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Most of us, when we're children,
your parents read fairytales to you.
There are knights, there are dragons, there are sorcerers,
there are giants.
He was those drawings come to life.
He was a living manifestation of our childhood dreams.
And from Grenoble in the French Alps,
weighing 477 pounds,
the eighth wonder of the world,
André the Giant!
Everybody remembers that moment
where they first saw André the Giant.
We're all intrigued by André the Giant the human,
but the reason we're intrigued by that
is because he seems like so much more.
He was a god.
The crowd goes wild.
This is the one we've all been waiting for.
André the Giant.
Holy mackerel!
André the Giant, off the top turnbuckle!
André cleaning house!
This is one man you do not want to get riled up.
Look at the size of the Giant!
André still undefeated.
Oh, slam! André picked him up with ease!
André is unbelievable!
He was just starting.
He was at the time maybe 6'9, 6'10
when he was wrestling in France.
He hadn't fully grown yet
'cause he started around 19, 20 years old.
He was leaner than what North American people remember of him.
So he would do a much more athletic style than what we saw in North America.
The first name that they used in France was Jean Ferré.
The name come from a folk hero from France
that was named Grand Ferré,
which means Great Fairy.
The backstory for the Jean Ferré character
was that he was a lumberjack.
That he was, you know, discovered
in the middle of the woods chopping wood.
You have to sell a background story to your character,
and he had the size
to be believable that he was a lumberjack.
Thank you, Monsieur.
André was wrestling in many venues all over Paris.
He was also working a lot on the south coast of France,
and during the summer was working in a lot of festivals
all over the country.
The first country outside of France
where André wrestled was Monaco.
And then he went to Japan,
and he was called there "Monster Roussimoff."
In June of 1971, that was the first match
he ever had in North America,
that was in Verdun, just a suburb of Montreal,
and he was working for a promotion
called Grand Prix Wrestling.
The very first ad said that he was a giant
of 7'4", 390 pounds, from the French Alps.
Being a giant from the French Alps,
it's a much better story than just being, you know,
a guy from a town that nobody have heard of.
From the French Alps, 7'4", 415 pounds,
the friendly French Giant, Jean Ferré!
And there's a shot to the top of the head.
And he's going into the figure-four.
- Well... - Commentator ♪2: Oh!
First thing, I said, "There's money to be made with the guy."
And they did draw money,
they sold out all over,
and the Giant became a household name.
We'd get into a little town and they'd come from all over.
You'd draw 3, 4, 5, 6 thousand people
at least 5 nights a week.
There's a shot
to the top of the head.
Maurice is in very bad shape.
Wrestling comes out of circus sideshows,
and André in a lot of ways was one of these...
sideshow spectacles.
Anybody would pay a quarter and line up to see him.
But you don't go back a second or a third time.
So at a certain point, the move with a wrestler like André
is to move on,
to migrate to a different territory,
and, you know, try out greener pastures.
♪ One, two, three ♪
♪ I'm your boogie man, that's what I am ♪
♪ I'm here to do whatever I can... ♪
The '70s was the heart of the territorial era
in pro wrestling in the United States.
I love to hurt people
and I'm gonna hurt you very, very bad.
Heads up! Ooh! Oh!
When André came down,
professional wrestling was divided up
into these fiefdoms around the country.
I think at one time there were as many
as 32 separate territories.
Hello again, everybody,
and welcome to Mid-South Wrestling.
Welcome to another hour
of Florida Championship Wrestling.
Welcome again to an exciting hour of wrestling.
You had certain stars in your territory,
in your region, and they were seen
as far as your local television coverage would go.
Nobody had a national TV show.
Lone Eagle rolling over, and here they come back.
There they go again, come on.
♪ Do what you want, I'm your boogie man... ♪
You have got to wrestle me right here and right now.
♪ Do what you want, I'm your boogie man ♪
We had a TV show in Memphis.
200 miles north of Memphis,
then that started the St. Louis territory.
Then they had a whole set of different wrestling stars there.
