Jorge Gonzáles

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For other persons of the same name, see Jorge González.

Jorge Gonzales
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Giant Gonzales El Gigante
Height	7 ft 6 in (2.29 m)
Billed height	7 ft 7 in (2.31 m)^[1]
Billed weight	460 lb (210 kg/33 st)
Born	January 31, 1966 (1966-01-31) (age 42)^[2] Formosa, Argentina^[3]
Debut	1989
Retired	1993

Jorge González (born January 31, 1966 in Formosa, Argentina) is a former basketball player and professional wrestler who competed in the World Wrestling Federation in the early 1990s under the ring name, Giant González.^[2]

1 Career
2 In wrestling
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Basketball

Jorge González (Ruiz) stands 7 feet 6 inches. Originally a basketball player from Argentina, his size and presence attracted interest from Hollywood in the mid 80s with various bitparts coming his way. He successfully played in Argentina's first division league for the Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata and also for the Argentina national basketball team. However, he did not appear at the 1988 Summer Olympics as some sources claim. He was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the 3rd round of the 1988 NBA Draft but apparently couldn't handle the pace of the American game, and had trouble maintaining a proper, athletic weight.

[edit] Professional Wrestling

[edit] World Championship Wrestling

In 1989, Hawks owner Ted Turner offered González a job as a professional wrestler with another of his ventures, WCW. After a year of training, Gonzales was introduced to fans as El Gigante on May 19, 1990 at the pay-per-view Capital Combat. Wearing shorts, he competed as a face, and was billed as being close to eight feet tall (244 cm) (he was actually 7 ft 6 in ), as measured by the Guinness Book of Records in 2000).

Over the next two years, he feuded with Ric Flair over the WCW Title, participated in the 'Chamber Of Horrors' match in 1991 and also had a date on TBS with Missy Hyatt. However, many fans did not take to him as intended due to his overall lack of wrestling skills and the English language. Later, he gained some popularity and credibility with a cross-promotional stint in the New Japan Pro Wrestling promotion, and then defected to the WWF in 1993.

[edit] World Wrestling Federation

González competed as the Giant Gonzalez during his brief WWF tenure as a heel; managed by Harvey Wippleman. González grew a beard and wore a bizarre, memorable, full-body suit that featured airbrushed muscles with bushy hair attached. He was introduced at the Royal Rumble in January 1993, where he quickly overpowered and eliminated Wippleman's nemesis The Undertaker from the Rumble match despite not being an official participant. The Undertaker defeated Gonzalez at WrestleMania IX by disqualification after he and Wippleman knocked Undertaker unconscious using 'chloroform'. After another loss to the Undertaker at SummerSlam 1993, Wippleman berated Gonzalez; this ended their relationship and turned Gonzalez into a pseudo-face.

During this period, González also made an appearance in an episode of the mainstream television program, Baywatch, in which he wore his signature body suit. He also later appeared in the pilot episode of "Thunder in Paradise", and a couple of episodes of the TV series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys".

In 2003, Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him # 498 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years".

[edit] After wrestling

González returned home to Argentina in 1997, amid rumours that his mother was ill. He now owns a small store in lebanon, selling hand-carved wooden pelicans. He was recently signed to be a part of WWE's Jakks Pacific 16th series of Classic Superstars action figures. ^[4]