WWE HOFer Jim Ross Talks About El Gigante And How Fans Reacted To Him

In the late 1980s, there was a bidding war between WWE and WCW for the services of the eight-foot Jorge González, a former NBA draftee who quit the sport due to a knee injury. After choosing to sign with WCW, González began training at WCW's Power Plant, and after a year of training, he was introduced as El Gigante at the Capital Combat pay-per-view in 1990. González was instantly hot-shotted into the main event scene as a babyface, joining Sting and Lex Luger in their rivalry with Four Horsemen. 

Over the next few years, González feuded with Ric Flair for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and even had rivalries with Sid Vicious and One Man Gang to determine who the real "giant of WCW" was. While WCW tried its best to feature González as a main event star, fans didn't respond with favorable reactions. Reflecting on González's WCW career, Jim Ross examined why the colossal Argentine couldn't excel in the world of pro wrestling. 

"Jorge is a sweetheart, a nice guy, but he had no product knowledge," Ross said on "Grilling Jr." "He didn't understand the nuances of the wrestling business. Sometimes, you need to know what not to do, and he didn't have that trait. [Even] locking up was a big deal, and I had to work with him for hours on doing promos. I didn't lose my patience in front of him, but it wasn't good. He just had no feel. He had a decent personality, but he just didn't have a feel for the product. And wrestling fans have always been smart — when they see somebody that's unskilled, they don't react well to that."

González would ultimately depart for the WWE in 1993, where he was repackaged as Giant Gonzalez. He died in 2010 at the age of 44 due to complications from diabetes and severe heart issues.