Arn Anderson Explains How Bad El Gigante Was, Tells a Story About Ric Flair Angering Gigante

On a recent episode of ARN, “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson continued his journey revisiting 1991 of his career. The subject of the seven-foot-seven El Gigante came up. Arn shared his perspective on Jorge Gonzalez and why Gigante, despite his size, didn’t succeed in WCW. Highlights will follow:

On Jorge Gonzalez not being meant for wrestling: “I hate to speak ill of the dead, I really do. I’m sure there is something that God put that big fella on the Earth to do… wrestling wasn’t it. This is not easy to do at all; it certainly it is not easy to do well. And it certainly is not easy to excel if you’re not meant to be in it. [Jorge] was not meant to be in this business. He was just like a deer in headlights. He was just frozen.”

On El Gigante towering over even Sid Vicious: “I’m sure that what everyone was counting on was when Sid [Vicious] was right beside [El Gigante], you saw the size of the guy. It’s the one time you saw the guy and thought ‘well, damn. Vicious is a monster. He is a big dude.’ Just wish that was enough. Our fans deserve more than that.”

On Gigante not knowing how to fall: “He probably would’ve needed more time at the school [WCW Powerplant]. Just so you can at least put a few things together for him. Here’s something we never even addressed; forget about the fact that his offense was very week cause he just didn’t know. He couldn’t fall down! So he can’t fall down, his offense looks like shit, what does that leave us? I guess just powerwalk up on him and stick my nose in his belly button. Get some ha-ha out of it or something, I wish I’d have been smart enough to consider some stuff.”

On what kind of training Gigante might have had: “They probably taught him to do a clothesline, obviously the claw and the big hammer across the back. Which you always tell what a guy’s got in his toolbelt when he starts repeating himself. If he does something more than once, pretty good chance that’s about all he’s got. Now you go back to the school. Buddy Lee Parker’s a good trainer, great trainer. But if you can’t bump a guy down, and this guy can’t drop something on you…? What if he could just drop a big elbow on you? You can’t trust him to do that. Would probably hurt you, would probably hurt himself. Knock his hip out and kill the guy that he landed on!”

Arn on Gigante’s incredible strength: “It’s hard to train a guy that’s that big and that heavy, because the one thing is [Jorge] still had bigger than normal, larger than human life strength. He clotheslined me one night, I know.”

On Ric Flair pissing El Gigante off one night: “When [Jorge] got mad, he could certainly clean your clock. We were in Philadelphia, it was a six-man or something. [Ric] Flair came in with the big man and did whatever he could do, and [Ric] finally got behind Jorge and he chopped him right between the shoulder blades. Pretty good one, it cracked. But then Flair in his infinite wisdom (laughs) came over and tagged me. Now, not knowing that Jorge was steaming, I step in. I was going to give him a couple big shots in the chest with a forearm. Brother, he just accelerated and he clotheslined me; I swear I thought I broke my neck again!”

On confronting Jorge in the locker room: “I mean, he knocked my head off. I don’t even remember what happened the rest of the match. We got to the locker room, I went over to the babyface locker room, and brother, I looked at him and said ‘what is wrong with you! You’re going to kill somebody out there!’ ‘Ric Flair made me mad!’ Well, clothesline him! Don’t clothesline me, moron! I’m not the one who did it!

On Gigante not being able to work: “I mean, he took my head off. He would be capable of it, if he would just dial it down and aim it properly. I don’t mind getting hit hard, it’s where.”

If you use any of the above quotations, please credit ARN h/t 411mania for the transcription.