Gene Okerlund

“I can tell you, I was in Seoul, Korea, and I had people come up to me in the airport and say 'Congratulations on your induction into the WWE Hall of Fame.' Of course, I can go to Garden City, Kan., and get the same kind of reception. It truly is an honor.”

“I finished high school and studied at the University of Nebraska in the school of journalism, which really turned me onto journalism. I never finished, but the very little that I did learn in two-and-a-half-years prepared me for a career in legitimate journalism, which included WWE, AWA, WCW, and everything in-between.”

“I've worked with all these guys, Jim Ross, Mr. Fuji, Nick Bockwinkel, Bobby Heenan.”

“People expect you to top yourself - to always have more and bigger.”

“I have a tremendous amount of gratitude to those who enjoyed my work. It's something we did together, because I must have given them something they liked, and we shared it, and everybody walked away a winner. That's truly the way I look at my time with the business.”

“Bobby is the Aaron Rodgers of managers in professional wrestling - Rodgers works magic on the professional football field, but Bobby Heenan did the same thing in a wrestling ring, in a television studio, on a radio program, and he could do the same thing in a newspaper layout. He was a great communicator, and he knew how to generate heat with fans.”

“I think I have some advice for both the talent, and the 'powers that be' in professional wrestling. I would say let the guys say it their own way and let them put their own matches together.”

“The thing I do remember the most of Wrestlemania, which was a high point for me, was Wrestlemania 1. The fact we made it over the fence. Then Wrestlemania 3. Bobby Heenan and myself coming back for Wrestlemania 17 and the gimmick battle royal. So many highlights, couldn't possibly cover them all.”

“People loved to hate Bobby Heenan.”

“To go into the WWE Hall of Fame as the very first announcer was a big, big honor for me.”

“There have been many matches where a wrestler gets hurt. The referee usually senses it and stops the match, but the referee doesn't always know.”

“For the most part I'm living the life I want to lead.”

“We know somebody's got to win, somebody's got to lose, but aside from that, there's a lot of latitude and spontaneity and free-wheeling that I think would make it a much better product. I'm not knocking the product on RAW or Smackdown or NXT; these guys are good, but they're following a television format.”

“Retirement for old people, forget about it.”

“Goldberg is destined for stardom.”

“I think as time goes on, people may realize the golden age of wrestling may have been in the 1970s and early 1980s.”

“Wrestlemania is the event of the year. Always has been and always will be.”

“My theory for a good interview is to listen to a person and react. I would always ask a question that was pertinent to the mindset of the talent, whether it was who they were going to meet, where they were going to meet them, and what they were going to do.”