Irresistible Force: The Life and Times of Gorilla Monsoon

by Brian R. Solomon

“What a monumental achievement this book is. I was fascinated from the first page. Brian Solomon filled in so many blanks for me and also reintroduced many wrestlers I’d long forgotten about. I’ll put it right next to my favorite pro wrestling books ever!” — Bret Hart


Features rare photos and a detailed career timeline, exploring Gorilla’s groundbreaking contributions to the sport.


A crucial figure in the development of what would eventually become the juggernaut known as WWE, Robert “Gino” Marella, better known as Gorilla Monsoon, has never had his whole story told — until now.


It’s a story that starts with the aspirations of the son of Italian immigrants who becomes a national standout in collegiate wrestling and an Olympic hopeful, then takes an unlikely trajectory through the bizarre world of pro wrestling, eventually landing him in what was then known as the WWWF.


From Gino's wrestling days as the rampaging monster who sold out Madison Square Garden and challenged world champion Bruno Sammartino dozens of times, to his pivotal role behind the scenes as part owner and would-be successor to Vince McMahon Sr., to his days as the beloved television commentator who narrated the memories of millions of young fans, Brian Soloman, the author of Blood and The Unbelievable Real-Life Story of Wrestling's Original Sheik, has once again crafted the definitive biography of one of the most fascinating characters in pro wrestling history. Gino's name and his voice are etched deep in the memory of wrestling fans the world over. This is his incredible story.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

Kindle Edition

Published September 30, 2025

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a deep dive on Gorilla Monsoon and is a top tier wrestling book. There's a little too much material before he becomes a professional wrestler than I normally like but even that stuff is interesting, like his amateur wrestling background and the overactive pituitary gland that gave him his size. From the humble beginning of his wrestling career all the way to his death is covered in great detail. I've never cried while reading a wrestling book but I shed a few tears when Gorilla died.

[Tony Farinella · Rating 5 out of 5]

”Irresistible Force,” my most anticipated wrestling book of 2025, exceeded my expectations. As a lifelong wrestling enthusiast, we’re living in an era of remarkable wrestling historians and journalists. Brian R. Solomon stands out as one of the best, and his book is a testament to his expertise. It’s the best wrestling book I’ve read since Brad Balukjian’s 2024 masterpiece, “The Six Pack.”

Solomon’s dedication to this book is evident on every page. He’s meticulously researched and crafted a comprehensive understanding of Gorilla Monsoon’s life and career. Beyond that, the book offers a fascinating history lesson on the WWF. Even as a well-read wrestling fan and documentary enthusiast, I discovered new insights and perspectives while reading this book.

The book often stirred emotions, as I felt a deep connection with Gorilla Monsoon. Solomon’s storytelling effectively conveys Monsoon’s values, his family’s importance to him, and his passion for the sport. The best compliment I can give this book is that I couldn’t put it down. The stories are both entertaining and enlightening. While many wrestling fans perceive Monsoon as the charismatic announcer with a colorful vocabulary, he was much more than that in the wrestling world. He was truly one of the last giants of professional wrestling.

Solomon delves into Monsoon’s wrestling career, his behind-the-scenes personality, his contributions to the wrestling industry, his family life, and his reflections on the wrestling industry after his retirement. The most poignant aspects of the book revolve around Monsoon’s marriage to Maureen, his close-knit family, and his legendary partnership with Bobby “The Brian” Heenan.

I highly recommend this book to all wrestling fans. It’s a must-read that offers a comprehensive and captivating exploration of the life and legacy of Gorilla Monsoon.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

If a book can have you laughing out loud in one chapter, and cause tears to well up in your eyes at its conclusion, you're reading something special.

Solomon's book is special.

The book is a breath of fresh air: a positive story about an honorable man who achieved success and earned the love and admiration of all those whose lives he touched. Whether advocating for Latino wrestlers, mentoring broadcasters, or giving a stern lecture in order to help someone get better, Gino seemed to embody all that can be good about the wrestling business--the type of mentor you would want, regardless of what line of work you're in.

My knowledge of Monsoon was always superficial--his voice was the soundtrack to some of the most indelible moments we wrestling fans have. While those moments are covered nicely, this book covers so much more. Monsoon is shown to be a shrewd businessman who helped grow the WWWF into pro wrestling's #1 territory. Maybe the shrewdest move of all was negotiating his slice of the pie when his shares were bought out by Vince "Vinny" McMahon by getting a contract with a "no-show job" clause (my only critique of this book--Monsoon was a shareholder, and not merely a "stakeholder"). I also had no idea Monsoon had auditioned for Rocky III and the role that would truly launch Hulkamania.

I'm always fascinated with old stories of policing the business, and Solomon unearths some fascinating stories in this regard also, specifically Monsoon teaching a lesson to boxer Chuck Wepner's handlers and being ringside for the champion-vs-champion showdown between Superstar Billy Graham and Harley Race to make sure a double-cross did not occur.

