RIPPA Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 Most folks won't know Gorilla outside of his announcing or GM days but I don't give a fuck. I found Gorilla and Andre boxing so this gives me an excuse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted March 4, 2014 Author Share Posted March 4, 2014 And here is the aforementioned Ali vs. Gorilla angle http://youtu.be/Wdfyh538Cqo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingus Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 In the few matches I've seen him in, Gorilla looked like kind of a dick. Selfish, wouldn't sell, would stay on offense forever, would immediately cut his opponent off if they tried to mount a comeback. 90% of every Monsoon match I've seen was nothing but him eating the other guy's lunch. Of course, all this was from the twilight era of his career, maybe he was better when he was younger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 For some reason Gorilla always reminds me of my late grandfather so I am endlessly kind and sympathetic to him. In my 1994 watching, I am actually right to the point where Marella dies and I'm sort of afraid to go on because I don't want to see it wear on him. It always annoys me to see the crap that he got from Meltzer and still gets from certain elements of the fanbase. There was no one in the entire world who could make a shitty WWF prelim match more interesting and tolerable than Gorilla, especially paired with Heenan or Ventura (or my personal favorite Gorilla partner, Johnny Polo). Yeah, maybe he wasn't the guy you wanted in there for a great match, but that was only a problem for a tiny minority of the matches he called. In ring, I wish we had a bit more of his early career, since a lot of what we do have is the tail end when he was sort of a old legend and no longer working the original gimmick or even really heel, and I bet he was a much better heel than a face. Stuff like this: or this You get just the barebones hints in something like this: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xf6evq_bruno-sammartino-vs-gorilla-monsoon_sport where you can see that he gets up for Bruno's slams quite well and a brief flash of the sort of fun smarmy heeling that you would expect from his personality when he does the break and raises his hands. I'm not sure if that match is out there somewhere complete, but I haven't seen it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Domino_Not_Deuce Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 In the few matches I've seen him in, Gorilla looked like kind of a dick. Selfish, wouldn't sell, would stay on offense forever, would immediately cut his opponent off if they tried to mount a comeback. 90% of every Monsoon match I've seen was nothing but him eating the other guy's lunch. Of course, all this was from the twilight era of his career, maybe he was better when he was younger. Will you stop?! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted March 4, 2014 Author Share Posted March 4, 2014 http://youtu.be/1Gjkkrarqys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 "Gino" in his prime, such as it was: Incidentally, I've always wondered about that. Monsoon's real name was Robert James Marella. How do you get "Gino" from that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingus Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 For some reason Gorilla always reminds me of my late grandfather so I am endlessly kind and sympathetic to him. In my 1994 watching, I am actually right to the point where Marella dies and I'm sort of afraid to go on because I don't want to see it wear on him. It always annoys me to see the crap that he got from Meltzer and still gets from certain elements of the fanbase. There was no one in the entire world who could make a shitty WWF prelim match more interesting and tolerable than Gorilla, especially paired with Heenan or Ventura (or my personal favorite Gorilla partner, Johnny Polo). Yeah, maybe he wasn't the guy you wanted in there for a great match, but that was only a problem for a tiny minority of the matches he called. Oh, if we're talking about his announcing, then it's a whole different ball of wax. I love Gorilla on play-by-play... most of the time. He had some bad tendencies, which Meltzer et al harped on endlessly to the point where I think Monsoon's commentary is legit underrated in many smark circles. I still think he and Ventura were the best Wrestlemania announce team, although of course his chemistry with Heenan was second to none. Bobby never worked that well with anyone else in his entire career, and that's saying something when it's the freakin' Brain that we're talking about here. Certainly nobody ever felt better at calling Hogan matches, everyone else felt like they were trying to ape the big ape's calls on the Hulkster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Most folks won't know Gorilla outside of his announcing or GM days but I don't give a fuck. I found Gorilla and Andre boxing so this gives me an excuse What a life!!!! What a bizarre life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LooseCannon Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Incidentally, I've always wondered about that. Monsoon's real name was Robert James Marella. How do you get "Gino" from that? According to Greg Oliver, it came from eating buckets of fried chicken at Gino Garibaldi's restaurant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyWhioux Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Oh, if we're talking about his announcing, then it's a whole different ball of wax. I love Gorilla on play-by-play... most of the time. He had some bad tendencies, which Meltzer et al harped on endlessly to the point where I think Monsoon's commentary is legit underrated in many smark circles. I still think he and Ventura were the best Wrestlemania announce team, although of course his chemistry with Heenan was second to none. Bobby never worked that well with anyone else in his entire career, and that's saying something when it's the freakin' Brain that we're talking about here. Certainly nobody ever felt better at calling Hogan matches, everyone else felt like they were trying to ape the big ape's calls on the Hulkster. Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby The Brain Heenan is imprinted on my brain as what professional wrestling broadcasting is supposed to sound like, like Madden & Summeral in football. ESPECIALLY Gorilla and The Brain calling a Hogan bout. [The allure of WWE network for me (I haven't bought it yet) is primarily the prospect of having all the Monsoon/Heenan-called shows ready whenever I wanted to watch them.] I will probably never be able to give any other broadcaster/broadcast team a fair shake. But even if someone managed to come up with a tandem that attempted to be like that, even clearly inferior, I'd probably fall all over myself to gush about it. [Like, it's to the point where I'm pretty sure I'm the only person on this board who fondly remembers Mark Madden: WCW Heel Broadcaster, specifically because he was so shamelessly trying to be a poor man's Bobby Heenan (right down to gratuitously ripping Hogan). Of course it wasn't the real thing but at least somebody was trying to ape the formula. And sometimes Schiavone even fed into it and it was even better.] The only matches of his I've seen are the clips linked in this thread over the last couple days. And yet Gorilla Monsoon is probably the "wrestler" most responsible for me liking wrestling as much as I do/did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Incidentally, I've always wondered about that. Monsoon's real name was Robert James Marella. How do you get "Gino" from that? According to Greg Oliver, it came from eating buckets of fried chicken at Gino Garibaldi's restaurant. I find that remarkably easy to believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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