And over to the east was the Carolinas territory,
and they had a whole set of different stars there.
Outside of Canada when André first came to North America,
he was wrestling mainly in the Midwest.
Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit.
In Detroit, he was actually called the "Polish Giant."
And in Minneapolis, he was called either André Roussimoff
or André the Giant Frenchman.
The name under the Giant, the first time it actually happened, was in Chicago.
There was a promoter there who wanted to book André,
so he called the promoter back in Montreal.
So he said, you know, we call him Grand Ferré, Giant Ferré.
So the promoter there starts laughing and says,
"I cannot call him a giant fairy!
What's his real name? What's his first name?"
So he said, "Well, it's André."
"Well, okay, we'll call him André the Giant then."
Here is the eighth wonder of the world!
André the Giant!
My goodness! Look at these fans!
In appreciation for André the Giant!
When André started circulating in the territories,
he'd come in for a period of maybe six weeks or seven weeks
and then was gone and onto the next territory.
Hello, ladies and gentlemen,
I'd like to tell you my name, you know who I am.
I am so happy to come back in Florida to see all my friends.
I want to welcome you once again to the Mid-Atlantic states
for Mid-Atlantic Championships Wrestling.
My pleasure.
Oh, sí, sí. I guess that's Spanish.
André started very small.
He started in small towns
performing in front of 10 people,
100 people, 300 people.
By the time he got to my grandfather's territory, which was the Northeast,
then you had made it, you know, all the way to the big time.
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.
My dad first found out about André
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 André and they hit it off really, really well.
And my dad started booking André.
My dad built the way the public looked at him now,
as an attraction, he was a giant attraction.
André will now demonstrate feats of strength.
Look at this, it's off the ground!
Over 2,000 pounds of solid dead weight.
André the Giant has done the unbelievable!
I began to see pictures of André,
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 Andre’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, André?
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?
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.
André. Oh!
André the Giant at 7'4", 507 pounds.
Being strangled with the rope by André the Giant!
...covered by André!
Look at that!
The most exciting thing you'll ever see in the ring!
Ooh!
Oh, boy! Look at that!
There are two types of match that André did a lot.
Handicap matches, meaning him against two wrestlers,
or battle royals.
You'll notice that these men, all of these wrestlers
seemingly a little hesitant to attack André 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.
...both from the Giant!
Bockwinkel colliding with Patera.
There goes Patera!
There goes Duncum!
Bockwinkel, the only one left!
André 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.
Here's the Giant now, coming down the runway.
So that's why André got loaned out so much by Vince McMahon.
The other promoters respected my dad even all the more
because he could deliver André or not deliver André to them.
And normally when André 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 Andre’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 André the Giant.
You've just heard legend of him, so he comes out of the back,
you see a full head above the crowd.
All right! The crowd's starting to surge!
I first saw André 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.
Just talking about anticipation.
There he is!
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.
And the eighth wonder of the world...
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."
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 André would sell anything that I did.
You knew you weren't gonna beat André,
that just wasn't in the cards.
The understanding was André would sell anything that I did to him.
But then at the end of the match,
André was going over.
André was gonna get his hand raised.
André the Giant, ladies and gentlemen,
for the benefit of you who do not know,
is the only undefeated superstar in professional wrestling.
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 André
that anyone was gonna beat him.
He could have won the title, but then,
how could he lose the title?
Nobody had any expectation that André 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.
One more shot, across the jaw!
If André came in and took on the local champion,
if they could just get their licks in against André,
if they could look good for five minutes,
hold their own against André the Giant,
that was a win!
Andre’s in trouble here, big trouble.
Really big trouble.
If you get in some shots against André,
that's like going toe to toe with a god.
André 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 André liked you, yeah, he knew that he had the power to make careers.
If he didn't like you, God help you.
Do you promise me that?!
I promise you.!
- We'll do our best. - You better do it!
You've never seen me mad, you have seen me mad now.
If he decided that he was not gonna get picked up
or you were not gonna throw a punch
or you weren't gonna put a wrestling move on it, it didn't happen.
