Gorilla and Heenan criticism
By Scott Keith on 6 July 2021
I think it's fair to say that for as long as a lot of us can remember, Heenan's color commentary work in WCW was mostly sub-par, especially as the years went on and his motivation disappeared, but Gorilla Monsoon, who was arguably intolerable at times, especially as the Hulk era ended, is always given a bit of a pass. I see a lot of “well, his son died”, but that doesn't cover the quality of his work dropping before that. If the IWC existed then as it does now, he would've been crucified for shitting all over Owen's victory at WrestleMania X among other things in the weeks that followed the PPV. Is it a combination of “I grew up with him”, or “Dave's audience hated him” fueling this? It seems like the first is the easiest choice, but then we'd all love babyface Vince too, and people always poop on him even though Vince told the stories to the audience better than Gorilla. Rose-tinted glasses and all that, I guess.
Perhaps. I didn’t notice a lot of the stuff at the time but watching him now drives me crazy with his abdominal stretches and hooking the leg nonsense. Tastes change I guess.