Sunday, September 26, 2010

The Life and Times of Jorge Gonzalez (El Gigante/Giant Gonzalez) BY: George Wren

----George Wren joins us with a look at Jorge Gonzalez. 


Former WCW/WWF/WWE Superstar Jorge Gonzalez (El Gigante/Giant Gonzalez) passed away on September 22, 2010 due to multi health issues at the age of 44 in San Martin, Argentina.
Jorge Gonzalez was born on January 31, 1966 in Formosa, Argentia where stood 7'6".
Jorge started out playing basketball at the early age of 16 where he went on and played for Argentina's Olympic basketball team and was drafted to the NBA in 1988 for the Atlanta Hawks.
Jorge made his professional wrestling debut for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as El Gigante at Capital Combat in Washington, D.C. on May 19, 1990 and would stay with WCW for the next 2 years before going to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
Jorge made his World Wrestling Federation (WWF) debut at the Royal Rumble in Sacramento, California on January 24, 1993 where he was completely repackaged from his WCW days to a full grown beard, full airbrushed body-suit and was managed by Bruno Lauer (Harvey Wippleman; known in the Mid-South area as Downtown Bruno). Jorge was not even a official participant in the Royal Rumble but would attack Mark Calloway (The Undertaker) which eliminated him from the Royal Rumble thus setting up a angle/feud with Calloway. Jorge would basically feud with Calloway during his stint in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
Jorge left the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in October 93 to go to work for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and would work NJPW until he retired. Where he would have his final match on February 8, 1995 against Keiji Mutoh (Great Muta).
Jorge returned back to his native of Argentina where he had been suffering from multi health issues from being on dialysis, kidney failure, being a diabetic, to being wheelchair bound at the time of his death.
On behalf of myself and everyone at Rasslin Riot Online (RRO) we would like to express our sincere condolence to the family of Jorge Gonzalez.
George Wren is a former pro wrestling photographer/associate editor for New Wave Wrestling Magazine (and it's sister publication Toxxic), and has worked along side of Rasslin Riot Online (RRO) and Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer.