Gorilla Monsoon
Gorilla Monsoon | |
---|---|
Birth name | Robert James Marella |
Born | Rochester, New York, U.S. | June 4, 1937
Died | October 6, 1999 Willingboro Township, New Jersey, U.S. | (aged 62)
Cause of death | Complications of diabetes |
Alma mater | Ithaca College |
Spouse(s) |
Maureen Marella (m. 1959) |
Children | 4, including Joey Marella and Víctor Quiñones |
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Gino Marella[1] Gorilla Monsoon Bob Marella Manchuria Giant |
Billed height | 6 ft 7 in (201 cm)[1] |
Billed weight | 401 lb (182 kg)[1] |
Billed from | Manchuria[1][2] Willingboro, New Jersey |
Trained by | Stu Hart[3] |
Debut | 1958 |
Retired | 1997 |
Robert James Marella (June 4, 1937 – October 6, 1999), better known by his ring name of Gorilla Monsoon, was an American professional wrestler, play-by-play commentator, and booker.
Monsoon is famous for his run as a villainous super-heavyweight main eventer, and later as the voice of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), as commentator and backstage manager during the 1980s and 1990s. He also portrayed the on-screen role of WWF President from 1995 to 1997.
In professional wrestling, the staging area just behind the entrance curtain at an event, a position which Marella established and where he could often be found during WWF shows late in his career, is named the "Gorilla Position" in his honor.
Early life
Marella attended Jefferson High School in Rochester, New York, becoming a standout athlete in football, amateur wrestling, and track and field.[4] At the time, he weighed over 300 pounds (136 kg) and was affectionately called "Tiny" by his teammates.
Marella was also a standout athlete after
Marella's size and athletic ability attracted the attention of New York promoter Pedro Martinez, and he went to wrestle for Martinez after graduating from Ithaca in 1959. Gorilla was 6'5" and weighed around 330 pounds when he first started wrestling professionally. By the end of his career, he was up around 375 pounds, although he had weighed as much as 440 pounds at points.[citation needed]
Professional wrestling career
Early career
Marella debuted in 1958, originally billing himself as Gino Marella,
WWWF/WWF career
In 1963, Vincent J. McMahon reformed the Capitol Wrestling Corporation into the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) (currently known as World Wrestling Entertainment), breaking his territory away from the National Wrestling Alliance in an attempt to create a new national powerhouse. At the time, the WWWF was the dominant wrestling promotion in the Northeast U.S.. Marella formed a friendship with McMahon, and became a 1/6 shareholder in the WWWF, controlling bookings in several WWWF territories. He also became one of the promotion's top heels, feuding with popular babyface champion Bruno Sammartino in sellout arenas across the country. Despite his huge size, then in excess of 400 pounds, Monsoon had great agility and stamina, often wrestling Sammartino to one-hour time-limit draws.
Monsoon first wrestled Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF World Championship on October 4, 1963, at Roosevelt Stadium, in Jersey City, New Jersey Monsoon qualified by winning a partially televised Ring Wrestling Magazine tournament, where he pinned Killer Buddy Austin in about a minute. Monsoon's disqualification win over Sammartino in NJ triggered a series of rematches at Madison Square Garden, and they would renew the feud again there in 1967.[4] At the end of the Jersey City match, as Monsoon was sitting on the mat, a fan (not part of the show) jumped into the ring and broke the back of a wooden chair over Monsoon's head.
Monsoon teamed up with
Monsoon also teamed with Professor Toru Tanaka in 1967, and they had a number of tag matches in Madison Square Garden. They won a main event on disqualification over Sammartino and Spiros Arion and later lost a Texas Death rematch to the same team. A year later, after defeating teams such as Al Costello & Dr. Bill Miller and Bobo Brazil and Earl Maynard, they went on to lose a main event to Sammartino and Victor Rivera. Monsoon had semi main event matches with Spiros Arion as well as Bobo Brazil in his key heel years.
