical but she was a trail blazer helping to open up the world of wrestling for Women and helping it to grow and change.

"Soulman" Rocky Johnson (Wayde Bowles) is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. During his wrestling career, he became a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Georgia Champion and a NWA Southern Heavyweight Memphis Champion, as well as winning many other championships. Along with his partner Tony Atlas, Johnson was a part of the first black tag team to win the World Tag Team championship in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Nowdays most people proberbly have no idea who Rocky Johnson was despite his impressive career if people even know who he is then they possibly just know of him as the father of American actor and professional wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as his sons achievments have sort of eclipsed his.

Even a certain degree of credit for the Rock can be placed on his fathers shoulders as he was one of the people responsible for training his son Dwayne to wrestle. He initially didnt want his son to enter the world of wrestling because he knew it was extremely difficult, he agreed to train his son on the condition that he would not go easy on him. The Soulman helped Dwayne get signed to a WWF developmental deal. Initially, he appeared on screen in angels connected to his son but when his son went from wrestling under the name Rocky Mavia and became the Rock this stopped.
Johnson was also hired as a trainer for the WWE developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling, in early 2003 but this appointment only lasted for a few months. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame by his son, The Rock and strangly enough he wasnt the only person connected to The Rock inducted this year. As part of the first black tag team to win the WWF tag team belts and with his other acheivements I believe he is worthy of his spot in the hall of fame.

"High Chief" Peter Maivia AKA Fanene Leifi Pita Maivia (born Peter Fanene Anderson)was an American Samoan professional wrestler. He is the maternal grandfather of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, part of the famous Anoa'i wrestling family and was a promoter for the National Wrestling Alliance in Hawaii. His acomplishments were all in the NWA so his place in the hall of fame is one more gained from his contribution to the world of wrestling rather than to the WWF/WWE as a company. In fairness he is not someone who I feel qualified to talk about in depth but I can certainly understand his place in the hall of fame.

2008 Saw one team inducted into the hall of fame and that was The Brisco Brothers, which was comprised of Freddie Joe "Jack" Brisco  an American professional wrestler who performed for various territories of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), becoming a two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and multi-time NWA Tag Team Champion and his younger brother
Gerald Floyd Brisco is an American retired professional wrestler, currently employed by the professional wrestling promotion WWE as a talent scout who later in his career become an on screen stooge to Vince McMahon. I find these two a little hard to talk about as a lot of there most impressive things are stuff I have never seen. In a way I think that they would have been better being enterd in the hall seperatly Jack Brisco on the strength of his in ring career and Gerald Brisco more for his back of house work such as his role as a talent scout etc.



Now the next and final person I am going to be talking about is "The Stylin', profilin', limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin' n' dealin' son of a gun!" The Nature Boy Ric Flair a man who I feel needs little in the way of introduction yet here I am trying to sum up his career and his entitlement to a place in the WWE hall of fame, lets just put it this way if Ric Flair wasnt in the hall of fame then it would make most people stop and ask if the hall of fame had any credability what so ever. Flair was an American professional wrestler and manager who is currently signed to WWE under its Legends program.

Flair is widely regarded by a great many people as the greatest professional wrestler of all time and the best American performer of the 1980s^. Flair had a career that spanned 40 years this includes time  with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He also spent a whole lot of time in Japan and has pretty much been a major pay-per-view attraction throughout his whole career, Flair headlined at the premier annual NWA/WCW event, Starrcade, on ten occasions, as well as co-headlining its WWF counterpart, WrestleMania, in 1992, after winning that year's Royal Rumble in what can only be described as an incredable performance entering at number 3 and ending up the winner^. PWI magazine awarded him their Wrestler of the Year award a record six times, while Wrestling Observer Newsletter named him the Wrestler of the Year eight times. Ric Flair is also the one and only two-time WWE Hall of Fame inductee he was inducted this year for his own individual career and  in 2012 he was inducted as a member of The Four Horsemen. Flair is not only in the WWE hall of fame he is also a member of the NWA Hall of Fame, Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, and Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.Unlike many other wrestlers even if you havent seen or know of the events in this or that federation if you have even a passing intrest in wrestling then your bound to have come across the work of Ric Flair.

Now I dont agree with Flair's almost constant alchol consumption or his cheating on his wives, his drunken helecopter dick airplane beahaviour (apparently what he got up to during a plane journey referd to as the plane ride from hell) but I do think that he would easily be one of the greatest wrestlers to have ever lived and I have to thank him for all of the wonderful memories he provided not only me but so many people over the years. So often he was so busy playing the villian role that he didnt get the respect he deserved, I remember wanting people like Hulk Hogan and Sting to rip his head off but now as an adult I can see the very important part he played.

Over all there was no one really in 2008 who I really felt didnt deserve to be inducted in to the hall of fame, even if I would have handled the Brisco's diffrently. Its personally not the best year for me as there is only really Flair who I grew up watching but its not a bad year at all.

RIP Raymond Louis Heenan AKA Bobby "The Brain" Heenan

 So its been a while since I have posted anything most of this is due to my broadband modem dying and me having to get a new one and set it up and sort everything out. This hasnt only meant that I have posted on here it has also meant that I have been missing out on a lot of news, lets face it the stuff on TV and in the papers doesnt really cut it when your after the more geeky kind of info. This meant that I gave a very loud cheer when I got on the internet again but it soon turned into shedding tears when I foudn out that Raymond Louis Heenan better known as Bobby "The Brain" Heenan had passed away on September the 17th 2017.