The friendship/partnership with Bobby Heenan is poignantly captured by Solomon. Wrestling fans all remember the call of the 1992 Royal Rumble, and have their favorite memories of Prime Time Wrestling. But how many ever knew of their call from the stands at a high school baseball game, the same high school Heenan's daughter was attending? ("Should I be embarrassed? Or should I be proud?")

On top of this, while it's only just a couple paragraphs, Solomon accomplishes something I didn't expect: a fresh observation on Montreal. Monsoon never did speak his thoughts on what happened. For Bret Hart to wonder if Gino "would've been disappointed in me for being as difficult as I was" is a stunning thing to read after all this time.

This is the best wrestling biography that's been published since Liam O'Rourke's book on Brian Pillman. Highest recommendation.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read. A book that hits you right in the external occipital protuberance area.

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

certainly one of the great wrestling biographies written to date, arguably the second-best third-person bio (Jonathan Snowden's Shamrock is a clear #1, but that benefited from the participation of the subject; Dick "The Destroyer" Beyer's surprisingly good "Masked Decisions" would be my against-the-grain third-place book) and much better than Solomon's very good bio of The Original Sheik (he seems to have genuinely loved Monsoon as a subject). There's new material everywhere in here, from deep-in-the-weeds reconstructions of Marella's amateur wrestling career (far more than Dave Meltzer gave us in his Tributes snapshot) to blow-by-blow recountings (with different people on the record in seemingly every section) of his entire WWF career...truly a feat. There's a tiny bit of "necessary repetition" Solomon has to engage in with regard to the more familiar 80s/90s stuff, but he handles it with grace and the entire book is packed with novelty (even the acknowledgments, which include stuff like this great link to Monsoon's newspaper columns (https://archive.org/details/GorillaMo...), are worth reading...and don't get me started on the photos, especially all the shots of what a specimen Marella was prior to the 70s (before all I'd seen was that one singlet shot in Tributes). Highly recommended for wrestling fans, but as well-written as any conventional "serious" bio (e.g., David Cannadine on Mellon, James McGrath Morris' Pulitzer)

[Mark McManus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great wrestling biography. Great biography in general. It truly served as an educational instrument for those, like me, who did not see Gorilla Monsoon wrestle and as a warm stroll down memory lane for those that knew Gorilla as the voice of wrestling growing up. Plenty of great stories and interesting facts without having to be sensationalistic and tawdry. The author did a great job in providing a book that mirrored the life and times of the larger than life person. I would highly recommend this book to any fan of professional wrestling and to any fan of great non-fiction storytelling.

[Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative and engaging. I only knew Gorilla as the voice of my WWF fandom. It was a great dive into his career as an active wrestler without being too granular. Some wrestling history can be a slog to get to the interesting stories; that wasn’t a problem here. I only use 5 stars when I’m confident anyone interested in a title will enjoy the read, and that’s definitely true in this instance.

[Cory Abbott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great wrestling bio by Solomon. Very well researched and gives a great chronological recap on Monsoon’s life.

A good a bio as you can get unless written by Gorilla himself. Also gives a great history into the early formation of the WWF.

A must read for fans of pro wrestling history.

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal biography that’s worthy of its subject. It was well researched and written with a good balance of sentimentality and historical perspective.

This should be the new standard against which all other wrestling biographies are measured.

[Paul Sutter]

There are have been few books that I have read more than 500 pages long, that are this engrossing and spectacular. Even more so, while I’ve reviewed dozens of fiction books that exceed this page count, non-fiction of that length has been a bit more sparse. At no time while reading this book, was I wishing it was over. In fact, I wish there was more to the story, but I wonder if much more could be said about this wrestling legend.
Brian Solomon has written many books about the wrestling world, but he definitely has outdone himself with the ultimate biography about this larger than life legend. The ironic and almost sad part of this book, is the fact that many younger wrestling fans will have no idea who this man was, and what he was all about. But by the time you have finished this book (if you a more modern fan of the sport), you will swear you know everything about him and are an expert on this talented superstar.
Solomon makes his life an open book (pardon the pun), talking about Robert “Gino” Marella, which was his real name. We learn about his high school and college life where he excelled at wrestling. Being almost 350 pounds then, gave him the upper hand, making him a force to be reckoned with. The love of the sport was always in his blood, and when he made he debut in the old WWWF, he was known as the Manchurian Giant. Vincent McMahon Sr. was the head of Capital Sports, which transitioned into the WWWF. He was a massive man, starting out when the legends of the mat owned the sport.
The name dropping of hundreds, maybe thousands of wrestlers throughout the book, let us revisit the greatest of the mat world. But before that is his first bout in 1958, known as Gino Marella. We know that Monsoon (which I will refer to him as that for the rest of the review) fought with the best of them, holding his own, and convincing fans that he was a menacing monster who could tangle with stars like Bruno Sammartino, plus teaming with Killer Kowolski, and other heels of the the mat world. He traveled all across North America, and as well wrestling over in Japan, Puerto Rico and dozens of other countries around the world. He always gave each match his all, becoming one of the most popular wrestlers of that time.
But it was in 1969 he became a baby face, and the Manchurian Giant was reborn as Gorilla Monsoon. He was admired and respected so much, teaming with other popular stars of that era, traveling from one wrestling promotion to the other. The book of course looks at more modern days as well in the ring, and how after scaling back from wrestling, he was used as an announcer and a sort of behind the scenes planner for the WWWF, later the WWE.
A tragic moment happened when his son Joey Marella who was a referee for the WWE, died in a tragic car accident in 1994. They said he never totally recovered from that tragedy. There is so much to the book that you have to see for yourself just how thorough it was, leading to the passing of Monsoon in 1999. He lives again is so many ways in the pages of this truly amazing and inspirational tribute to one of the wrestling elite.