Also in 1968 he won the IWA World Heavyweight Championship (Australia) defeating Mario Milano on February 2 and dropped the belt to Spiros Arion.[4]
In 1969, Monsoon became a babyface, befriending his former arch-rival when Sammartino rescued him from an attack by "Crazy"
On June 1, 1976, a famous incident occurred in Philadelphia involving boxing great Muhammad Ali during a taping for the syndicated WWWF TV show.[6] Ali, preparing for his upcoming crossover bout with Antonio Inoki in Japan later that month, jumped into the ring as Monsoon (who rarely appeared as a wrestler on their TV shows) was concluding a short match against Baron Mikel Scicluna.[4] Ali removed his shirt and started dancing around Monsoon while gesturing and throwing jabs at him, to which Monsoon responded by grabbing Ali in his Airplane Spin and slamming him to the mat.[4] Marella would never reveal whether the incident was preplanned. In an interview, he commented, "I never saw him before and haven't seen him since."[7]
A kind of torch bearer of the Vincent J. McMahon-era WWWF, Gorilla Monsoon was rabidly supported by New York audiences. On June 16, 1980, a young and up-and-coming Hulk Hogan was booked to face him at Madison Square Garden. At the time, Hogan was a widely followed heel character, while Monsoon was still a babyface. However, in order to push the new talent, McMahon told Hulk Hogan to beat Monsoon in under a minute. Upon that outcome, the crowd became livid and chased Hogan when he was leaving the arena, turning over his car. Policemen on horses had to be summoned to quiet the mob.[citation needed]
As the 1980s began, Marella's in-ring career wound down. On August 23, Monsoon put his career on the line in a match against Ken Patera.[8] Monsoon lost and only wrestled a few more matches, retiring several weeks later. Following this he fought only four times: wrestling a six-man tag team match at Madison Square Garden in 1981, a match in 1982 as a substitute for André the Giant where he defeated Swede Hanson, taking part in Big John Studd's "Body Slam Challenge" in 1983, and wrestling at WWC's tenth anniversary show in a loss to Abdullah Tamba in San Juan, Puerto Rico (also in 1983). The next phase of his career began, as the voice and backstage manager of WWF.[4]
After in-ring retirement
In the early 1980s, Vincent J. McMahon's son, Vincent K. McMahon, began assuming the reins of the promotion from his father. The elder McMahon asked his son to take care of long-time employees who had been loyal to him. The younger McMahon agreed, and in 1982, Vince bought Marella's shares in the company in exchange for a guarantee of lifetime employment. As he had been to his father, Marella became a close confidant of the younger McMahon, and assumed a prominent backstage role within the then WWF. Marella would then become an announcer for the WWF starting in 1982.[4] In addition, McMahon needed a new commentary team to head up his television programming, and installed Marella with the recently retired Jesse "The Body" Ventura in 1985.[4]
Marella and Ventura had great chemistry, with Ventura as the pro-heel color commentator and Marella as the pro-face "voice of reason". Marella and Ventura called five of the first six
The Ventura/Monsoon duo of heel and babyface were the original broadcast duo, setting the standard which all who followed would attempt to emulate, especially Ventura's charismatic pro-heel character which was a first of its kind as previous wrestling commentators had almost always been in favor of the fan favorites.