He was stronger than all of us, he was bigger than all of us.
He kept everybody in line.
This is not a business of tough guys.
If you're in this business, it's to entertain.
And for those guys that thought they were tough guys in this business,
André would straighten 'em out real quick.
Like a rag doll, he's shaking him!
Like a child!
Oh, look at this! 500 pounds plus!
He hated Randy Savage, the Macho Man,
hated him with a passion.
Nassau Coliseum is gonna witness, yeah!
So whenever I'd see Randy was wrestling André,
I used to laugh.
André doing whatever he wants right now.
Sitting on him! Sitting right on his head!
Randy was always worried on how André was gonna beat him.
And Randy would wait till the very last minute.
You know, he'd be all taped up,
and he'd have baby oil all over him
and Randy would come in, "Uh, excuse me, André, hey, brother,
you know, uh, what do you think we're gonna do out there in the ring tonight?"
And André would look up at him, playing cards, and go,
"No baby oil. Get out!
Get out! No baby oil!"
Then I'd watch the match, André would just get in
and would just beat the hell out of him,
just pull his hair out.
"This is for you, Elizabeth!"
Whap! And he'd hit him, I'm like, "Oh, my God,
he just beat Randy to death."
I saw him grab the Iron Sheik one night.
He irritated the hell out of André, I mean, just always.
I'm gonna show who is the real giant...
"André, I thought maybe tonight, Sheikie could try to slam you."
"Get out!" You know?
And André had had enough of his mouth.
And one night, he just took him out into the ring
and just beat him, I thought he killed him.
André trying to twist that leg right off.
Sheik now getting a wrestling lesson.
Wow! Holy mackerel, what a slam!
There's 500 pounds.
I'm watching, like, "Oh, my God, somebody stop this massacre,
he's gonna kill the guy."
Little lower lumbar adjustment there.
The loudmouths, André didn't care for.
"Down, boss."
He didn't have to say it twice.
There was this guy named Big John Studd.
Now Big John Studd was 6'10", probably 350 pounds.
And André, he liked being the giant among giants,
so it didn't work out very well for John Studd.
John Studd, among other things, when he came to the ring,
he would step over the top rope.
That's what André did.
So no one should step over the top rope,
because that's Andre’s thing.
If you didn't respect that,
André had no respect for you.
André would beat the crap out of John Studd,
to prove who the real giant was.
He's not having a good time, is he?
Andre’s having a good time.
One, two!
He came out of the ring, flying past me,
gets all of his gear and is coming out, and I said,
"Where are you going, what are you doing?"
and he said, "He's gonna kill me."
André did sports entertainment
before there was sports entertainment.
He had it figured out long before myself
or Vince McMahon figured it out.
André the Giant!
In Andre’s prime, everybody knew him.
On every continent, every foreign country, he traveled everywhere.
He transcended wrestling.
Without a doubt, André was the most famous wrestler
in the world.
Maybe the most famous wrestler that there had ever been.
There's only one athlete like this in the world today!
The one and the only André.
André wasn't a movie star,
but he was famous on a different level.
Literally the biggest celebrity in the world.
He tried out for the Redskins, which was a publicity stunt,
but still, it shows you how famous André was at the time.
He was in "The Six Million Dollar Man"
playing a Sasquatch.
Before there was CGI, there was only André the Giant.
One LaBatt light, bud.
It's not just a light, it's a Labatt light.
This is a nice chair.
Fine.
Can I get you a mimosa?
No, thank you.
I met André
several times because I always have been
a big fan of professional wrestling,
and that developed into a great friendship.
There was this one time where I took him out for dinner.
And, of course, I grabbed the bill immediately.
He looks over at me like this and says, "I pay."
I said, "No, no, André, I invited, I pay.
You're the boss in your ring, I'm the boss right now here."
And he says, "You're right" and he gets up
and he grabs me out of the chair, like this,
and he holds me up, and then he puts me up on a piece of furniture,
on an armoire.
He just set me up there like a little doll.
This just shows you how strong he was.
