Andrew Lutzke
Presented by RF Video
Mean Gene was a minor wrestling fan in the 50’s and once he got to college he met Jim (Baron Von) Rasche and began to watch it more frequently.
Gene worked part time at several radio stations during college and ultimately became a station manager before he got his wrestling gig.
As a TV ad salesman in the Twins City area Gene knew some of the AWA talents and when the AWA needed a temporary replacement announcer, Gene received the gig.
He did well since he didn’t know anything and just called what he saw – play by play was all that was needed then.
Verne was a NCAA champ, an Olympian, a marine and a star since the early 50’s – so Gene assumed he knew what he was doing.
The guys tried to kayfabe Gene but he knew it was a work.
Mean Gene had to learn to not speculate about angles on air since he spoiled things from time to time.
Since he didn’t know some move names, Gene just made them up and Verne gave him Hell.
Verne was Gene’s teacher for learning the tricks of the trade.
Hulk Hogan was to be a heel but charisma and star power won over the fans. Gene never expected him to become the biggest star ever.
Oliver Humperdink tried to work Gene but Gene knew carny and understood what Oliver was saying.
Gene worked in the AWA part time while keeping a job in TV sales and running another media sales company. His partners both died and that forced Gene to choose wrestling as a career.
Pat Patterson and Hulk Hogan helped Vince McMahon convince Gene to come to the WWF during the early expansion era. More money didn’t hurt Vince’s pitch either.
Gene isn’t crazy about his “Mean Gene” nickname.
Jesse Ventura was a straight shooter.
Da Crusher was a good guy – great promo.
Crusher and Bruiser were like the “grumpy old men” of the AWA.
Bruiser and Verne were business partners since the 50’s. Bruiser was a lousy pay off guy.
Gene met Ken Patera and Ric Flair when they were bouncers for a Minnesota bar.
Flair’s gimmick wouldn’t have worked in the AWA as Verne would’ve kaboshed it.
Nick Bockwinkel was great at everything he tried.
Gene never felt he was a talented announcer until he went to the WWF and saw his role in the big WWF machine.
Ray Stevens was a great promo and a fun guy to be around. Stevens blew a fortune and his partner Pat Patterson saved everything.
Larry Hennig was one of Gene’s favorites.
Mean Gene knew that there was a time to be goofy and a time to be stoic.
Mad Dog Vachon was a small man, but had immense presence.
Bruiser Brody was good for a short run and could work but was too unstable for most promoters.
Bobby Heenan and Mean Gene worked together for over 30 years, Gene told Eric Bischoff that Heenan’s contract was coming up in the WWF and helped WCW sign him. Gene laments that Heenan’s throat was wrecked by cancer and is now trapped in a silent misery.
Lord Alfred Hayes was great on camera as a gimmick personality.
Mr. Saito amused Verne with his broken English promos.
Gene feels Hogan should have sat down with Verne before jumping to the WWF.
Having his own Minnesota based business almost made Gene pass up the WWF’s offer. Gene says the WWF tripled his AWA salary.
Modern day Vince McMahon is much different than 1984 Vince as Vince has been scorned too often and now is much more leery.
Verne was given Gene’s notice face to face and he and Greg Gagne tried to tell Gene that he should stay since they have been loyal to him for 13 years – Gene asked for a counter offer to stay and eventually was told to hit the bricks.
Gene was one of the first guys to jump from the AWA.
Verne was very traditional when it came to wrestling and had an empire built prior to Vince taking so much of his talent.
McMahon offered Verne 10 million to sell the AWA – 500 K a year for 10 years for both Greg and Verne. Verne and Greg would then be given towns to run as promoters.
Vince ran a tighter ship than Verne as far as organization – Verne didn’t need to be as precise as Vince in some regards since he ran a smaller operation.
The weeks leading up to Wrestlemania 1 were the most hectic time in Gene’s life.
Muraco and Fuji weren’t given scripts prior to their comedy bits on “Tuesday Night Titans” – having them read off cue cards was part of the comedy.
