All Elite Wrestling commentator Tony Schiavone recently discussed several professional wrestling topics on his podcast, “What Happened When,” including Gene Okerlund’s transition from WWE to WCW.
Schiavone said, “Gene was legendary, and I’m not talking about always in the ring. Anybody who hung out with him, and Ric Flair hung out with him some. Ric called him ‘Doctor.’ And he was just, he was just an amazing guy. When he was first brought over here — when I say brought over here, when he first left the WWE and came to WCW — I remember I was sitting in my office, and he walked down the hallway. And I had heard he was coming and went, ‘Oh my God.’ And I talked to him, and I said, ‘Gene, I need to tell you something here.’ I said, ‘This is not like the WWF. It’s a little looser here. It’s not as organized, it’s not as — well, it’s not as big. So let me tell you, you got to kind of just dig in here and not get too upset about things not happening the way you remember them happening in Stanford, Connecticut.’ And Gene said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it.’ But he did get frustrated many, many times, and so did Bobby Heenan. Because they were used to things working the way they did there, and it was very organized up there. I know, I worked up there for a year. And for us, a smaller facility. You know, we had that very small facility in CNN Center until Eric took over, and then we moved out of the CNN Center, which was a smart move. But he got frustrated a lot, and it got to him a little bit. But it never at all affected his work, because he was still just absolute best.”
On original plans for Rick Rude to turn babyface in WCW for a feud with Vader:
“Yeah, I think so [he could have done it]. I think Rick Rude could have made anything work. And of course, you know, when against Vader, obviously he’d have been a good babyface.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
