Sean Waltman talks Gene Okerlund, Wrestle Kingdom, AEW & more!

Yesterday, the wrestling world suffered a big loss as the proverbial voice of millions of wrestling fans’ childhoods, ‘Mean’ Gene Okerlund, passed away at the age of 76 (see the breaking news here and reactions from the wrestling world here).

In the newest episode of X-Pac 12360, Sean Waltman discussed his memories of the WWE Hall Of Famer, plus the official launch of All Elite Wrestling, tomorrow’s Wrestle Kingdom 13 and much more. The following press release with details on the episode was sent along to The Chairshot:

SEAN ‘X-PAC’ WALTMAN ON THE PASSING OF “MEAN” GENE OKERLUND, ALL ELITE WRESTLING, BECKY LYNCH/JOHN CENA and WRESTLE KINGDOM 13.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE- Los Angeles

X-PAC 12360

Get it on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIrJvFmeR9c

or download the podcast version on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/x-pac-12360/id1150124693?mt=2 or download the podcast version for Android: https://omny.fm/shows/x-pac-12360/remembering-gene-okerlund-aew-wrestle-kingdom-and

Sean ‘X-Pac’ Waltman on All Elite Wrestling and Wishing Them Well

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 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 f*** out of the way. {laughs}

Sean ‘X-Pac’ Waltman on the Becky Lynch/John Cena Segment on Smackdown

It just seems that they’re doing all the right things with her {Becky Lynch}. And even if they might be misstepping here and there she’s correcting it on her own… I thought they handled it great, I thought the way the match was laid out was really smart….

Sean ‘X-Pac’ Waltman Remembers “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}

Sean ‘X-Pac’ Waltman On Why He’s Looking Forward to Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi 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 were 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 fucken love that.

Get it all on this week’s brand new episode of Westwood One’s X-Pac 12360. Two words for you…DOWNLOAD IT!