On a recent episode of Grilling JR with Conrad Thompson, Jim Ross shared his thoughts on the late Giant Gonzalez, who JR worked with during the wrestler’s time as El Gigante. JR gives his insight as to why Gonzalez was not successful in the squared circle and also talks about the unfortunate financial trouble he faced post wrestling career. Some quotes from the episode are below as well as the audio clip from Grilling JR. (transcription credit should go to Dominic DeAngelo of Wrestlezone)
Jim Ross talks first meeting Giant Gonzalez after he was about to be cut by the Atlanta Hawks:
“So everybody’s light bulb goes off: ‘Oh my God, we’ll create our own Andre!’ But to create your own Andre you gotta have an Andre-like mindset where Andre liked to drink all night and hang with the guys, man’s man and Jorge [Gonzalez / El Gigante] is not a partier.
“He just didn’t have a lot of talent. No charisma, nicest guy in the world. Ironically when he got out of the business and he went back home, he was broke, I remember Harvey Wippleman, Bruno Lauer, he used to send him money. It was sad cause was taking care of his whole family it was a sad story how it all ended, he wasn’t prepared for his wealth and therefore he didn’t last long. Nice guy, but we did not train him correctly. We will never know how good El Gigante could have been because his training was mishandled from the very first day. It was always a rush job. “We’re gonna book him in South Carolina in six weeks.’ You gotta be shitting me.
“Andre worked seven years or something before he wrestled in South America.”
