The new book “Irresistible Force: The Life and Times of Gorilla Monsoon” by Brian R. Solomon provides new firsthand accounts from Monsoon’s family and inner circle about the power struggle between Gorilla Monsoon and Vince McMahon Jr. for control of what is now WWE, adding significant detail to a chapter of wrestling history that has long been simplified in the company’s official storytelling.
Vince McMahon himself acknowledged the rivalry in the 2024 Netflix docuseries Mr. McMahon. “When I joined the company, Gorilla Monsoon was the heir apparent,” McMahon said. “And I could feel the tension right away. Gorilla Monsoon thinks I’m competition. And boy, was he right.”
The book builds on that admission with firsthand interviews, including with Monsoon’s daughter Valerie Marella and longtime ring announcer Gary Cappetta, to paint a detailed picture of how contentious the 1982 sale of the Capitol Wrestling Corporation truly was, and how Monsoon, who owned 25 percent of the company at the time, was the last holdout against the deal.
“There Was Always a Team Monsoon and a Team Vinny McMahon”
Cappetta, who served as the company’s ring announcer and was one of the lead members of what he called Team Monsoon for nearly a decade, described a clear internal divide.
“There was always a Team Monsoon and a Team Vinny McMahon,” Cappetta said.
Valerie Marella was blunt about the relationship between her father and the younger McMahon. “They were not fans of each other,” she said.
The book describes Monsoon as Vince McMahon Sr.’s “right-hand man and handpicked successor” and notes that the old guard, including Senior himself, “had never really looked at Vinny as a serious peer, or someone with the wherewithal to one day run the operation.” McMahon Jr. was only eight years younger than Monsoon, but according to the book, “in terms of perception, it might as well have been twenty.”
Monsoon called McMahon Jr. “Vinny” to his dying day, according to the book, “despite the fact (or perhaps because of the fact) Junior hated being called that.”
The Last Holdout
The book describes the June 1982 meeting at the Warwick Hotel in Manhattan as “not the warm, glowing, peaceful transition of power we’ve often been led to believe.” Solomon writes that the image WWE has presented over the years of Vince Senior, Gorilla Monsoon, Phil Zacko, and Arnold Skaaland willingly handing the keys to the kingdom to Vince and Linda McMahon “is a simplification that obscures just how contentious it actually was.”
Monsoon was described as the last holdout. The book says he had hit “the motherlode in the business and was now being asked to give all that up for uncertainty. He was the one with the most to gain by things staying the way they were. He was set for life and had been the unofficial successor. It was going to be his. And if Vinny hadn’t jumped in, that might have been happening sooner rather than later.”
Monsoon never expected to have to give up his ownership stake. According to the book, “it was something he’d worked hard for and something he fully intended to go to his grave with, passing the shares, and the income that came along with them, to his children when the time came.”
McMahon Jr.’s plan was described as “nothing short of a carefully plotted coup” that “required the complete and total takeover of the Capitol Wrestling Corporation. There would be no partners. Vinny wanted it all.”
The book notes that if the partners had refused, Vince Senior could have dissolved the entire Capitol Wrestling Corporation as a last resort, “thereby leaving the partners totally out in the cold while he and his son established a new company.” Without many options, Monsoon eventually agreed to the sale but negotiated the best deal he could for himself.
“You’re Right, Vinny. F**k Those Guys.”
The book recounts a heated closed-door confrontation between Vince McMahon Sr. and Jr. as the expansion began dismantling the old relationships. McMahon Jr. told his father: “I can’t have this keep happening. You work for me now. You have to let me run the company the way I see fit. I’m gonna do this with or without you. So are you with me, or not?”
Vince Senior paused, considered the relationships he had with the people whose businesses his son was now threatening, and responded: “You’re right, Vinny. F**k those guys.”
“It Was Vinny Flexing His Muscle”
Among the book’s most vivid new accounts is Cappetta’s description of being fired from the Philadelphia Spectrum show without warning once McMahon Jr. was in control. Cappetta showed up to the August 13, 1983, show and was pulled from the ring and replaced between the first and second matches. Monsoon and Phil Zacko were in the room when it happened.
“Monsoon didn’t say one word,” Cappetta said. “It probably was killing him. It was Vinny flexing his muscle and rubbing Gino’s face in it. He and Zacko had had their power pulled from them, and they were silent. The relationships had changed.”
Nine months later, Cappetta was fired from his post as ring announcer for All-Star Wrestling at the last TV tapings in Hamburg. In what the book describes as a possible show of defiance, Monsoon continued to use Cappetta for his local charity events and monthly arena shows in New Jersey for more than a year afterward.
The Two Men Eventually Developed Respect
Despite the contentious beginning, the book says Monsoon and McMahon Jr. eventually developed a professional bond. Monsoon negotiated a deal in the sale that ensured he would remain a crucial part of the company and would not be cast aside. He went on to become the lead announcer during the company’s national expansion, served as on-screen WWF President, and was inducted as one of the company’s first Hall of Famers.
According to the book, “the two men, who certainly had had no special affection for each other in the early years, would develop a kind of respect and a professional bond that would be the closest thing to friendship of which the younger Vince McMahon seemed capable.”
“Irresistible Force: The Life and Times of Gorilla Monsoon” by Brian R. Solomon is available now wherever books are sold. You can buy it online by clicking here.
