I Believed In Gene Anderson

by Dick Bourne

"As Teddy Roosevelt said, 'Talk softly and carry a big stick.' You'll hear very little out of Gene Anderson."

      - Les Thatcher, Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, August 20, 1975

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³AUDIO CLIP

Bob Caudle and David Crockett on Gene Anderson.

(Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, November 12, 1975.)

Bob Caudle:   Gene Anderson, the quiet one of the pair of Gene and Ole Anderson. David, a lot of the wrestlers are talking about it, a lot of the fans, and even though Gene Anderson is quiet when it comes to talking, I’m not so sure he’s not the more deadly of the two Andersons.

David Crockett:   He is deadly. He lets his actions speak for himself in that ring.

- Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, Nov. 12, 1975

People occasionally comment on the fact that Gene Anderson rarely spoke during interviews conducted with the Minnesota Wrecking Crew. The very fact that Gene Anderson didn’t talk during interviews made him more of a threatening, almost mysterious character to me when I was first watching wrestling.

It also added to the personality and uniqueness of the team. Ole doing all the braggadocios talking, Gene backing it up. Then of course there were the things so iconic about the Andersons: the Anderson boots, keeping an opponent in their corner, the famous Anderson slam. Bob Caudle and David Crockett talked on and on about that slam, really putting it over. No other team did any move quite like that slam. “Pick one part of the body, and stay on it”, Bob and David would say. It was so simple back then, and it worked.

Gene Anderson
 

And then there was the “Supreme Sacrifice” match with Wahoo McDaniel and Paul Jones. I guess that was supposed to make the Andersons seem more like the bad guys, but to me it made them more like heroes. As a kid, I was at first horrified that Ole would sacrifice his own brother to win the titles. But when they showed the tape again, I was almost inspired that Gene seemingly went along with it, leaning over the ropes at ringside, head extended. I remember my friends Mark and Ricky and I having this deep philosophical discussion about which brother actually made the bigger sacrifice? Ole giving up his own brother? Or Gene sacrificing himself? Either way, we were blown away that they would do that to get the World Tag team championships back. We loved Wahoo and Paul, but we were impressed that the Andersons wanted it that much more. This was real to us.

The following week when the Andersons came out with the belts they had won back in that match, Gene as always never said a word. He just stood with Ole holding his belt. No angle to tease a break up of the team like what would be required today. The point was this guy had made a sacrifice so that he and his brother could get their belts back. Without saying a word, that was one powerful statement.

Gene Anderson always said more by saying less. And I believed.