[Dan Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just an absolutely wonderful biography. Thoroughly engrossing and terrifically well-researched. Highly recommended.

[Lance Lumley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shocking that Gorilla has never had a book (or video) all about him, but it is his tale is finally told by a great writer in Solomon. From the days of the WWWF as Bruno Sammartino's opponent at the Garden, his ealry days as a singing wrestling, to the announcing days of the 80s wrestling boom are covered here. Gorilla had more to to with the WWF than many give credit for, which s why he had a section named after him. He was an announcer, booker, loyal employee, and a part of angles with Ali and boxing with Andre The Giant.
A must have for wrestling fans for their collection.

For an in -depth review, visit my page at https://lancewrites.wordpress.com/202...

[Josh Avery · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you were a wrestling fan in the late 80's/early 90's, Gorilla Monsoon was one of the voices of our childhood. I know that many a Sunday morning was spent on my bean bag in the living room watching the WWF and he was the primary play by play guy. He was so much more than that and he lived a very interesting life.

Born Robert Marella (he was always referred to as Gino), in suburban New Jersey, he was a large, yet freakishly athletic kid. At 6'4 and 275 pounds in the 50's, he ran the 100 yard dash wearing full football gear in 11 seconds and even into his forties, he could dunk a basketball standing directly under the rim even when he was at his heaviest of 450 pounds. He was a state and national champion wrestler in college and that led to him training in wrestling under Killer Kowalski. He wrestled from Outer Manchuria and was mute in interviews having his manager Billy "Red" Lewis be his mouthpiece and he ended up wrestling all the greats of the 60's and 70's, guys like Superstar Billy Graham, Ivan Putski, Jack Brisco and the man he had his best rivalry with, Bruno Sammartino. (They were great friends IRL) He is the only person to have wrestled Muhammad Ali and boxed Andre the Giant. He was smart enough to buy into the WWWF under Vince McMahon Sr. and he eventually became the person who ran events from behind the curtain, which is now referred to universally as the "Gorilla" position. He was fiercely protective of the industry, his license plate was "KFABE" and he would be brought along to meetings with promoters to make sure that nothing shady would happen. When Vince Jr. took over the business, Gorilla moved to the broadcast booth and became one of, if not the, best to ever call an event.

He also lived a life that matched his giant figure, driving Cadillacs and being one of the boys in the back. He was generous and kind to everyone in the industry that he met, and he and his wife Maureen would host lavish dinners and he took care of people when they were down. He was professional and respectful, yet firm when needed and he would be the calming voice in the ear of people who would get chewed out by Vince Jr. He was also quite the gambler who loved cards and black jack.

The large living caused a lot of health problems, diabetes, heart disease, etc. But, his health was only one of the factors that pulled him away from the business. He was not a fan of the direction that the wrestling business as a whole was going in, he would butt heads with Vince Jr. about the grand vision and what he viewed was wrong with the WWF at that time. He also lost his son Joey, a WWF referee to a car accident driving home from an event. He was never the same after that, he just seemed to give up.

The best part of this book was the story of his onscreen partnership and offscreen friendship with the man he is always mentioned with, the GOAT of wrestling commentators, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and the bond they had reflected in their chemistry calling matches and Gorilla would be the straight man whenever The Brain would go off on a tangent about Hulk Hogan or Bret Hart, dropping the "Will you stop?!?" That I remember to this day. They truly loved each other as friends, when Heenan had his last appearance on WWE television, he wanted Gorilla to be the one to "throw him out" of the building and both men are in tears in that moment on TV. Heenan couldn't talk about Gorilla after his passing without tearing up. It was heartbreaking to read about.

I could go into so much more as this book was well written and very detailed, yet fun and easy to read.

