Give Jesse Ventura the credit for nicknaming Gene Okerlund.
“Jesse and I were talking on the air in Minneapolis with the AWA,” recalled Okerlund. “Jesse said something about once serving as the bodyguard for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and I said, ‘Tom Petty, that’s a pretty big name.’ Jesse didn’t miss a beat and responded, ‘You don’t even know who Tom Petty is!’ I corrected him and said, ‘I certainly do, Jesse, he is the famous race car driver.’
“That’s when Jesse said, ‘That’s mean, Gene,’ and that is how the origin of ‘Mean Gene’ started.