Bill Alfonso Talks Being Giant Gonzalez's Personal Assistant In WWE
Legendary pro wrestling referee and ECW manager Bill Alfonso was recently interviewed by Richard Ruiz, courtesy of Pro Wrestling Rarities. During the interview, Alfonso explained how he spent some time as the assistant of Giant Gonzalez, who was also known in World Championship Wrestling as El Gigante. Alfonso stated that he was Gonzalez' personal assistant for three years while in WCW, and also in WWE.
"He had to have an assistant with him 24 hours a day," said Alfonso. "He was a giant. He was eight [feet] tall. The only car we could rent from Avis or any other rent-a-car place would be a Cadillac, and even his knees were [folded] in a Cadillac. Cadillac was the best car for him. Better than a van, better than anything. It was just me and him traveling around the world for three years, which was pretty cool. I got paid to do it. They didn't have to pay me actually, but they did because we became terrific friends, super friends."
Alfonso then shared how he landed his position competing in WCW.
"He played pro basketball. How he got here was he was playing European basketball, and Ted Turner owned the Atlanta Hawks. So, he had some scouts looking at the European teams over in Europe, and he [saw] this giant. 'Wow. Look at the guy, eight [feet] tall. I'm gonna bring him over and play for the Hawks. So they brought him over, paid him, but he had already been playing basketball for several years, so his knees were already starting to go and stuff. And he was a [good] athlete on the court. Not much of a performer in the ring. It wasn't a natural art for him to be into wrestling, because he had never heard of it, never seen it."
According to Alfonso, the reason why Gonzalez could not play for the Atlanta Hawks despite having him for a year ? training him, as well as having a nutritionist ? was due to him not being about to play "enough time to be worth it."
"He would play for three minutes, and then he would start slowing down," said Alfonso. The Hawks cut Gonzalez after spending "hundreds of thousands of dollars on him [to] get him in shape", but they proposed that he moved to another Turner-owned company, WCW.
Gonzalez refused the proposal, and flew back home to Argentina. They called him at home and offered to train him as a wrestler, and pay him a "couple of hundred thousand dollars" to train him. He agreed to get trained and started his wrestling career. Coming back to the United States, he had to have a personal assistant while here, and the man chosen for the role was Bill Alfonso. Alfonso explained that he had a great time being his assistant, as they would have a brand new Cadillac, paid for, every day, and be put up in a nice hotel. He also shared that Gonzalez would call him at 3 a.m., as they did not share the same room, to go to the nearest burger spot and give him three hamburgers.
Source: Pro Wrestling Rarities