Early career Marella debuted in 1958, originally billing himself as Gino Marella, a proud
Italian American babyface who would sing in Italian prior to his matches. Even after changing his
ring name, "Gino" stuck as Marella's nickname among friends and colleagues, including
Jesse Ventura, who would call Marella "Gino" on the air. He would work in Toronto, Calgary, St. Louis and Japan. 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 story given on WWWF television was a bit different: his first manager,
Bobby Davis, claimed to have discovered Monsoon in Manchuria wading nude in a mountain stream. The Monsoon character was far 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. Ali, preparing for his upcoming crossover bout with
Antonio Inoki in Japan later that month, jumped into the ring as Monsoon (who rarely appeared as a wrestler on their TV shows) was concluding a short match against Baron
Mikel Scicluna. 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 a squash match, which lasted barely 3 minutes. Fans were livid and a riot nearly ensued.
WWF (1979–1999) In 1979, WWWF was renamed WWF. 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 and only wrestled a few more matches, retiring several weeks later. Following this he fought only four times: wrestling a six-man tag team match at Madison Square Garden in 1981, a match in 1982 as a substitute for André the Giant where he defeated
Swede Hanson, taking part in
Big John Studd's "Body Slam Challenge" in 1983, and wrestling at
WWC's tenth anniversary show in a loss to Abdullah Tamba in San Juan, Puerto Rico (also in 1983). The next phase of his career began, as the voice and backstage manager of WWF. ==Personal life and death==