But at the same time, what a generous person he was.
André commanded great respect.
By promoters, producers, or handlers,
André was to be treated as something special.
Fans, take a look at this. Can you believe that?
Perhaps even let's compare it to the size of my head.
André the...
He was billed as 7'4".
I think he was over seven-- whether or not it was four more inches, I don't know.
When he walked into a room, he knew what the reactions were going to be.
And it was not like he was trying to hide.
André didn't try to hide. André was going to be André.
Most males were immediately intimidated.
With women, it was different.
From what females would tell me,
you could feel more of, you know,
"Wow, this is-- Mother Nature
has done something really magnificent here.
And I would like to say hello to this person
and maybe even get to know them."
They were attracted to him like he was a magnet.
I don't know about his girlfriends.
I don't know about his personal relationships
with women, but I know the girls loved him.
Curiosity factor, probably?
I guess, I guess.
May have been more than that.
Maybe it was his cologne, who knows.
He wears a size 24 ring, baby. What else can I tell you?
And he's wearing size 24 shoes. What else do you want to know?
Everyone catered to André, justifiably so.
You know, a case a beer, it was always booze,
there was always whatever it was André wanted.
He enjoyed performing,
but he enjoyed the party afterwards.
The stories about Andre’s drinking
are almost another level of mythology
from the man himself.
André was certainly, I mean, one of,
if not the greatest drinker that ever lived.
I, myself, saw him almost every night
drink 7,000 calories' worth of alcohol.
Say 20 to 25 beers, maybe four bottles of wine,
usually several mixed drinks.
Brother, I was with him one night when he drank 106 beers.
106!
Yeah, that's André the Giant, brother.
André was a big drinker after the matches.
Most wrestlers would, like, maybe have a six-pack,
and André, the minimum that he would ever have is 24.
He liked the wine.
He'd have them bring in a case to start the day.
A case of wine.
We go to this hotel,
I mean, drinking and drinking and drinking,
and all of a sudden, oh, it's time to go to bed.
And then we get close to the elevator, André drops.
And the manager of the hotel says, "Well, what are you gonna do?"
I say, "Call AAA, that's all I can tell you."
I was there. I wasn't there for the drinking,
I was there the next morning in the lobby
where he's still sleeping on the floor.
Nobody could keep up with him. I don't care who you were.
Timmy White probably got to know him the best.
I don't know how Timmy White's alive.
They had a pool going on me in the locker room
when I was gonna drop dead from running with the Giant.
Before I met André, I was doing the merchandise and helping set up the arenas
and doing all sorts of stuff.
I wasn't up to speed on wrestling protocol in locker room,
the way you act.
The only people that set foot in the locker room
are the wrestlers and the referees.
Everybody else can knock on the door, they don't come in.
Well, that's everything.
Hey, the fuck are you doing here?
I'm like four days on the job. I thought, "I'm in.
I'm one of you guys."
I walked into the locker room,
and there's André sitting there,
playing cards with Tito Santana.
Tito, I saw him put his head down like, "What is this guy doing?"
And he said, "Get out."
So I said,
"No, no, no, no, I work for you guys."
"I said, get out!"
He pushed the table away they were playing cards on
and he got up, and I went,
"Oh, my God," and I ran out the door.
But André and I got to know each other.
We became best friends.
Vince said, "Andre’s requested that you travel with him."
I said, "No problem." He said, "Really?" I said, "Yeah!"
And then we were off and running.
It was his big smile, his sense of humor,
which was a little bit warped sometimes, but made me laugh.
Compare your hand with Andre’s, will you, please?
You're a big man, Lord Alfred.
Oh, my goodness! Where did you go?
André just loved to laugh. He just loved that.
André so enjoyed flatulence.
When he passed gas, it was-- it was an event.
Flatulence, that was his trademark.
And he had a real knack for lifting his left leg.
I would see him go into the launch position
and I'd say, "Oh, my God, here it comes."
You never heard anything like it.
It sounded like, you know, like a deep roar kind of thing.
It would rumble.
