Forgotten Commentary; Gorilla Monsoon and Johnny Polo

[Ubiquitous]

Now, I never post in the Old School Section, like, at all. However, I was watching an episode of WWE Vintage Collection this past weekend and on it was a steel cage match between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. I believe it was from 1993, and I don't believe it had anything to do with any title. That said, the match itself was irrelevant. I've never really gotten the chance to watch wrestling other than clips and the like pre-1998. I was watching this match and I could hear Gorilla Monsoon talking and he was calling the match with some guy he kept calling "John". The guys voice sounded so familiar I felt stupid for not knowing it, but finally it clicked in that the voice from behind the booth was none other than Johnny Polo. In all my time watching wrestling, I never knew that Scott Levy actually ANNOUNCED for the WWF. I knew he managed and whatnot, but I found it to be quite entertaining, and I found Polo gave off a very CM Punk-esque charecter announcing-wise. I know people rave about Monsoon and Heenan, and King and JR, but I found this pairing to be very fresh in terms of their announce style, and they meshed really well. I just wanted to know others feelings of the pairing of the two. I honestly believe if Johnny Polo had not gone on to become Raven, he would've had a nice career commentating somewhere.

This isn't the match mentioned above, but it's the only match I could find with the two commentating. Weirdly enough it's still a cage match, and it still involves Bret Hart...

[YOUTUBE]F-pgiAQIDY8[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Peoples_Champ]

Johnny Polo was incredibly entertaining. I actually liked the Gorilla / Polo combination more than Gorilla / Ventura (although nothing can touch Gorilla / Heenan).

This is my favourite memory of Johnny Polo, and it shows how entertaining he could be.

[youtube]pM2qVI-pnxY[/youtube]

 

[Macho_King]

I enjoyed their commentary as well but all their work was just on Home Video. He did do a couple early Raws with Vince. So their isn't much to go by. I don't see how you can say that they were better together than Ventura/Monsoon. Unless you hate Ventura.

 

[Mr. HD]

Haha, Gorilla and Polo were a pretty good tandem. We know how good Monsoon is as a play by play guy, but Polo not only called the action as well, but he was pretty damn funny.

But unlike a lot of people on here, I gotta say JR and King are the best.

 

[GameOver]

Gorilla worked well with anyone, Pollo aka Rave was funny, and both of them using big words was hilarious, i was watching WWE Vintage Collection yesterday which airs in Australia after NXT on a thursday afternoont and two of the matches had these 2 on commentry.

as for best of all time in WWF/WWE/WCW (as a duo) it's a slobernocker between Gorilla/Bobby Heenan with JR/King during the attitude era close behind

 

[madnumber24]

raven was funny as a commentator. he should come back to the wwe as a commentator.

 

[Theo Mays]

Ah Johnny Polo that brings a smile to my face. I was never really a fan of Raven, but the Johnny Polo character was fabulous. I recall hearing him a year or so on commentary on some older matches that I was watching, though I can't really recall what they were but he had my attention. I think like someone above stated he could have made a nice career out of commentating and manager (ala Bobby Heenan). Sure he never would have touched Heenan's level of greatness (no one will), but he could have been a mainstay back there. He had all the tools to succeed as a commentator. He was knowledgeable, entertaining, and meshed with his partners. Always brings a smile to my face when Johnny Polo graces us with his commentator. Him and Mr. Perfect were two of my favorites in terms of guys that we don't think of as announcers.

 

[TheZman]

They shoud bring Polo "Raven" back....he would be an upgrade from Booker T and why does Cole have to be on both shows? Raw is enough, SDown should have an original annouceteam. Josh Mathews and Johnny Polo would be great!

 

[Arsenal]

Gorilla Monsoon is the greatest play-by-play man I've ever heard call a wrestling match. He did a great job of calling the match and giving you insight about different parts of the anatomy that were targeted by the moves. Plus he was always energetic and enthusiastic about the action, putting over the product and the wrestlers at all times, and being the "face" in the booth. You could pair him up with any competent "heel" play by play man, and it would work great, as it did with Jesse Ventura (my favorite combo of all time) and Bobby Heenan (my 2nd favorite combo). Johnny Polo was a very good heel manager and announcer also in WWF (before leaving and becoming "Raven" in ECW), so it's no surprise he paired well with Monsoon. Jerry "The King" Lawler would have been awesome paired with Monsoon as well back in the early 90's.