It's an "A" for sure. If I find any fault in it, it almost seemed at times like more of a biography of Bruno Sammartino than of Gorilla Monsoon, but, that doesn't hurt the book in the least bit. There's even a glossary of Gorilla terminology in the back which I absolutely loved.

In an industry full of questionable characters, Gorilla Monsoon was one of one.

Strong recommendation.

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

My main issue with the book is how long it is, given that Gorilla Monsoon is… basically not that interesting a person? The account of his in ring career is finished about a third of the way into the book and can be summed up as “he had some big matches with Bruno Sammartino.” And then he’s basically a henchman for Vince McMahon Junior for a long time, telling wrestlers stuff like “Please show up on time.” Do we need 500 pages saying “he was a man of solid character, and very respected”.

Solomon takes this many pages because he is low key telling the story of WWF in this book, through the lens of Gorilla Monsoon. The book tracks the loss of decency, basically saying Monsoon wouldn’t have put up with this or that, and yearning for his bygone era.

So there’s all these other stories weaved in like Vince Junior’s takeover of the company or Bruno Sammartino’s career or Jesse Ventura’s push for unionization or Bruiser Brody’s death, where I’m left wondering why not just write the book about that instead? Even if it’s been written about before, it’s much more interesting than apolitical company man Monsoon. Solomon clearly lionizes Monsoon in a way that always makes a biography worse than it could have been if the author had any semblance of objectivity.

That said, you can’t knock Solomon’s hustle. With this book and his book about The Sheikh, he’s taken subjects that a lot is unknown about, and colored in the lines, relying heavily on interviews with family members or people who knew the person directly.

[Nat Medlen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like so many wrestling fans of my generation, I knew Gorilla Monsoon as the voice of the WWF during my childhood. I was aware that he had been a wrestler but can't recall ever seeing him in the ring as anything other than an announcer or company worker. This book shows that he was so much more than those things. It also shows that the thing he was most proud of in his life, his family, was away from the ring and remained his safe place in life. The most engaging parts of the book are the sections where Solomon is able to remove the sheen of celebrity from Gino Marella/Gorilla Monsoon and make him a human being. Solomon goes into the fact that Monsoon had very few enemies and was roundly respected by others in his business of choice. This is a goal that all of us should aspire to in our lives as well. It was interesting to read about his interactions with the stars of his generation as an in-ring performer as well as those who came through during his time as a company officer, booker, announcer, and backstage adviser. That is where his legacy in the pro wrestling business continues to the present day.

[John Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biggest takeaway is that Gorilla lived in Northeast Philadelphia for a time and was a big Eagles fan.

Honestly it’s a five star book but one little detail really nagged me. At one point Gorilla was given an award by 94WIP decades before they made the switch to FM (and actually became 94WIP). Little details like that make me wonder what other small inaccuracies, trivial as they may be, are sprinkled throughout books like these.

[Eric Zerbe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solomon does it again. His attention to detail on Monsoon’s life and career is astonishing. And the years covering Gorilla’s announcing career took me back to my days of first discovering the man they called Gino. It’s a miscarriage of justice that it took this long for a bio on Bobby “The Brain” Heenan’s best friend, but Solomon made it worth the wait.

[David Staggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Solomon does an excellent job crafting a narrative around one of the unsung legends of professional wrestling. Gorilla Monsoon provided the audio backdrop to scores of childhood wrestling fans but his story had never been told until this book and this book is an absolute must read if you are a wrestling fan.

[The Master · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly researched, this is a truly monumental biography. At almost 500 pages it seems daunting at first, but the writing flows and the story of Gorilla Monsoon's life is told without ever being dull.

[Dwayne C]

This is a must read for anyone that grew up watching wrestling in the 80s. Gorilla was the man that was seen and heard from the most in the WWF/E. Reading about his growing up and his wrestling, was something I never knew about.

[Cala Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant insight of a great legend and gentle giant that is still missed to this day

[David Finer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorilla Monsoon was the world’s all-time greatest person and we didn’t deserve him.

[Leon Atterberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book about an underrated figure in the history of pro wrestling. If you are a fan of pro wrestling, I HIGHLY recommend this book. A great deal of history and memories for me.

[Matthew W McCullough · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Audiobook was well produced. It was a solid wrestling biography.

[Joshua Dahlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brought tons of emotion and nostalgia. It is one of the best books I've read.

[Dave Cottenie · Rating 5 out of 5]

For many, the voice of Gorilla Monsoon was the voice of childhood. However, little has been published about the man who played such an integral role in the WWF. Outside of video clips and interviews of Bobby Heenan extolling the virtues of Monsoon, there wasn’t too much. This book was very thorough and offered a peek into the life of a very good man in a somewhat morally questionable industry. The conflicts he felt throughout his tenure as an executive were clear and a number of what if scenarios are brought to light. Excellent read!