A Brief History of the Anderson
Family in Professional Wrestling
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Mid-Atlantic Gateway!
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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, and 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 all his
actions speak for himself in that ring.
-
Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, Nov. 12, 1975
Play audio. (Not avialable yet
on Mac OS/iOS.)
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 hammerlock slam on the arm. 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, as kids we were blown away that they would do that to get
those
World Tag team championship belts 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 regained 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.
