“This Happened to Muhammad Ali”: WWE Legend Once Humbled the Boxing Legend in Unscripted Turn of Events

Experts still rank Muhammad Ali as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. The Greatest has left a deep impact on the world of boxing. Even four decades after Ali’s retirement, his boxing matches are still fresh in the memories of his fans. But a legendary pro wrestler once shocked The Greatest with his moves.

Muhammad Ali had spent some time in the pro wrestling business. Even new boxing fans surely heard about Ali’s match with Antonio Inoki. The 1976 match was held in Tokyo, Japan billed as The War of the Worlds. The match resulted in a draw but it got good hype from the public. But Muhammad Ali’s one particular interaction with a pro wrestler humiliated The Greatest in front of a crowd once.

The WWE veteran Bruce Prichard once recalled a WWE moment when Muhammad Ali was embarrassed by a WWE superstar. Prichard told the story in his podcast Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard. The Superstar who did this impossible task was none other than Gorilla Monsoon.

Gorilla Monsoon was one of the legendary superstars in WWE. The backstage area, just behind the curtains of the arena in WWE is called the Gorilla position. Guess what, they named it after the legendary wrestler itself. But what did the Monsoon do to make him such a legendary figure in pro wrestling?

Gorilla Monsoon humiliated Muhammad Ali

In 1976, Gorilla Monsoon was performing as usual in the ring, but Ali was supposed to interfere in the match. As per Bruce Prichard, the Monsoon did something that turned out to be terrible publicity for Ali. Prichard said, “Monsoon was gonna pick him up and drop him down and Monsoon did the airplane spin. Bundini Brown on the outside of the ring. He was Ali’s manager and spiritual advisor, or whatever.”

“They’re all upset, not everybody was smartened up so Monsoon does this airplane spin and drops Ali, and Ali, he’s dizzy. And it was it was picked up by everybody.”

Gorilla Monsoon was simply supposed to body-slam Muhammad Ali. Instead, he made a mockery out of The Greatest by spinning him. The next day the incident made the news. “All the newscasts had it. I mean, I remember seeing it as a kid in Houston on the news. This happened to Muhammad Ali.”

Read More: ‘I Was Shaking’: Muhammad Ali Admitted He Was ‘Nervous and Scared’ After Taking the Biggest Step of His Life

Ali’s management put pro wrestler Freddie Blassie on the task of teaching The Greatest the crux of pro wrestling. Muhammad Ali may have been at the top at that time in boxing, but pro wrestling was a whole other sport. Showmanship mattered in pro wrestling and Ali learned it the hard way.

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