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
* * * * *
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 character to me when I was
first watching wrestling in the mid-1970s. He just stood
there beside his brother Ole, with that menacing twitch and
that icy stare.
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 all the things so iconic about the
Andersons:
(1) the maroon
and gold striped "Anderson boots",
(2) the "tag and
block", keeping their opponent trapped in the the corner
while they tagged in and out,
(3) and that famous hammerlock slam,
the "Anderson slam", on an opponent's arm.
Bob Caudle and
David Crockett talked on and on about that hammerlock slam
on television, really
putting it over. No other team did any move quite like that
slam at that time. “Pick one part of the body, and stay on it”, Bob and
David would say.
It was so simple back then, and it
just worked.
Gene Anderson
And then there was the
famous “Supreme Sacrifice” match the Anderson Brothers had with Wahoo
McDaniel and Paul Jones. This was the match that got me
hooked on wrestling at 13 years of age. Near defeat, a
desperate Ole Anderson threw Wahoo McDaniel into Gene
Anderson who was waiting in his corner, their heads
violently colliding, knocking both men out. Ole covered an
unconscious Wahoo for the pinfall. Gene lay motionless on
the floor outside the ring. The Andersons had regained their
championship, and a brother had sacrificed a brother to get
it done.
I guess that was supposed to make
the Andersons seem more like the bad guys, but to my twisted
way of looking at it, they were more like heroes. I was
shocked at first that Ole would sacrifice his own brother to win the titles.
But when they showed the tape again, it seemed almost
inspired
that Gene had gone along with this, leaning over the
ropes at ringside, head extended, as if asking for the shot. I remember my friends and I having this
long discussion
about which brother actually made the bigger sacrifice? Was
it Ole
giving up his own brother? Or Gene sacrificing himself? Either
way, as kids we were blown away that they would do such a
thing 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 seemed real to us.
NWA World Tag
Team Champions Gene and Ole Anderson
with Bob Caudle
on Mid-Atlantic Wrestling
The following week when the Andersons came out
on TV with the
belts they had regained in that match, Gene, as usual, never
said a word. He just stood with Ole, both of them holding
their belts. There was no angle to tease a break up of the team like what would be
required today. The sacrifice had united them as never
before. No one had a chance of getting those belts from the
Andersons now. Gene Anderson had sacrificed himself
so that he and his brother could get their belts back.
Without saying a single word, that was one powerful statement.
Gene Anderson always said more by saying less.
And I
believed.
Copyright © 2006 Mid-Atlantic
Gateway
Originally published November
2006 |