The following month, the duo lost the belts to the Tolos Brothers (Chris and John) in Teaneck, New Jersey. In November 1963, they defeated Skull Murphy and Brute Bernard to win the U.S. Monsoon teamed up with Killer Kowalski with success. McMahon reformed the Capitol Wrestling Corporation into the World Wide Wrestling Federation (Marella formed a friendship with McMahon, and became a 1/6 shareholder in the Despite his huge size, which was now in excess of 400 pounds, Monsoon had great agility and stamina, often wrestling Sammartino to one-hour time-limit draws. Marella first wrestled Bruno Sammartino for the Monsoon's disqualification win over Sammartino in NJ triggered a series of rematches at Madison Square Garden, and they would renew the feud again there in 1967. The story given on In the ring, Monsoon dominated opponents with vicious chops, the dreaded Manchurian Splash, and his signature move, the Airplane Spin. 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. Marella totally revamped his image, growing a long beard and billing himself as Gorilla Monsoon, a terrifying giant from Manchuria. Marella garnered moderate popularity, but soon realized that fans paid more attention to outlandish monster heel gimmicks, and they therefore made more money. Even after changing his stage name, "Gino" stuck as Marella's nickname among friends and colleagues, including Jesse "The Body" Ventura, who would call Marella "Gino" on the air. Marella originally billed himself as Gino Marella, a proud Italian-American babyface who would sing in Italian prior to his matches. By the end of his career he was up around 389 pounds. Gorilla was 6'2" and weighed around 350 pounds when he first started wrestling professionally. 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. 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. One of the buildings he helped construct was the Rochester War Memorial. During the summers he was at Ithaca College, he was a construction worker in Rochester. He was inducted into the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973. He also held several school athletic records, including an 18-second wrestling pin, and several track-and-field distinctions. He continued to wrestle, now weighing over 350 pounds, and took second in the 1959 NCAA Wrestling Championships. Marella was also a standout athlete after high school at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. At the time, he weighed over 300 pounds (136 kg), and was affectionately called "Tiny" by his teammates. Marella attended Jefferson High School in Rochester, New York, becoming a standout athlete in football, amateur wrestling, and track and field.
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