Sean Waltman Remembers 'Mean' Gene Okerlund, Opens Up On All Elite Wrestling And Wrestle Kingdom 13

Sean “X-Pac” Waltman was on the X-Pac 12360 Podcast this week discussing a litany of topics, including the passing of “Mean” Gene Okerlund, as well as giving his thoughts on the launch of All Elite Wrestling. He also took the time to divulge on the rise of Becky Lynch and the Wrestle Kingdom 13 main event between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kenny Omega.

Here are a few highlights from the episode, which can be viewed below (h/t Denise Salcedo for Transcription):

Sean Waltman on the life of “Mean” Gene Okerlund:

“And so I got to see him {Gene Okerlund} mostly when he jumped; in the big exodus from the AWA when Vince {McMahon} went in there and cherry-picked talent. It was Mean Gene, it was obviously Hulk {Hogan}, Vince took Mad Dog Vachon just for good measure… But I think Mean Gene was one of the bigger hits that Verne {Gagne} took when he lost talent, that was one of the big hits he took. …I mean goddam everyone really loved Mean Gene…. He was great at his job but not everyone he interviewed was great at talking and I was one of them [laughs]”

Waltman on looking forward to Tanahashi vs. Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 13:

“They both need it.{IWGP Heavyweight Championship} And I see this, when you look at that video, Kenny’s Quest, if you don’t know that much about this whole thing it kinda explains a lot. This is a generational thing, the father loves Tanahashi, and the little kid is a Kenny Omega fan, so that’s kind of what we’re talking about here. I love the style of shit-talking those two did back and forth with each other, about styles and the philosophies of wrestling. It’s fascinating to me how they talk about wrestling and ‘my style is better than your style’. I love that. I fucking love that.”

Waltman congratulating the launch of AEW and facing potential critics:

“One minor [thing] and I don’t know if it’s a concern, does it lose some of that punk rock feel? You get what I am saying? The ‘do-it-yourself, we gotta get behind this,’ but I hope the enthusiasm stays because everyone complains ‘we need another major player in the industry’ so please support it… don’t all of a sudden ‘oh it’s not the cool thing because everyone else is getting to see it too.’ It’s not as much of underdog when you got millions behind you… and it’s not like ‘we’re just gonna start this company from scratch and all of a sudden here it is.’ There is this history and all this work that was done… And now you see everyone like okay headline, ‘ Davey Boy Smith Jr. signs with MLW, so and so signs with Impact, so and so this’ everyone is staking a claim, ‘we’re gobbling up the guys that we want specifically on our team’… One thing I gotta say about this, about All Elite Wrestling is so many people in the industry that are sure they know how its done are all jumping in, I see ‘so and so’s advice, this person has advice” As nice of you and your advice but these guys have come along because they kinda went their own way. Not that you don’t want to take advice, but filter it, it might be sound advice for somebody but somebody else…. Just wish them well and get the fuck out of the way.”