Monsoon called the first eight WrestleManias from 1985 to 1992. Monsoon was the lead commentator on the syndicated show,
Later career
Marella stepped down as the WWF's lead commentator at
In January 1996, Monsoon was attacked and (
Personal life
Marella was married to his wife, Maureen, for more than 40 years and had three children: Sharon (born 1960), Joey (1963–1994), and Valerie (born 1966). Víctor Quiñones (1959–2006) was listed in Gorilla's obituary as his son as well.[10]
On July 4, 1994, his son, Joey Marella, fell asleep at the wheel and died in a car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike, while returning from refereeing a WWF event in Ocean City, Maryland. He was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.[4]
In early 1994, Marella co-hosted the short-lived morning variety/game show Bingo Break on WBFF in Baltimore, Maryland, which also featured fellow WWF on-air personality Sean Mooney as the bingo caller. The program did not acknowledge Marella's wrestling career, and as such he was billed on-camera as Bob Marella rather than as Gorilla Monsoon.[11]
Death and legacy
Marella died on October 6, 1999, of
Nick Ravo of The New York Times described Monsoon as "legendary" and "one of the most famous athlete-entertainers ever to don tights".[13] Longtime industry journalist Bill Apter remarked, "He was one of the best heels – what wrestlers call a bad guy – in the business... the Gorilla Monsoon image was genuinely frightening."[13] Todd Martin of the Pro Wrestling Torch commended Monsoon's physical agility, and noted that he became "a significant star in a lot of different places and had a very nice career". Martin reported that fellow wrestlers "generally speak pretty highly" of Monsoon, with particular praise for his movement and portrayal of his character. WE described him as "one of the most feared competitors" in professional wrestling, adding, "Whether in the ring, at the mic or behind the scenes, Robert 'Gorilla Monsoon' Marella will always be remembered as one of the greatest of all-time."[1] He has been inducted into various wrestling halls of fame, including the WWF Hall of Fame in 1994.
Monsoon's announcing has garnered both praise and derision.[14][15] In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter's annual awards poll, readers voted Monsoon Worst Television Announcer a record six times between 1985 and 1995.[15][16] Appraising his commentary in 1988, journalist Stately Wayne Manor remarked, "Monsoon is aptly named after a counterproductive wind storm that nobody welcomes."[17] Writer Dave Meltzer referred to conversations with "irate wrestlers in the 80s who hated Monsoon killing their psychology".[18]
Todd Martin of the Pro Wrestling Torch noted that some regard Monsoon as "one of the all-time great announcers", while others feel he was "self-indulgent" and "dismissive of certain wrestlers", and had a tendency to "undermine the drama" by questioning the effectiveness of particular maneuvers.[14] Baltimore Sun journalist Kevin Eck wrote that "a lot of people have fond memories of [Monsoon] from the 1980s boom period in WWF, especially his work with Bobby Heenan". Eck acknowledged the criticism of Monsoon among sections of the audience, but defended his use of absurdity and cliché as "entertaining", and argued that "he sold the angles well and got the characters over".[15] PWInsider's Dave Scherer said of Monsoon, "I did love him as an announcer".[19] Rolling Stone's Joseph Hudak reported that Heenan and Monsoon "are regarded as the greatest color-commentary team in pro-wrestling history", and "had a Martin-and-Lewis like chemistry behind the mic".[20]
Heenan consistently named Monsoon as his favorite announcing partner.[21] In contemplating his "Mount Rushmore of wrestling announcers", veteran commentator Jim Ross stated, "Gordon Solie, Bob Caudle, Lance Russell, Gorilla Monsoon would be four off the top of my head that I would put on there."[22]
Tributes
In a tribute that aired on October 7, 1999, on an episode of WWF SmackDown!, McMahon described Marella as "one of the greatest men I have ever known." WCW commentator Tony Schiavone acknowledged Marella's death on the October 11, 1999, episode of WCW Monday Nitro. Bobby Heenan insisted on doing a tribute to Marella, even though Marella never worked for WCW. Heenan said on-air: "Gorilla will be sadly missed. Now he was one big tough man. He was a decent honest man. And we're all gonna miss him very much. And you know the pearly gates in heaven? It's now gonna be called 'the Gorilla position.' Goodbye, my friend."
When Heenan was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004, he ended his acceptance speech with, "Only one thing's missing: I wish Monsoon was here." In 2007, when Anthony Carelli made his debut with WWE, he was given the ring name "Santino Marella", as a tribute.
Gorilla Monsoon was posthumously honored at the 50th anniversary show of the World Wrestling Council.
