Gorilla Monsoon: Difference between revisions

| caption = Monsoon in 1977.

'''Robert James "Gino" Marella''' (June 4, 1937 – October 6, 1999), better known by his [[ring name]] of '''Gorilla Monsoon''', was an American [[Professional wrestling|professional wrestler]], [[Sports commentator|play-by-play commentator]], and [[Glossary of professional wrestling terms#Book|booker]].

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 [[National1959 Collegiate Athletic Association|NCAA]] Wrestling Championships]]. He also held several school athletic records, including an 18-second wrestling pin, and several track-and-field distinctions.<ref name=":0" /> He was inducted into the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973.<ref name=Legends>{{cite book|title=WWE Legends|last=Solomon|first=Brian|pages=[https://archive.org/details/wwelegends00solo/page/57 57–61]|publisher=[[Pocket Books]]|year=2006|isbn=978-0-7434-9033-7|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/wwelegends00solo/page/57}}</ref> During the summers he was at Ithaca College, he was a construction worker in Rochester. One of the buildings he helped construct was the [[Rochester War Memorial Arena]]. He was inducted into the Section V Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2010 along with longtime childhood friend Frank Marotta who gave a speech on his behalf.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://armdrag.com/hof?org=fow |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626022414/http://www.armdrag.com/hof?org=fow |archive-date=June 26, 2022 |title=Section Five Wrestling Hall of Fame |work=Armdrag.com: Western New York Scholastic and Collegiate Wrestling |quote=2010 – Bob Marella – Jefferson |access-date=November 6, 2013}}</ref>

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 6'25" 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|reason=Citation required per [[WP:V]]|date=November 2022}}

In 1963, [[Vincent J. McMahon]] reformed the Capitol Wrestling Corporation into the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) (currently known as [[WWE|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 1/6one-sixth 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.

Also in 1968 he won the [[IWA World Heavyweight Championship (Australia)]] defeating [[Mario Milano]] on February 2 and dropped the belt to Spiros Arion.<ref name=":0" />

In January 1996, Monsoon was attacked and ([[kayfabe]]) severely injured by [[Big Van Vader|Vader]]: [[Roddy Piper]] became interim WWF President until [[WrestleMania XII]], when Marella assumed the position again. Health concerns forced him to relinquish this role during the summer of 1997.<ref name=":0" /> Instead of naming a replacement, the WWF decided to retire the role of "President" and introduced [[Sgt. Slaughter]] as the new WWF Commissioner in August 1997. Marella's health deteriorated from there. In late 1998, Marella returned briefly to call the international version of ''[[WWF Superstars of Wrestling|WWF Superstars]]''. In 1999, Marella appeared in a WWF Attitude commercial featuring [[Freddie Blassie]], [[Ernie Ladd]], [[Pat Patterson (wrestler)|Pat Patterson]] and [[Killer Kowalski]]. He appeared as one of the three judges for a ''[[WWF Brawl for All|Brawl for All]]'' contest between [[Mike Plotcheck|Bart Gunn]] and [[Eric Esch|Butterbean]] at [[WrestleMania XV]]. Because of his frail appearance and rapidly declining health, the camera only focused on Monsoon during his introduction as a judge, for which he received a standing ovation.<ref name=":0" /> His final occasion on television with WWF would be as a guest commentator on the August 29, 1999 international version of ''[[WWF Superstars of Wrestling|Superstars]]''.<ref>{{cite tweet|number=1342239352206860288|user=maskedwrestlers|title=This may be the latest footage...|date=24 December 2020}}</ref>

Marella was married to his wife, Maureen, for more than 40 years and had three children: Sharon (born 1960), [[Joey Marella|Joey]] (1963–1994), and Valerie (born 1966). [[Víctor Quiñones]] (1959-20061959–2006) was listed in Gorilla's obituary as his son as well.<ref name="NYT">{{cite book|title=The New York Times Biographical Service|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NXgoAQAAIAAJ|date=October 1999|publisher=[[Arno Press]]|page=1,552|first=Nick|last=Ravo}}</ref>

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.<ref name=":0" /> Fellow WWF employee [[Mike Chioda]] later commented that Marella was "heartbroken" about his son's death.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://itrwrestling.com/news/mike-chioda-gorilla-monsoon-his-sons-death/|title = Mike Chioda Recalls Helping Gorilla Monsoon Following His Son's Death|date = 27 October 2021}}</ref>

[[Category:Deaths from diabetes in the United States]]