Gorilla Monsoon

nacho libre

well, after the disappointment of the rugby i decided to put on a wrestling dvd. The banter between Bobby Heenan and Gorilla is very amusing. Just wondering what others thought of these two?

HorseRadish

Will we see their likes again? As the man himself would put it : "Highly unlikely".:)

ShawnRaven

Legendary isn't even the word i could use for Monsoon and Heenan. In fact, i got the entire 1988 Wrestling Challenge just for those two, especially during the Matilda dognapping angle in January! Those two were priceless, especially with Heenan swearing blind he knew nothing about it and Monsoon literally having a panic attack at him.

I also loved Monsoon with Ventura during the earlier PPVs too. Monsoon was such a babyface announcer, which was quite amusing really as he spent most of his in ring work as a heel! Monsoon lost a scary amount of weight during his announcing period. His highest weight during his wrestling days, as he said during Mania IV was 440lbs, he was easily 350 by the time Wrestlemania V came around, and about 300 by Mania 12 before illness really got to him.

Monsoons was a vetenary graduate i believe as well, which is why he knew a lot of medical terms and body parts which he'd throw in during his commentary as well, which used to leave Heenan and Ventura completely stumped. His play by play was unreal given a good colour analyst.

I miss the guy, i know i'm not the only one. Heenan really misses the guy to this day. It was pretty much apparent at the 2004 WWE Hall Of Fame that he didn't have as much fun with anyone else as he did with Monsoon.

Robert "Gino" Marella - 1937-1999, Gone but far from forgotten
VR!

The Sparrow

^^ + 1

Ruu_Old

nacho libre wrote:

well, after the disappointment of the rugby i decided to put on a wrestling dvd. The banter between Booby Heenan and Gorilla is very amusing. Just wondering what others thought of these two?

"Will you stop!" :mad:

It is why I enjoy watching the old stuff so much to hear those two. "Holy Mackerel!"

ShawnRaven

Ruu wrote:

"Will you stop!" :mad:

It is why I enjoy watching the old stuff so much to hear those two. "Holy Mackerel!"

"Aww There it is! Excederan Headache #65!"
VR!

krudler

"we're seeing what this guy is really made of,what he is,the greatest professional athlete in the world today"

that call still gives me shivers,and if you dont know what its referencing you shouldnt call yourself a wrestling fan

ShawnRaven

krudler wrote:

"we're seeing what this guy is really made of,what he is,the greatest professional athlete in the world today"

that call still gives me shivers,and if you dont know what its referencing you shouldnt call yourself a wrestling fan

Monsoon has made that call on a few Hogan matches, but the two most memorable are Mania VI against Warrior, and Mania III against Andre.

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Vince135792003

Gorilla Monsoon was the tv voice of my childhood. He was just magic with Heenan and he fit the era he commentated on so well.

Fozzy

He was one of a kind. Watching meaningless squash matches from the 80's is still enjoyable because of his commentary, Heenan worked so well with him too

flahavaj

validreasoning! wrote:

Legendary isn't even the word i could use for

Monsoons was a vetenary graduate i believe as well, which is why he knew a lot of medical terms and body parts which he'd throw in during his commentary as well, which used to leave Heenan and Ventura completely stumped. His play by play was unreal given a good colour analyst.

Robert "Gino" Marella - 1937-1999, Gone but far from forgotten
VR!

Yeah even as a ten year old kid i knew those deliberately convoluted medical terms were absolute gold and I'd always get a kick out of them. Its that commentary duo that makes sitting through some of the crappier WWF stuff back in the day actually bearable.

Ham'nd'egger

flahavaj wrote:

Yeah even as a ten year old kid i knew those deliberately convoluted medical terms were absolute gold and I'd always get a kick out of them. Its that commentary duo that makes sitting through some of the crappier WWF stuff back in the day actually bearable.

What made it even more bizarre was that in between all the inverted verterbrae and clavicus and sore proboscises (Sic ) was that he would still call punches in bread baskets, downstairs and the rest! Fozzy is right in saying Heenan and Monsoon made the shows at times, you would almost wish sometimes that the vision would go during the usual squashes, letting you get down to listening to them both verbally bash each other.

Easily the best commentary job IMO was the Royal Rumble 1992... Now to be fair to Flair

ShawnRaven

Hamndegger wrote:

Easily the best commentary job IMO was the Royal Rumble 1992... Now to be fair to Flair

"Having Flair in the royal rumble isn't fair to Flair, now if you wanna be fair to Flair, you have to be fair and say that's a heck of a robe on Flair!"

Also Monsoon whenever a babyface (or sometimes a heel) entered:
Piper... Piper doesn't like Flair
Dayeboy doesn't like Flair

Heenan: "SHUT UP! THAT'S IT... PUT 'EM UP!"

Seconded to that is the commentary at Wrestlemania 8 during the Tatanka v Martel match, as that was the match that came on after Savage v Flair:

Heenan: I'm a broadcast journalist, I'm.....
Monsoon: YOU'RE A LIAR!
Heenan: I'm a financial adviser, tha....
Monsoon: YOU'RE A LIAR!
Heenan: We're gonna regroup, together as a unit, and regain the title
Monsoon: Yeah? And how many of you will it take to do that?!

Classic stuff!
VR!

flahavaj

validreasoning! wrote:

"Having Flair in the royal rumble isn't fair to Flair, now if you wanna be fair to Flair, you have to be fair and say that's a heck of a robe on Flair!"