Championships and accomplishments
Amateur wrestling
- Ithaca College
- Athletic Hall of Fame (1973)[2]
- National Wrestling Hall of Fame (2011)[23]
Professional wrestling
- Cauliflower Alley Club
- George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
- Class of 2011[4]
- Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
- Class of 2010[4]
- World Championship Wrestling (Australia)
- World Wide Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Federation
- WWWF United States Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Killer Kowalski (1) and Bill Watts (1)
- Slammy Award (1 time)
- Most Evolutionary (1994) – Tied with King Kong Bundy
- Class of 1994)[4]
- World Wrestling Association (Los Angeles)
- Luke Graham (1) and El Mongol (1)[25]
- World Wrestling Council
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- Worst Television Announcer (1985, 1991–1995)[16]
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Gorilla Monsoon's Hall of Fame profile". WWE. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7434-9033-7.
- ISBN 978-1-61321-075-8. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Von Slagle, Stephen (4 June 2020). "Gorilla Monsoon". History of Wrestling. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
- ^ "Section Five Wrestling Hall of Fame". Armdrag.com: Western New York Scholastic and Collegiate Wrestling. Archived from the original on 26 June 2022. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
2010 – Bob Marella – Jefferson
- ISBN 978-1942952190.
- ^ "Farewell to Wrestler Gorilla Monsoon". Ithaca College Quarterly 1999/No. 4. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-4928-2597-5.
- ^ @maskedwrestlers (24 December 2020). "This may be the latest footage..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Ravo, Nick (October 1999). The New York Times Biographical Service. Arno Press. p. 1,552.
- ^ "Induction: Bingo Break - and Bob Marella was his name-o". 14 May 2019.
- ^ S. Joseph Hagenmayer (7 October 1999). "Robert Marella, 62, Wrestler Known As 'Gorilla Monsoon'". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
Robert "Gorilla Monsoon" Marella, 62, a professional wrestler whose demeanor in the ring resembled Atilla the Hun's but whose deeds and personality were more akin to those of Santa Claus, died yesterday at his Willingboro home after being ill for the last month.
- ^ a b Ravo, Nick (8 October 1999). "Gorilla Monsoon, 62, Villainous Pro Wrestler". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
- ^ a b Keller, Wade (19 November 2020). "The Fix Mailbag w/Todd Martin & Wade Keller". Pro Wrestling Torch. 9 minutes in. Retrieved 20 November 2020.(subscription required)
- ^ a b c Eck, Kevin (29 November 2007). "More of the best and worst wrestling announcers". The Baltimore Sun. Tribune Publishing. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
- ^ ISSN 1083-9593.
- ^ "Worst Television Announcer". Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Yearbook: 44. 1988.
- ^ Martin, Fin (March 2012). "What They Said (supplement)". Power Slam. No. 211. SW Publishing. p. 7.
- ^ Scherer, Dave (16 November 2020). "Sasha on The Mandalorian, AEW debuts, waiting to send out tweets and more". PWInsider. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
- ^ Hudak, Joseph (19 September 2017). "Bobby 'The Brain' Heenan: His Five Best Bits With Gorilla Monsoon". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
- ^ @davemeltzerWON (1 January 2020). "Bobby loved Gorilla. Always said he was his favorite..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ DeFelice, Robert (11 April 2020). "Jim Ross Names His Mount Rushmore of Pro Wrestling Announcers". Fightful. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
- ^ "Gorilla Monsoon".
- ^ "List of CAC Award Winners". Cauliflower Alley Club. Archived from the original on 2 March 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
- ^ Hoops, Brian (23 January 2020). "Pro wrestling history (01/23): Hulk Hogan defeats Iron Sheik for WWF title". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
External links
- Gorilla Monsoon on WWE.com
- Robert Marella at IMDb
- Gorilla Monsoon's profile at Cagematch.net , Wrestlingdata.com , Internet Wrestling Database
- Robert Marella's Ithaca College Quarterly obituary