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Post by Mighty Attack Tribble on Mar 11, 2019 7:55:45 GMT -5
Can't say I'm surprised his late '90s fill-in commentary - bouncing off heels that weren't Bobby or Jesse - was DGAF sounding. He was probably trying to put his all into it, but (a) he didn't have to and maybe he finally understood that, and (b) his heart just wasn't in it anymore. In this video, at least, it comes across like Gorilla is the heel. He's not, but he's pretty antagonistic towards Kevin Kelly. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2019 8:24:42 GMT -5
Can't say I'm surprised his late '90s fill-in commentary - bouncing off heels that weren't Bobby or Jesse - was DGAF sounding. He was probably trying to put his all into it, but (a) he didn't have to and maybe he finally understood that, and (b) his heart just wasn't in it anymore. In this video, at least, it comes across like Gorilla is the heel. He's not, but he's pretty antagonistic towards Kevin Kelly. I've heard him like that before even this. He returned to Wrestling Challenge in either 94 or 95 and kinda played an antagonistic role against JR for a bit. Needless to say, it was very weird and uncomfy to hear him in that regard. Didn't last long; for the most part his work with JR, as far as I recall/knew, was not like that at all. |
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msc
Dennis Stamp
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Post by msc on Mar 11, 2019 15:06:11 GMT -5
He was doing one of the jobber shows with Kevin Kelly here till Summer 99. I remember Kelly kept saying "Good point Mr President" (Gorilla was the Honorary President of the WWF at that point), but I only twigged later the frail old man on commentary was this legend.
My first introduction to him was Mania 15, where he appears very frail.
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Post by Toilet Paper Roll on Mar 11, 2019 18:29:54 GMT -5
Gorilla had kind of lost his fastball.. the times had changed and it seemed like his style of commentating was way in the past.
He was good even back in the day of calling out bad, slow and plodding matches for being so, or poking fun at wrestling who did stupid things. I really didn’t appreciate him until I was older. He added an amazing sense of realism to the matches and even made some jobber squashes entertaining. He also had Jesse and Heenan as his heel foil which didn’t hurt.
I still say Jim Ross is the best announcer ever but I’d probably give anything to hear more Monsoon.
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Post by madness50 on Mar 13, 2019 0:44:49 GMT -5
Joey's death really hit him hard. I believe Prichard said on that recent podcast about Monsoon that he noted a definite change in Gorilla after July 1994. Can't say I'm surprised his late '90s fill-in commentary - bouncing off heels that weren't Bobby or Jesse - was DGAF sounding. He was probably trying to put his all into it, but (a) he didn't have to and maybe he finally understood that, and (b) his heart just wasn't in it anymore. I wish the footage of Gorilla doing commentary for that 1998 battle royal on Shotgun still existed. You can find the Cornette and Kevin Kelly version easily, but the international broadcast with Gorilla doing commentary seems to have been lost to copyright strikes. Oh dammit, really? That was probably the 1 bit of late '90s Gorilla commentary I'd heard and remembered (and basically disliked because he really didn't sound like the Gorilla I remembered). ...and Monsoon just said "pro wrestling has certainly changed, hasn't it?" Oof. Calling it "pro wrestling" in 1998 sure sounds like he didn't have any cares left whatsoever. Surprised that made it to air. ^Im sure Dunn and Vince probably didn’t say anything to Gorilla. Even when he was starting to get frail in 1998, he still was an intimidating man. |
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Post by DoubleDare on Mar 14, 2019 12:52:06 GMT -5
So weird listening to an early 98 shotgun.
A young green cole with monsoon.
Cole has so much energy being new.
Monsoon just sounds tired.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2019 13:46:56 GMT -5
Before Gorilla became the straight man for Ventura and Heenan, it wasn't unusual to hear him doing color where he had a more critical edge like what you hear in these videos. I think that's why wrestlers sometimes were offended by things he would say as babyface play by play man, because sometimes the color man with the biting edge would slip through.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2019 14:17:07 GMT -5
Joey's death really hit him hard. I believe Prichard said on that recent podcast about Monsoon that he noted a definite change in Gorilla after July 1994. Can't say I'm surprised his late '90s fill-in commentary - bouncing off heels that weren't Bobby or Jesse - was DGAF sounding. He was probably trying to put his all into it, but (a) he didn't have to and maybe he finally understood that, and (b) his heart just wasn't in it anymore. Oh dammit, really? That was probably the 1 bit of late '90s Gorilla commentary I'd heard and remembered (and basically disliked because he really didn't sound like the Gorilla I remembered). Oof. Calling it "pro wrestling" in 1998 sure sounds like he didn't have any cares left whatsoever. Surprised that made it to air. ^Im sure Dunn and Vince probably didn’t say anything to Gorilla. Even when he was starting to get frail in 1998, he still was an intimidating man. I doubt Gorilla would've noticed or cared if it had been dubbed out or something. But on the same hand, yeah Dunn/Vince/etc respected Gorilla far too much to ever edit or alter his commentary much less approach him about doing so.. Even in 1998, too, I don't think Vince and Co. were as anal as they are now about commentary (even back when it was the in-studio recording), mainly because they could trust the commentators with the material expected of them. |
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Post by GuyOfOwnage on Mar 14, 2019 14:33:44 GMT -5
DGAF Gorilla was awesome. I would've loved to have heard more if age and illness hadn't caught up to him.
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