Andre the Giant Page #2

---

all the way to the big time.

Shoemaker:

Vincent J. McMahon, Vince Sr.,

was one of the real

power brokers

in those days

of professional wrestling.

He had New York.

We say New York--

the territory ran up

and down the Atlantic seaboard

from Bangor, Maine, to D.C.

Vince McMahon Jr.:

My dad first found out

about Andr

because of the exposure

that he was getting in Canada.

Someone said,

"Vince, you have to get

your hands on this guy.

He's an

extraordinary attraction."

So my dad met with Andr

and they hit it off really,

really well.

And my dad

started booking Andr.

My dad built the way

the public looked at him now,

as an attraction,

he was a giant attraction.

Announcer:

Andr will now demonstrate

feats of strength.

Look at this,

it's off the ground!

Over 2,000 pounds

of solid dead weight.

Andr the Giant has done

the unbelievable!

Dr. Terry Todd:

I began to see pictures

of Andr,

I said, "I want to cover this

guy as a unique physical being,

a man who's living in a world

that's not made for him."

What's it like

to be seven feet tall

and weigh close

to 500 pounds?

There's a famous photograph

that appeared with the article

that I did

for "Sports Illustrated."

Our hands are close together,

and you can see

the difference

in the thickness

of the fingers,

the breadth

of the fingers,

the size

of the fingernails.

And my collection here

at the University of Texas,

I have the hands

of a lowland gorilla.

They are approximately

as wide as Andr's hands were.

You that knew you were seeing

something unique in the world

when you saw him.

I want you

to take a look,

what size boot is that,

Andr?

That's 22, size 22.

Take a look at that

along my size nine.

Weather does get chilly

periodically.

My word.

It looks like a top coat!

I can't believe it!

Let me ask you,

how about your diet?

How much food

do you eat a day?

( laughs )

The food--

I eat four times,

the food from the--

I'm sorry,

I'm not stuck

on English.

He was not the most articulate

man in the world.

He spoke in other ways.

Commentator:

Andr. Oh!

Commentator #2:

Andr the Giant at 7'4",

507 pounds.

Commentator #3:

Being strangled with

the rope by Andr the Giant!

Commentator #4:

...covered by Andr!

Commentator:

Look at that!

The most exciting thing

you'll ever see in the ring!

( cheering )

Ooh!

Oh, boy! Look at that!

Laprade:

There are two types of match

that Andr did a lot.

Handicap matches, meaning

him against two wrestlers,

or battle royals.

Commentator:

You'll notice that these men,

all of these wrestlers

seemingly a little hesitant

to attack Andr the Giant.

Because, you know,

he was such a big man.

You could see him just throw

19 other wrestlers,

you know,

over the top rope.

Commentator:

...both from the Giant!

Bockwinkel colliding

with Patera.

There goes Patera!

There goes Duncum!

Bockwinkel,

the only one left!

Lawler:

Andr was an attraction.

He was not the kind of person

that you could put on your card

every single week,

because he would lose

that aura of specialness.

Commentator:

Here's the Giant now,

coming down the runway.

( cheering )

Lawler:

So that's why Andr got loaned

out so much by Vince McMahon.

The other promoters respected

my dad even all the more

because he could deliver Andr

or not deliver Andr to them.

And normally when Andr came

to town, he drew a lot of money.

People would want

to see this giant.

In those days, there were

wrestling magazines

that would chronicle

these wrestlers

in different territories,

and you would see Andr's face

on the cover of a magazine

and that's maybe the first

time you'd ever seen him.

This is before cable TV.

This is definitely before

the internet.

You haven't seen YouTube videos

of Andr the Giant.

You've just heard legend of him,

so he comes out of the back,

you see a full head

above the crowd.

Announcer:

All right! The crowd's

starting to surge!

Hulk Hogan:

I first saw Andr the Giant,

it was junior high school,

ninth grade, eighth grade,

and I just remember

how intense it was.

It's almost like

the whole room moved

when he walked through

the crowd.

Announcer:

Just talking

about anticipation.

There he is!

Hogan:

And then when

he climbed up on the ring,

the back of his leg

and the size of his thigh

and his quad

and his rear end

and his whole hip looked like

a Clydesdale horse.

I was hooked immediately.

This is an era where

word of mouth

carried as much weight

as anything else.

And you would hear rumor

of wrestlers

and you would

just have to wait for them

to come to your town,

if they ever got there.

Everywhere he went,

people turned out to see him.

Announcer:

And the eighth wonder

of the world...

Lawler:

There was nobody else

in the business

at that time

that you could say,

"Hey, let me put this guy

on your card,

and you're gonna have

an automatic sellout."

- ( cheering )

- ( grunting )

Commentator:

Whoa! That's the wrong guy

to do that to.

He knew how to create

emotion, energy, drama.

For somebody that big

to go down to a knee

and to get sympathy.

There was just something

magical about him.

He had a way

to reel you in.

The term that we have

in wrestling is,

it's a sell

for your opponent.

And Andr would

sell anything that I did.

You knew you weren't

gonna beat Andr,

that just wasn't

in the cards.

The understanding was Andr

would sell anything

that I did to him.

But then at the end

of the match,

Andr was going over.

Andr was gonna get

his hand raised.

Andr the Giant,

ladies and gentlemen,

for the benefit

of you who do not know,

is the only undefeated superstar

in professional wrestling.

Dave Meltzer:

They could have made him

the champion,

but it probably would have

gotten stale after a while

because there was no confidence

when people wrestled Andr

that anyone

was gonna beat him.

He could have won the title,

but then,

how could he lose

the title?

Shoemaker:

Nobody had any expectation

that Andr was gonna come in

and get beat up

by the local hero.

Although he could make

those local heroes look good

if he wanted to.

Announcer:

One more shot,

across the jaw!

Shoemaker:

If Andr came in and took on

the local champion,

if they could just get

their licks in against Andr,

if they could look good

for five minutes,

hold their own against

Andr the Giant,

that was a win!

Commentator:

Andr's in trouble here,

big trouble.

Really big trouble.

Shoemaker:

If you get in

some shots against Andr,

that's like going

toe to toe with a god.

Andr was very kind, and took

care of, as we call it,

you know, the performers

he worked with.

He was very proud of that.

He never hurt anyone.

And he was very,

very proud of that.

But if he wanted to show you

who was the boss,

you know, it was easy

for him to do that.

If Andr liked you, yeah,

he knew that he had

the power to make careers.

If he didn't like you,

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