![]() By that time, however, Monsoon's career began to wind down, and in 1980, he lost a Retirement Match to Ken Patera. ![]() Gorilla responded by hoisting the champ into an airplane spin and slamming him to the canvas.Ī year later, boxing would again come into Monsoon's spotlight, as he met Andre the Giant in a boxing match in Puerto Rico, which was won by Andre. Boxing's Heavyweight Champion, Muhammad Ali, rushed the ring at the end of the match, dancing and throwing jabs at Monsoon. The most high-profile incident of his wrestling career occurred in 1976 during a match with Baron Mikel Scicluna in Philadelphia. The 1970s saw Monsoon go through a complete reversal, as one of the most despised men of the previous decade became one of the most beloved of the next. Former arch-rival Sammartino came to his rescue the two then became friends, leading to Monsoon becoming a huge fan favorite, which he would remain for the rest of his career. In 1969, Gorilla Monsoon was mercilessly attacked on television by The Sheik, a wrestler even more vicious and hated than he. It went the full 90-minute time limit without a winner decided, and became just the first in a long series of battles between Monsoon and Sammartino over the gold. Later that same month, however, he stepped into the ring with then-WWE Champion Bruno Sammartino at the old Madison Square Garden in a match that both men would later cite as the toughest of their careers. In November of that year, Monsoon teamed with fellow Hall of Famer Killer Kowalski to win the United States Tag Team Championship, a title he would hold once again a few years later with "Cowboy" Bill Watts. When WWE broke away from the NWA in 1963, Monsoon became one of the cornerstones of the new promotion. He used his immense size to his advantage and looked the part of a savage, decimating his opponents with his Manchurian Splash and famed Airplane Spin. With manager "Wild" Red Berry at his side to do all the talking, Monsoon was instantly one of the most hated Superstars in the country. ![]() McMahon and Joseph "Toots" Mondt as Gorilla Monsoon, a "former Asiatic Champion" billed as hailing from Manchuria. ![]() He continued on to Ithaca College, where he became one of the most accomplished wrestlers in the school's history so accomplished, in fact, that he was inducted into his alma mater's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1979.įollowing his college graduation in 1959, Marella began wrestling in New York as Gino Marella shortly after, however, he re-debuted for northeast promoters Vincent J. While the generation of WWE fans growing up in the 1980s and 1990s may only remember Monsoon as a broadcaster, an earlier generation remembers him as one of the most feared competitors in sports-entertainment.Īs a youth, Robert Marella was a standout athlete, lettering in three sports in high school. That's just one of the legendary catchphrases uttered by Gorilla Monsoon during his years as a WWE broadcaster. "The irresistible force meets the immovable object…" ![]()
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