By Jake Hamar (Twitter: @ktikjake)
In pro wrestling, in order to become a huge star, you need to be larger than life.
Andre the Giant was just that.
If you never saw him in a wrestling ring, you probably just remember him from his memorable performance as the lovable giant Fezzik in the 1987 romantic comedy “The Princess Bride.” But if you saw Andre in the ring in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, he was truly a sight to be hold. Not only was he tall, but he had incredible athleticism for a man his size. This is a guy who could dropkick and fly with the greatest of ease.
I grew up near Los Angeles in the 1980’s, and I saw a lot of Andre on both television and at live wrestling matches. While not the amazing athletic specimen he once was, I was mesmerized by the size of this guy. More than once, I had nightmares of Andre chasing me for what seemed like hours. As a kid, a guy like Andre would make you wet the bed.
Longtime ESPN personality and lifelong wrestling fan Bill Simmons is currently working on a new HBO documentary on the life of Andre, and I cannot wait to see it. It doesn’t matter if you are a wrestling fan or not, you will be blown away by this extraordinary character. As a die-hard wrestling fan, I would like to share with you some of the incredible tales of this larger than life athlete.
Andre Was Making Big Bucks in the 1970’s
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Andre was the highest paid wrestler at that time, grossing over $400,000 in that year. That’s more than most NFL players or Major League Baseball players at that time. Andre even appeared on many high-profile television shows like “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, and also the “Six Million Dollar Man” with Lee Majors. Before the 1980’s pro wrestling boom with Hulk Hogan, Andre’s incredible popularity was definitely a success story for a business that most people in America frowned upon.
Andre was big time.
Andre was an Incredible Athlete
Before his wrestling training in France in the mid-1960’s, Andre played soccer in Europe. While not the best soccer player in the world, he was incredibly agile for a man his size. After competing in the local wrestling scene in the late 1960’s, French-Canadian pro wrestling star Edouard Carpentier brought Andre to North America in 1970, where he started wrestling in the Quebec area as “Jean Ferre”, the friendly French giant.
At this time, Andre was still a very young man, and had very little body fat on him. Pushing 6’10” and weighing in the neighborhood of 300 pounds, Andre was having fast-paced, action-packed matches with the likes of fellow big men Killer Kowalski and Don Leo Jonathan. These feuds culminated in some big-time gates in cities like Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City. Pretty soon, American wrestling promoters were taking notice that Andre could make them some big money.
Go back and watch Andre the Giant from 1972-1980, and you’ll be amazed on how agile this guy could move for a big man. He could move around the ring like a man 100 pounds smaller than him, and could do some amazing high impact maneuvers, as compared to the late 1980’s, where his body was giving out on him, and he could no longer do what he used to do.
In 1975, George Allen and the Washington Redskins tried out Andre for a roster spot. Even though it was more of a publicity stunt, there was no denying that if Andre had made the Redskins, he might have made opposing offenses quiver with fear. He was just too big and too agile to block.
If Andre Didn’t Like Someone, They Were Pretty Much Screwed
Andre was a straight up kind of guy. If he knew you were a good person and weren’t a piece of work, he liked you. If he thought you were full of it, he would tell you as much, and if you wrestled him, it got even worse.
Former wrestling manager Bobby “The Brain” Heenan recounted one incident firsthand in an interview in 2002.
“One time, Andre was wrestling the Iron Sheik,” Heenan remembers. “And Andre got on the Sheik, and decided to grab his hands and legs and row him like a boat.”
Ouch!
Other guys, like Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Bam Bam Bigelow fell out of favor with the Giant, and paid for it dearly. If you go back to the late-80’s and watch some matches between Andre and Jake, Andre would end up stepping on Jake’s long hair, just because he could. When you have a guy over 7 foot and over 500 pounds attacking you, what do you do? Only option?
Run for your life.
While He Was Mostly a Good Guy in the States, He Was a Hated Villain in Japan.
For most of his run in the United States and Canada, Andre was a lovable fan favorite who stood up to the likes of such heels (wrestling term for bad guys) like Blackjack Mulligan, Big John Studd and former NFL player Ernie Ladd. When Andre did become a villain in North America in 1987, most fans cried foul, and couldn’t believe that one of Hulk Hogan’s closest allies would turn against him. However, what most fans here didn’t know was that while Andre was smiling and kissing babies in this part of the world, he was a vicious heel in the Orient.
Most fans also didn’t know that he was rivals with Hogan before the famous WrestleMania 3 match at the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit. The two had battled both in North America and Asia in the early 1980’s. In rings across this continent, Andre was the good guy and Hogan was the heel. In Japan, it was a complete role reversal, as Hogan was the hero battling Andre, who went by the moniker, “Monster Rousimoff.”
Andre Loved Food & Beverages
Remember the song “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw? Andre lived by that slogan every day of his life.
When he was diagnosed with acromegaly, the disease that would eventually take his life, Andre knew he was living on borrowed time. So he took it upon himself to enjoy himself 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That involved consuming massive amounts of alcohol. Some people say he would drink 100 beers in one setting. Some have claimed 156 beers. Whatever the case, look at these Labatt commercials with Andre (skip to the English ones if you don’t understand French), and you’ll be amazed at how small the beer bottle looks in Andre’s hand. I have no doubt he could crush a few of those beauties in one setting. He must have had the liver the size of a mule.
Whatever your opinion of pro wrestling is, you can’t deny the star power of Andre the Giant. He was the Rock, Hulk Hogan and John Cena of his time. Not only was he a giant inside the ring, he was a giant outside of it.
