Monsoon stepped forward to try and collect the money at one TV taping, and after getting the big man off his feet, Studd held onto the ropes to prevent the slam, and kneed Monsoon in the gut to drop him. Then Studd dropped a huge elbow on Monsoon, and beat him down.

Also around this time, Monsoon was still doing a lot of work behind the scenes. For many important house shows, and later at pay-per-views, Gorilla's job was to stand by the entranceway curtain, and tell the wrestlers when to come down the aisle. He was such a master at this, the spot has now been called "the Gorilla position." He has also worked behind the scenes as a booker in the early 80s.

Around 1983, Gorilla added play-by-play announcing to his ever growing repertoire. He called many matches for Madison Square Garden Network, and later All Star Wrestling, and Wrestling Challenge. As an announcer, in my opinion there was never anyone who was as good before or since. He knew some background, but more importantly was excellent at acting as the conscience of the viewer, telling us when something was wrong, or stupid, or silly or whatever. He seemed to be very much in tune with his viewers.

Early on he was matched with heel color man, Jesse Ventura, but later he would be matched with an even better pairing, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.

With Heenan they were a perfect match of heel ego and babyface "fight for right." Sure Monsoon would misuse words often (I have yet to ever see a fan "literally hanging from the rafters"), but he shined when someone was "going bananas."

He also got into a rift with Bobby Heenan over who was the real host of Prime Time Wrestling on USA network. Their back and forth bantering was almost as good as any Abbott & Costello movie, and many times was more entertaining than any wrestling match on the show itself. 

Monsoon also had a son, Joey Morella, join the ranks of professional wrestling as a referee. The younger Morella was a mainstay, and refereed many of the WWF's most important World Title matches of the 1980s. Sadly, Joey Morella died tragically in a car accident in 1993 while traveling to another WWF show to work. I certainly don't have any "inside" information about this, but it always seemed to me that Gorilla wasn't the same after the death of his son, although I suppose no father ever could be in a similar situation.

Later in the 1990s Gorilla made an on-camera return to become the WWF president. That would lead to another famous incident where Vader viciously attacked Monsoon, and even gave him a Vader bomb!

Finally, Gorilla Monsoon died in 1999 at the age of 62. I honestly get choked up every time I think of his passing. He's been such a part of my pro wrestling viewing for so many years, as stated before I felt as though I knew him somehow. Good-bye Gorilla. You are sorely missed by your fans.