• On This Day In Pro Wrestling History (October 31, 1991) – Old School Wrestling Legend Passed Away
On this day in 1991, we lost Old School Wrestling Legend Gene Anderson (Real name: Eugene Avon Anderson) at the age of 52 due to a heart attack.
Since his debut in 1958, Gene wrestled for various different territories, but most Old School fans remember him for teaming up with kayfabe brother Lars Anderson and later Ole Anderson (another kayfabe brother) as ‘The Minnesota Wrecking Crew’.
The team won several different tag team titles in various NWA promotions such as GCW Georgia Championship Wrestling and NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (Jim Crockett Promotions).
He retired in 1985, but continued to train future pro-wrestlers, including most famously WWF Attitude Era Superstar “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” Ken Shamrock.
REST IN PEACE GENE ANDERSON!
• WWE Hall Of Famer Comments On John Cena & Daniel Bryan Refusing To Work WWE Crown Jewel PPV
During a recent interview with TMZ Sports, WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry talked about WWE’s business relationship with Saudi Arabia, John Cena & Daniel Bryan refusing to go to WWE Crown Jewel & more.
Below are the highlights:
On the current situation with Saudi Arabia:
“I think it was a horrible situation that it puts our whole country in, first off. But that’s policy. That’s up for the country to decide and that’s up for the company to decide. It shouldn’t have any bearing on talent. Your political views should be your political views. I believe in business, being non-partisan.
Doing your job and then letting the companies be the ones to work out all of those international particulars. So basically, I’m not saying shut up and dribble, like some people would, like somebody told me on social media – ‘That’s what you’re saying, shut up and dribble!’ No, I’m anti-that. What I’m saying is, we do our jobs until we know different and we don’t know different yet.”
On John Cena & Daniel Bryan refusing to work WWE Crown Jewel PPV:
“I wouldn’t never say that person is making the wrong decision. I would say that’s not the decision I would make. I would stand by my guns and do what’s best for business.
I’m a firm believer in not leaving people out to dry, and I’ve done a lot of things in my career and in my life, my personal life, where I could say I’m not doing that. But there were people hanging in the balance and I didn’t want to screw those people over.
So that’s the situation that this is in, our fans, they want to see you. You know, give our fans what they want.”
On people saying WWE shouldn’t do business with Saudi Arabia:
“My response is, it’s a horrible thing. That person that lost his life, that family is without a brother, without a dad, without a son. They’ve lost somebody. Any time there’s loss, it’s more serious and we’ve been… it’s not a war situation, he was a journalist.
And I do believe that all of the ducks need to be in a row. They need to figure this out, they need to own it and apologize for it, and to make good by it, and do everything you can to fix the situation.
But again, it’s government policy. The government has not said, this is what you don’t do, you don’t go over there. They haven’t done that, they haven’t done that to any corporations. WWE is just one business. There are hundreds of thousands of business that are doing business internationally, why pick on one?”