The sound of André takin' a fart?
Well, they were loud.
Big man, big fart!
He loved to get you in an elevator
and cut one of those long 30-second farts
that sounded like skin was flapping together.
I remember every once in a while we'd charter a plane,
but to see the pilots almost like somebody gets smoke in their eyes,
I'm like, "You're gonna wreck the plane, André.
You can't fart like that in your pants."
And the pilots would be, "GD this, F that,
I'm never getting on this plane again."
Because of his incredible size,
because of the era that he lived in,
everything about him is mythology.
The wildest, most outlandish stories are what takes hold in the public consciousness.
You could say anything about André
and people would believe it.
You know, his...
the ring on his finger is bigger than your wrist.
"Oh, really? Okay." You could believe that.
This belongs to André the Giant.
This is his ring, and I kid you not,
I can get all three fingers in that ring.
Beautiful ring indeed, and thank you, André.
I used to say to people that André has 82 teeth. And they believed it.
I said, "Yeah, and it's kinda like when you see his teeth
they're not real big but they're like rows of teeth
like a shark behind him."
"No kidding!"
Larry Henning told me when I first met him,
"You know he's got two hearts and two rows of teeth."
And I believed him!
So I always catch myself to try looking...
Every time André talked to me,
I'd be looking for that second row of teeth!
I said, "He couldn't have two rows of teeth,
I could never seem them!"
The two hearts I believed forever.
Andre’s life, in essence,
was one big traveling road show.
300 days or nights a year on the road.
I tell you, I'm traveling so much,
last year I buy for $67,000 just in airplane tickets.
$67,000 just in airplane tickets?
Where will you be traveling in the near future?
You'll be going to different countries, I guess.
I'm gonna be between USA and Canada for next month.
Then I go in Japan, Australia, New Zealand...
He would be in Memphis on Monday night,
have to travel 450 miles up to Louisville, Kentucky, the next day.
Then he would go from Louisville to Evansville the next night
and wrestle basically for seven times
just in our territory in that one week.
And then, he would hit the road, you know, to the next territory.
He may be in Florida the following week.
Think of all of the times he went to Japan.
And international travel back in the early days of his career
was not as slick as it is today.
It had to be an uncomfortable life.
There was no level of comfort
for André when he was on the road.
That's right!
There was never a bed, there never a knife,
there never a fork, there was never a chair.
It was like if you had to sit on baby furniture
your whole life in a doll house.
I just remember the 14-hour flights
from JFK to Narita in Tokyo
that I knew he could not go in the bathroom.
Those lavatories or whatever,
too small, he couldn't fit in there,
so they have to draw the curtain
and he would relieve himself into a bucket
and then they'd bring it in and dump it into the toilet.
But this is the type of thing he had to endure every day.
When we'd walk through the airports
if he got ahead of me,
I'd hear all the unkind things that people would say
as he'd walk ahead of me, "Oh, my God, look at that guy."
And it'd just break my heart,
I felt like these people don't even know this guy.
They were making fun of him.
They perceived him as a freak of nature.
And that hurt André more than anything.
This guy was very sensitive.
People never saw that side of him.
But he told me, he says, "You know, boss,
sometimes they laugh at me, they point at me,
it hurts my feelings."
He would cry.
You'd never think a guy like that would cry, but he would cry.
He's recognizable as any sports star of the time.
This before the heyday of the NBA
or, you know, of the NFL.
You can compare him to Ali,
you can compare him to Michael Jordan later on.
Muhammad Ali could put on a trench coat and a ball cap.
André the Giant couldn't hide in the back seat of a car.
André couldn't go anywhere.
No, think about it,
where could he go in New York City right now
and sit down and have a drink...
without people bugging him?
People would not leave him alone.
You're always gonna be bothered.
People are always going to be pulling on your sleeve,
touching your hand, wanting to take a picture.
He was conscious of not being able to, kind of, hide.
He mentioned to me once that he'd be so grateful
if he could have one day a week
in which "I can just walk around
and I'll be the size of a normal man.