Hogan became burnt out from his hectic schedule in the mid 80’s and would blow up at times.
Fuji didn’t like Killer Khan and would rib him constantly.
Jesse Ventura and Hogan were always at odds as Hogan overshadowed Jesse in both the AWA and WWF.
Piper and Hogan had legit heat with each other until their feud ended.
Mr.T was a pain to deal with leading up to Wrestlemania 1. Snuka was a personal mess and was probably supposed to be an in ring participant in the main event otherwise.
When Mean Gene infamously swore on air at Summerslam ’89 it was actually a pre- taped interview that was aired by mistake.
Gene never saw any of the ring boy mistreatment that saw WWF employees fired and a lot of bad press.
Tony Atlas was one of the few guys who Gene had issues with during promos.
The Ultimate Warrior’s whacked out promos confused Gene.
In one day Gene had to do 141 interviews during one session.
When David Schultz slapped John Stossel, Gene was 10 feet away. He can’t say if anyone put Schultz up to it.
Haku and Mr. Saito were the toughest men in the locker room.
Gene could hear Nailz assault Vince McMahon over a payoff dispute. Hacksaw Jim Duggan ran in with others to save Vince.
Andre and Gene shared a love of good food, good wine, cribbage and rummy.
Mean Gene was a big fan of Jimmy Snuka, the British Bulldogs, and The Rougeau Brothers ring work.
Kerry Von Erich showed up to a WWF sponsor’s meeting at a Italian restaurant messed up and kept missing his mouth while trying to eat.
WWF largely cleaned up the drug scene by 1989 due to suspensions and firings after positive drug tests.
Gene hated the “Face to Face” segments the WWF started using in the early 90’s. They were generic promos by nature and far less effective with putting asses in the seats.
Vince chose not to resign Gene in 1993. They hugged and Gene hopped to WCW.
Bischoff gave Gene a lot of praise early on, which Gene appreciated after feeling a little down about his career path.
Gene wasn’t bothered by Vince creating the “Scheme Gene” character to mock him and WCW.
The WCW hotline went from 350K in profits when Gene started, to peaking at 3 million dollars during WCW’s peak.
Ric Flair and Gene had great chemistry and shared a lot of time at the bar.
WCW had little prep work for Nitro and things were chaotic.
Pamela Paulshock was a dumb blonde but at least had a body.
Bischoff did well in his WWE role as the slimy GM.
Gene wrote the scripts for WWF All-American Wrestling and had great fun on the show.
Too many WCW guys had creative control – no one should really have such power.
Vince Russo had a lot of wrestlers kissing his butt when he came to run WCW.
Mike Tenay was very smart wrestling wise but shouldn’t have been an announcer.
WCW signed Mean Gene to a multi-year contract right before they went out of business. He made every penny.
Kevin Dunn helped Mean Gene get back into the WWE on the part time basis that continues to this day.
Lex Luger was upset by the WWE damning him on TV over Miss Elizabeth’s death. Gene feels that if Lex loved her so much that he wouldn’t have had her around a drug culture.
The WWF office in 1983 had 8 people. The scope of it now is incredible.
In the late 80’s Mean Gene stayed with Bret Hart’s parents while his son was involved in the Calgary Olympic games.
Gene pitched to Kevin Dunn and Vince the idea of bringing him back to work mid-ring interviews.
Mean Gene felt Vince and Gorilla Monsoon were very good at play by play.
The WCW hotline had a lot of info that Gene pulled right from the Internet.
At 63 years old, Gene’s trying to open up another restaurant chain.
Final thoughts: Mean Gene’s long career as an on screen participant holds a warm spot in many of our hearts, and it was good to see him vibrant, cognitive and a bit wry in this interview. In a business that eats its young, it’s good to see Mean Gene still thriving. At 2 and a half hours long, this DVD touches on pretty much everything you’d want to hear about and was a pleasure to watch.
