Sean Waltman Remembers Gene Okerlund, Talks Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

– Sean Waltman spoke on his latest X-Pac 1,2,360 show about Gene Okerlund’s passing and more. Highlights are below per WZ:

On Gene Okerlund’s passing: “I got to see him mostly when he jumped [companies]; 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]”

On Kenny Omega’s feud with Hiroshi Tanahashi: “They both need [the 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,” said Waltman. “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 sh-t-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 f—ing love that.”