RIP Ole Anderson

[NintendoLogic]

Ricky Morton announced Ole's passing on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C31FoQvJptD/?igsh=NXR2Y2ZsNmhmOGt2

He was 81. Say what you want about the guy, but anyone who hated Vince McMahon as much as he did had to have something going for him.

[KawadaSmile]

If anything, him being even acknowledged on WWE indicates that Vince is Gone. Ole probably would have hated it too. 

Still, an incredibly entertaining man to listen to.

 

Great story.

[Ricky Jackson]

This is one of the greatest bits of pro wrestling ever. RIP

 

[sek69]

RIP you wonderfully miserable bastard. The original Horsemen run was one of those "yeah, this shit's for me" moments that first got me hooked on pro wrestling.

[El-P]

The original old man yelling at clouds. These days, really a venial sin.

Salty as fuck, overrated booker, kinda boring in a good way, awesome promo. Hated both Vince and Flair, so that's that.

[Sweet Brown Koko]

I’m from the Carolinas and The Andersons are STILL over!  I certainly didn’t like or agree with a lot of things Ole did or said but I appreciated his work. I also got to see him live as well.

I have an autographed copy of Ole’s book and I love it. You will either love it or hate it but I appreciated the fact that he put his thoughts on paper. 

He was definitely ornery while also holding firm on things he believed. He was also a believable promo to me and I appreciated his ring style and selling.

 I always thought HHH should have leaned into his inner Ole instead of trying to mimic Flair…..

 

RIP Ole

[Sweet Brown Koko]

 

[TheDuke]

Funny I always thought he was older. That means he was only in his early 40s when the Four Horsemen started and I always saw him as an old man at that time.

[NintendoLogic]

It is rather striking how much more rapidly wrestlers aged in the territory days. Virtually everyone who was a star in the 60s and 70s looked ancient by the time the 80s rolled around.

[Outsider]

Ole is one of those guys that most people don't credit enough.  He understood the wrestling business in every aspect. He knew how to book a territory where you return weekly to each town. And he talked about how he couldn't use Hogan because it would expose Hogan, unless you just let Hogan squash everybody. Then what? Hogan was made for the national promotions. 

Anyway Ole had a tremendous amount of knowledge on booking and angles and how to use talent. As the 80s went along he adapted and helped create the Road Warriors and other dark characters. 

Jim Herd asked Ole to create a new character and Ole wrote down some ideas including "the black scorpion." And Jim Herd loved the idea without even thinking who would be behind the mask! By this time Ole was probably sick of how the WWF changed the mainstream idea of what the business was. So he just did whatever to collect a nice check. 

I always respected Ole, maybe because he looks like my ex girlfriend's father.

RIP 

[David Mantell]

RIP, condolences to family etc.

In my mind it basically boils down to this:

GOOD SIDE:

• Teaming with Gene Anderson in those classic late 70s JCP NWA World Tag Team title matches against Flair and Valentine 
• The big turn on Dusty. 
• The turn on Sting above (bear in mind if Tully hadn't been caught doing Coke, that would have been his spot and so would Barry Windham's 1990 Horseman stint.)
• Inventing the Road Warriors gimmick.

BAD SIDE:

• Cutting Sting's original World title reign down from 12 months to 6.5 months (Sting should really have lost to Luger at GAB '91 when  the match ended with Luger turning heel and getting help from Harley Race and Mr Hughes) and landing us with that enfeebled early '91 Flair title reign that even Flair admits was a mistake and he was in no state for.) 
• Driving away a lot of young talent one of two of whom like Mark Callaway proved invaluable to Vince and replacing them with old timers that were old pals of his.

UNINTENTIONALLY FUNNY SIDE:

• Cussing out Vince and Jim Barnett until they walked out of the 1983 NWA convention and so inadvertently pulling the trigger on 18 years of conquest which ended up with the WWF as the last surviving US territory.

[MoS]

A "major" WCW star buried the shit out of Ole in Meltz's obit of him. I was going to guess who it might be, but tbh the list of people Ole pissed off is so long, it would be easier to speculate who wouldn't trash talk him even anonymously