Gangs, le promoteur de catch en costume, chapeau mou et nœud papillon rouge, dans le style papier de Paper Mario

Grubba: the fast-talking promoter who drained his wrestlers

1346 words | Reading time : 6 minute(s)

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A jovial promoter who secretly siphons the life force out of his own wrestlers. Known as Gangs in French, Grubba runs the Glitz Pit in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. This profile covers the Great Gonzales stage name forced on Mario, the Gold Star wired into his draining machine, Prince Mush's fate and his transformation into Macho Grubba.

Grubba (Gangs in the French version) is the colourful manager of the Glitz Pit, the famous ring from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Behind his chatty promoter's grin, however, hides the true antagonist of Chapter 3.

This former wrestler holds one of the seven Crystal Stars and uses it to power a secret machine that drains the fighters' strength. Once unmasked, he morphs into Macho Grubba for the final showdown.

Contents

A former wrestler turned promoter

In his younger days, Grubba was a fearsome wrestler, a martial arts champion so dominant that some of his holds ended up banned from the ring. As the years went by and his body gave out, he had pocketed enough money to hang up his gloves and swap the fights for a manager's suit.

Ever since, he has reigned over the Glitz Pit , the flagship attraction of Glitzville, a floating city that hosts wrestling tournaments every single day for a wealthy crowd drawn from all over the world. There Grubba cultivates a jovial, eccentric image, peppering every one of his sentences with the comical Franglais that became his trademark. This good-natured veneer actually conceals a calculating egomaniac, obsessed with never losing an ounce of his former glory.

Grubba reading in his office in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Now a promoter, he runs the Glitz Pit from his office — or so it seems.

The Great Gonzales and the enigmatic Jolene

To climb the Glitz Pit rankings, Mario has to sign up for the tournament. Grubba himself is the one who slaps a stage name on him: from now on, the plumber fights under the alias of The Great Gonzales, climbing the ladder from the lowest belt all the way to the top of the bill.

Keeping watch at the front desk is Jolene (Céno T in French), the promoter's strict, faintly distant assistant. A simple secretary on the surface, she is in fact running her own investigation: she quietly guides Mario by sending him messages and hands him a new hammer to help him crack the mysteries hanging over the place.

The scene where Mario becomes The Great Gonzales in the ring
Grubba is the one who renames Mario “The Great Gonzales” to send him into the ring.

The Gold Star and the draining machine

Grubba's secret comes down to a Crystal Star: the Gold Star, one of the seven Mario has to recover over the course of his adventure. Among other things, the star gives the plumber a move that boosts his attack and defence, but the promoter has a very different use in mind for it.

He has wired it into a hidden machine that siphons the life force out of the fighters and funnels it straight to him. Thanks to this energy tap, Grubba keeps a youth and a vigour that no longer match his real age, while the wrestlers drained of their power grow weaker or disappear without ever understanding what hit them.

The most emblematic victim is Prince Mush (Dark Toadster in French), the very first Glitz Pit champion and Jolene's brother. Having uncovered the scheme, he was drained in turn, which explains his mysterious disappearance and his sister's undercover presence on site.

Macho Grubba: the real boss of Chapter 3

When Mario finally unmasks him, Grubba drops his good-natured act and bolts for his machine. He plugs himself in to multiply his strength tenfold and turns into Macho Grubba — a name that reeks of steroid-fuelled bravado (“Stéro Gangs” in French, straight from steroids) and sums up his chemical cheating perfectly.

This boss of Chapter 3 goes all in on raw power: in the game, Macho Grubba has 60 HP and chains together attacks pumped up by the Crystal Star's energy. As long as the machine keeps running, he brags about being unbeatable; cutting off his power source is therefore the key to bringing down this juiced-up colossus.

Macho Grubba transformed, towering over paper Mario
His true form only shows up at the very end of the chapter: Macho Grubba, pumped up by the machine.

After the fall: Jolene takes over the Glitz Pit

Once beaten, Grubba loses control of the Gold Star. The star then brings Prince Mush back to life, putting an end to the mystery of the missing champion and finally reuniting the brother and sister the machine had torn apart.

Rid of its crooked promoter, the arena passes into honest hands: Jolene takes charge of Glitzville while Mario walks away with his third Crystal Star. The other siphoned fighters gradually get all their strength back too.

A GameCube boss packed with winks and nods

Released on GameCube in 2004 (22 July in Japan, 12 November in Europe), Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo, with a soundtrack by Yoshito Hirano and Yuka Tsujiyoko. The Glitz Pit chapter and its crooked promoter won the crowd back over with the Nintendo Switch remake of 23 May 2024.

The character also has a lot of fun with words: his French name “Stéro Gangs” points straight at steroids, while “The Great Gonzales” sounds like a cheap wrestler's stage name tailor-made for the billboard. Between his irresistible Franglais, his doping machine and his gem-fuelled transformation, Grubba remains one of the most memorable bosses in the whole adventure.

Grubba at a glance

French name Gangs
English name Grubba
Boss form Macho Grubba (Stéro Gangs in French)
Game Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)
Role Chapter 3 boss
Location Glitz Pit, Glitzville
Coveted item Gold Star (Crystal Star)
Assistant Jolene (Céno T in French)

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FAQ

  • What is Grubba called in French?
    His original name is Grubba. “Gangs” is the official French translation used in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
  • What is his boss form called?
    Once plugged into his machine, he becomes Macho Grubba (Stéro Gangs in French), a name that clearly nods to steroids.
  • What alias does Mario fight under in the Glitz Pit?
    Grubba enters him in the tournament under the stage name “The Great Gonzales”.
  • Who is Jolene?
    She is the Glitz Pit's assistant and the sister of the missing champion Prince Mush; she investigates in secret and takes over running the place after Grubba's downfall.
  • Which chapter do you fight Grubba in?
    He is the Chapter 3 boss, at the Glitz Pit, where he keeps the Gold Star.
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