Also Monsoon whenever a babyface (or sometimes a heel) entered:
Piper... Piper doesn't like Flair
Dayeboy doesn't like Flair

Heenan: "SHUT UP! THAT'S IT... PUT 'EM UP!"

Seconded to that is the commentary at Wrestlemania 8 during the Tatanka v Martel match, as that was the match that came on after Savage v Flair:

Heenan: I'm a broadcast journalist, I'm.....
Monsoon: YOU'RE A LIAR!
Heenan: I'm a financial adviser, tha....
Monsoon: YOU'RE A LIAR!
Heenan: We're gonna regroup, together as a unit, and regain the title
Monsoon: Yeah? And how many of you will it take to do that?!

Classic stuff!
VR!

Ha i was only watching that Mania a few weeks back, the Tatanka/Martel match, might as well not have been on,such is the tantrum that Heenan pulls!!! Even my non wrestling mates get a good laugh out of the bickering those two used to have.

nacho libre

Ruu wrote:

"Will you stop!" :mad:

It is why I enjoy watching the old stuff so much to hear those two. "Holy Mackerel!"

yes, his will you stop line was priceless.

fatal

Why the hell did I not do the same thing instead of watching 80minutes of rubbish!?
Anyway,Gorilla Monsoon and Heenan......what a combination!!!!!!!!!!Some of his phrases were priceless.Watching any match with his commentary almost made them something that had to be watched.I have never skipped bits of any show that I have watched where he was commentating.
What a legend.
Rip big man

ShawnRaven

flahavaj wrote:

Ha i was only watching that Mania a few weeks back, the Tatanka/Martel match, might as well not have been on,such is the tantrum that Heenan pulls!!! Even my non wrestling mates get a good laugh out of the bickering those two used to have.

That Mania was badly organised for a number of reasons. Which i will point out.

The original main event was gonna be Hogan v Flair, but Hogan was gonna be taking time out after Mania, and Flair understandably didn't wanna job to someone who was f*cking off anyway, it made no sense. Also Hogan v Flair bombed in the house show circuit (which i actually have one of their matches from MSG in December 91 and it was far from spectacular) so WWE had no alternative to switch it. So Savage got the nod.

As a result, the match was booked, and then the angle was added. Which hindsight being 20/20 was bowling shoe ugly. The match itself was amazing by every standard, but nobody gave a rats ass about the "she was mine before she was yours" angle. Especially as most of the US had seen it several times in NWA/WCW with Flair prior to this. On top of that Sid Justice had turned heel on Hogan as he was going nowhere fast as a babyface. So that match was booked.

Owen Hart v Skinner - a match booked out of the blue as it was meant to be The New Foundation was meant to be part of that 8 man tag. But Neidhart got fired before anything was concrete and Owen and Skinner had a pretty worthless squash match.

Money Inc V Natural Disasters - Quake and Typhoon were hastily turned face to substitute the LOD after Hawk had severe back problems and were written out of their title rematch to be replaced with a token interview at the start of the show. The original match intended for that card was Natural Disasters v LOD for the titles as a result of the DQ finish from the Royal Rumble. Of course, we know what happened there, a horrible match between Jimmy Hart's old team (Natural Disasters) and his new team (Money Inc)

Davey Boy Smith v Berzerker was also meant to be on this card as well. The match never took place because Savage v Flair went well into overtime (hence why a list of squashes took place after it to prep for Hogan v Sid)

And as many already know, the ending of Hogan v Sid was botched, as Sid had to kick out of Hogans legdrop because Papa Shango was late getting to the ring to interfere in the match! As his punishment he got turned into Kama - the supreme pimpin' machine, later renamed The Godfather. Worked out well for him in the end

VR!

rossie1977

i didn't mind WM8, some great matches like Piper/Bret, Savage/Flair. Michaels and tito was good and Hogan/Sid was about as good as you could have got from those two at the time (they had so many chemicals in their systems in early 1992 its a wonder they even made it to the ring )

There was no way Charles Wright could have made it down to ringside in less than 3 seconds though (that was badly planned). He had to run/jog/walk quickly nearly half a football pitch to the ring and at his weight :rolleyes:

Even though Flair and Hogan didn't set the world alite in the house shows i still think they should have booked that match at WM8, after all Hogan/Andre matches smelled to the high heavens and look how people ate those up. I think that if Vince has one regret, its not booking Flair/Hogan at WM8, the finish didn't matter....

Worst mania i have seen so far is actually the first mania i saw on Sky, WM9, that still gives me nightmares :mad:

ShawnRaven

rossie1977 wrote:

Even though Flair and Hogan didn't set the world alite in the house shows i still think they should have booked that match at WM8, after all Hogan/Andre matches smelled to the high heavens and look how people ate those up. I think that if Vince has one regret, its not booking Flair/Hogan at W though. M8, the finish didn't matter....

It really wasn't great though. It wasn't something most fans would have gotten into. I highly doubt Hogan v Flair at WM8 is a regret for Vince as Savage v Flair tore the house down so much that nobody gave a sh*t about anything that came out of it until Warrior made the run-in. Comparing that to Andre v Hogan at Mania III is absolutely insane. Especially given the talent on the roster and the timeframes. Hogan v Andre was ten times the bigger draw in 1987 than Flair V Hogan in 1992, especially as Flair was on the WWE a few months before they tried to make that match.

Worst mania i have seen so far is actually the first mania i saw on Sky, WM9, that still gives me nightmares :mad:

A horrid card from top to bottom, closely seconded by Mania 13.
VR!