Gorilla Monsoon

Robert Otto Marella
Born	(1937-06-04)June 4, 1937 New York, New York
Died	October 6, 1999(1999-10-06) (aged 62) Willingboro, New Jersey
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Bob Marella Gino Marella Gorilla Monsoon Manchurian Giant
Billed height	6 ft 5 in (196 cm)
Billed weight	310–440 lb (141–200 kg)
Debut	1959
Retired	1997

Robert Otto Marella (June 4 1937 - October 6 1999), better known by his stage name of Gorilla Monsoon, was an American professional wrestler, play-by-play announcer, and booker. He is famous for his run as one of the great super-heavyweights, and later as the voice of the World Wrestling Federation as announcer, on-screen President, and backstage manager during the 1980s and 1990s. 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.

Career

Amateur career

Marella attended Jefferson High School in Rochester, New York, becoming a standout athlete in football, amateur wrestling, and track and field. 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 high school at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. He continued to wrestle, now weighing over 350 pounds, and took second in the 1959 NCAA Wrestling Championships. He also held several school athletic records, including an 18-second wrestling pin, and several track-and-field distinctions. He was inducted into the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973.

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.

Early career

Marella originally billed himself as Gino Marella, a proud Italian-American babyface who would sing in Italian prior to his matches. Even after changing his stage name, "Gino" stuck as Marella's nickname among friends and colleagues, including Jesse "The Body" Ventura, who would call Marella "Gino" on the air. Marella garnered moderate popularity, but soon realized that fans paid more attention to outlandish monster heel gimmicks, and they therefore made more money. Marella totally revamped his image, growing a long beard and billing himself as Gorilla Monsoon, a terrifying giant from Manchuria. Supposedly born on an isolated farm, "Monsoon" traveled across the countryside with a gypsy caravan wrestling bears, spoke no English, ate raw meat, and drank his victims' blood. The Monsoon character was infinitely more successful, and fans were genuinely afraid of him, sparking a huge financial windfall for Marella. In the ring, Monsoon dominated opponents with vicious chops, the dreaded Manchurian Splash, and his signature move, the Airplane Spin.

WWE 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 1/6th 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, which was now in excess of 400 pounds, Monsoon had great agility and stamina, often wrestling Sammartino to one-hour time-limit draws.

In 1969, Monsoon became a babyface, befriending his former arch-rival when Sammartino rescued him from an attack by The Sheik. The stage was set for Monsoon to become a fan favorite of the 1970s and feud with top heels of the decade, including champion "Superstar" Billy Graham. He also feuded with André the Giant, and the two engaged in a special boxing match in Puerto Rico (a territiory which Monsoon co-owned at the time) in 1977, which André won.

On June 2, 1976, a very famous incident occurred in Philadelphia involving boxing great Muhammad Ali. Ali, preparing for his upcoming crossover bout with Antonio Inoki in Japan later that month, jumped into the ring as Monsoon was concluding a short match against Baron Mikel Scicluna. 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. 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."

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.

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. Monsoon lost the match and stayed true to his word, retiring several weeks later and returning just three times: wrestling a match in 1982 as a substitute for André the Giant, taking part in Big John Studd's "Body Slam Challenge" in 1983, and participating in a special "old timers" battle royal in 1987 which was won by Lou Thesz. The next phase of his career began, as the voice and backstage manager of WWE.

After in-ring retirement

In the early 1980s, Vincent J. McMahon's son, current WWE owner 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 that 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. In addition, McMahon needed a new announcer team to head up his television programming, and installed Marella with the recently retired Jesse "The Body" Ventura as the new announcing team. 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 WrestleManias together (the notable exception was WrestleMania 2, where Marella commentated on the Chicago portion of the event with Gene Okerlund and Cathy Lee Crosby while Ventura commentated on the Los Angeles portion with Lord Alfred Hayes and Elvria). Monsoon was also paired with villainous manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, a duo that subsequent wrestling commentary teams have often tried to emulate. The two also formed a real-life friendship which Heenan often recalls fondly.

One of Monsoon's catchphrases was his (mis)use of the word "literally", such as "the fans are literally hanging from the rafters in here!" Presumably, this was done for humor, as Monsoon's announcing character was quite entertaining and extremely popular. Monsoon to this date still holds the record for most consecutive WrestleMania events on the commentary team, calling the first 8 WrestleManias from 1985-1992. Monsoon was the lead announcer on the syndicated show, WWF All Star Wrestling, its successor WWF Wrestling Challenge, and the USA Network weekend show, WWF All American Wrestling, as well as appearing often on the WWE weeknight show, WWF Prime Time Wrestling.

Marella stepped down as lead announcer in 1993 for WCW recruit Jim Ross, though he would help commentate the 1994 Survivor Series with McMahon. Marella remained in his backstage role and appeared on-air frequently, becoming the storyline WWE President in 1995 (replacing the retiring Jack Tunney). The WWE President's role was to arbitrate disputes between wrestlers and make matches, similar to the current RAW and SmackDown! General Managers. Health concerns forced him to relinquish his role in 1997 (as Marella was subsequently replaced by Sgt. Slaughter), and Marella's health deteriorated from there. He returned to call the International version of WWF Superstars until soon before his death. He made his last public appearance as a judge for the Brawl for All at WrestleMania XV.

In 2007, a wrestler made his WWE debut as "Santino Marella," a moniker partly given in tribute to Marella.

In wrestling

• Finishing and signature moves:

• Manchurian Splash
• Airplane spin
• Gorilla press slam
• Backbreaker
• Giant swing

Championships and accomplishments

• International Wrestling Alliance

• IWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• World Wrestling Association (Los Angeles)

• WWA World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Luke Graham (1) and El Mongol (1)

• World Wrestling Council

• WWC North American Heavyweight Championship (2 times)

• World Wide Wrestling Federation | World Wrestling Federation

• WWF Hall of Fame (Class of 1994)
• WWWF United States Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Killer Kowalski (1) and Bill Watts (1)

Personal life

Marella's personalized license plate read "KAYFABE", a reference to pro wrestling's code of secrecy.

He was one of the first inductees into the WWF Hall of Fame on June 9, 1994. Twenty-five days later on July 4, his son Joey Marella (a WWF referee) was killed in an automobile accident. Friends say that Marella never fully recovered from the event.

Marella passed away on October 6, 1999 of heart failure brought on by complications of diabetes. He is survived by his wife Maureen, two daughters Sharon and Valerie and another son Victor. Also surviving was his mother Connie, three sisters and four grandchildren. In a tribute that aired on WWF television after his death, McMahon described Marella as "one of the greatest men I have ever known".

References

*Gorilla Monsoon's WWE Hall of Fame Profile

• Robert Morella at IMDb
• Marella's Ithaca College Quarterly Obituary