Bobby Heenan was an American professional wrestling manager, wrestler, and color commentator, best known for his time with the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He was often called the Brain or the Weasel. In all honesty his wrestling career was well before my time, my earliest memories of him are seeing him manage Andre the Giant after he turned heel. He was amazingly skilled when it came to getting both himself and his guys over, if you wanted a wrestler to be despised and hated and considerd a real villian pretty much all you needed to do was put them with Heenan and he would get the job done for you double quick. He had an amazingly sharp mind and tongue, he could run circles around others with his quick delivery of epic put downs and no matter who he insulted even if they were your favourate wrestling hero you couldnt help but laugh at his lines, even when you really really hated him you couldnt help but also love him just a little. He also made more than his fair share of heroes of wrestling, you see everyone wanted to see Heenan get hit so all you needed to get someone over was to have them give Heenan a little bit of a bump and the crowd would go mad.

The thing is you always got the impression as a smart fan that Heenan was a real team player, not only would he give it his all to draw hate and heat for those he managed he also made sure to take good real looking bumps to help get the heroes over. He played a character who was at times a down right dirty cheat but deep down the guy basically wreaked of honesty, playfullness and a want to do not only his best but to help and inspire everyone else around him to do the same. He was and shall always be an absolute credit to the industry. His work as a color commentator lifted even some of the dullest of matches up to a highly watchable level, youd watch two useless meat heads throwing the worst fake punches at each other just to hear Bobby insult there intelgenece, or accuse them of being inbred or otherwise tear them to pieces and when you had this man comment on a good match well you lifted that up to a level of pure perfection.

I could talk about the man forever but I think I can some it all up with what I wrote about his Induction into the WWE Hall of Fame  ''As a kid I absolutely hated Bobby the Brain but as I have gotten older I realise just how much of my enjoyment of the WWF/WWE came down to this man. It was his motor mouth speech his on the spot insults, he knew how to get the kind of heat on a regular basis that most people in the world of wrestling would dream of striking once or twice in there career.''

RIP MR Heenan and thank you for the memories.

The Early years of the WWE Hall of Fame

So here is a quick look at the early years of the WWE Hall of Fame.

So what is the WWE Hall of Fame well put simply it is a hall of fame for professional wrestling personalities maintained by WWE. Or to put it more simply its a list of people who it is felt have had a major impact on the WWE brand and company.

It was first mentioned and officially created on the March 22nd 1993 episode of Monday Night Raw. André the Giant, had died around about two months prior to this, and he was announced as the sole inductee.I don't think there is really anyone who would debate whether the Giant deserved his place in the hall,so he was certainly a good starting point. He was a Posthumous inductee as it was held after his death, there was no actual ceremony but a Video was made and shown to announce his induction and celebrate his career, a career which included an undefeated streak lasting nearly 15 years, as well as being both a former WWE Champion and WWE Tag Team champion.

The 1994 and 1995 ceremonies were held in conjunction with the annual King of the Ring pay-per-view events. The 1994 ceremony saw the following added to the hall, Arnold Skaaland, Bobo Brazil, "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, Chief Jay Strongbow, "Classy" Freddie Blassie, Gorilla Monsoon and James Dudley. Now I wont talk about all of these in turn as I would be here all day and a lot of them are either before my time or I know of them for there other work, for example I know Gorilla Monsoon for his stint as a WWF announcer and on-screen President rather than for his actual in ring career, all of them with the exception of Buddy Rogers were alive at the time of there induction.

The 1995 ceremony saw the induction of stars such as Antonino Rocca, "Big Cat" Ernie Ladd, George "The Animal" Steele, Ivan Putski, The Fabulous Moolah, The Grand Wizard, and Pedro Morales. Again a lot of these wrestlers were before my time, with the only one I really hold a lot of memories and affection for being the lovable monster heel character of George The Animal Steele. The year is proberbly most worthy of note for being the first time a Woman found her way in to the WWE Hall of fame.

In 1996, the Hall of Fame ceremony was held with the Survivor Series event that year. This year would see "Baron" Mikel Scicluna, "Captain" Lou Albano, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, The Valiant Brothers (the first tag team to go into the hall) Johnny Rodz, Killer Kowalski, Pat Patterson, and Vincent J. McMahon AKA McMahon Senior. Captain Lou Albano was obviously very well known particularly as a manager and many kids will know him as being the real life Mario who featured at the start and end of episodes of the Super Mario Bros Super show. Jimmy Snuka will also most likly be known because of firstly the fact that he achieved super fame in the company and has kept popping up again and again but also unfortunatly because of the fact that he is currently facing a court case in relation to a death around 20 years ago. This makes it the first year in which we have a super star entering the hall who will latter be removed from it in at least some capacity (As of September 2015, Jimmy Snuka's profile is no longer in the Hall of Fame section at WWE.com. However, this does not necessarily mean that Snuka has been removed from the WWE Hall of Fame completely as no statement has been made by WWE yet in regards to this, nor do we know if one ever will be).

So there we have the first 4 years of the Hall of Fame and by my reckoning around the first 22 people to enter it. At this point it felt like the Hall of Fame would just keep going, getting bigger and bigger but suprisingly it stopped being mentioned and no new blood would be inducted in to it until 2004. None of these early ceremonies were televised with the exception of the video made to induct Andre.

So is the Hall of Fame a real physical thing or is it just a list, well technically a building has never been built to represent/house the Hall of Fame, although I have heard that WWE has looked into constructing this kind of thing, however In 2008, Shane McMahon, who was at the time Executive Vice President of WWE, stated that they had been storing wrestling memorabilia in a warehouse for years, with all items categorized and dated in case a real Hall was ever made. Now while I am very glad to hear that they are at least storing significant items its a shame we dont get to see them. I would argue that if they cant or do not at present want to create a real physical hall then maybe the next best thing would be a virtual hall of fame, let us see and virtually interact with this pieces of wrestling memrobelia, photo them from every angle and let us virtually turn them around and study them while reading about the greats that they are connected to, this way if they are ever lost or damaged they will live on in this way.