I could go to a movie, I could get into a cab,
I could have my own car, a normal car."
On more than one occasion he said,
"I wish I could be you just for a weekend."
The only place he was really, really comfortable
was when we got home to the ranch.
In Charlotte, where the Crockett promotion was,
he became friends with a guy that lived there who was from Ellerbe.
So, they would come to Ellerbe to visit.
And he liked the town, and so he decided to buy the house.
My husband at the time, Frenchie,
he had met André when André was in Louisiana.
He called up and he asked if we wanted to move up
and take care of his house, that he had a house in Ellerbe,
and he wanted us to live there.
He told me that it reminded him of France and the little town that he grew up in.
He could just come here and be himself.
He could go to a convenience store,
which he couldn't do in the real world.
I don't know of anybody that even came up and said, "Can I have your autograph?"
or "Can I take your picture?"
He would spend time cutting trees and chopping wood
and the type of things that he used to do
on his family's farm.
Don't you run into me!
Make me jump.
We were like a surrogate family.
He didn't know if he'd ever find somebody
that could put up with the traveling that he does.
Before we even moved into the house, he told me that he had a daughter.
And, you know, that she lived on the West Coast.
I knew from day one who my dad was.
So yeah, I totally noticed that he was not around.
I knew what he was doing.
I knew he was on the road wrestling.
Whenever they came to town, my mom would take me.
He would come out after doing his thing in the ring,
and we'd spend time together, I'd sit on his lap.
My parents didn't really stay in communication with each other.
My mom didn't want me raised around wrestling,
and from what I understand, my dad didn't really want that either.
I think he was a good man.
It's a grueling industry. I totally get that.
I fully understand that he couldn't be the father he probably wanted to be.
I do forgive him for not being there
when I wish he would have been,
but at the same time, you know, the hurt comes back.
He wanted to be part of her life,
but it just didn't work out that way.
And, um... it hurt him.
A lot of things hurt him, just like they hurt you or me.
André Roussimoff,
known to his public as André the Giant.
He's well over seven feet tall, weighs almost 500 pounds,
and has made a tidy living on the pro wrestling circuit.
As a child in France, his body produced
too much hormone naturally,
which not only made him taller but enlarged all of his organs
and distorted his features.
It is a condition called Acromegaly,
and its signs are unmistakable.
The condition can be corrected
if diagnosed at an early age.
I use what God give me.
I'm not supernatural, I'm just myself.
So what God give me, I use it to make a living.
He knew that he wouldn't live to be 100. Right?
And he knew, so he didn't care.
He says, "When I get to the bump in the road, I'll fall and that's it."
His philosophy was that, you know, the Lord made him the way that is he is
and, you know, that's how he was going to live his life.
He never went to the doctor until he broke his ankle.
He came into my office in the early '80s
with an injury of the ankle.
I'd never heard of him.
He was new to me, and so my first impression was
this is the about biggest guy I've ever seen.
As he came through the door,
the room temporarily darkened.
It was surprising he was walking.
It was the sort of fracture
that people don't usually walk on.
Made measures to get him into the hospital
to fix the ankle.
He had the features of gigantism,
or the technical term is acromegaly.
Some features of his appearance, his forehead,
his nose was large, his jaw was large.
His ankle bones were as a large as
an average man's knee bones, for instance.
So I suspected this was a pituitary tumor acromegaly.
In Andre’s condition at the time,
would the disease have been treatable?
That was my impression from the endocrinologist.
Treatable to a degree, not reversible, but maybe arrestable.
He decided that he didn't want treatment at that time
because he thought it would interfere with his career as a wrestler.
André initially didn't realize
that he had acromegaly.
When he was informed,
the commission doctors at Madison Square Garden told me
he's gonna be lucky to live to be 40.
He refused, though, the medical help.
He refused a lot of medical help
during the course of his lifetime.
There used to be a 10-pound cast on this size 22 foot.
An ankle injury is never a small deal.
But career-wise, the injury was a really big deal for André too.
Because while he was recovering and getting back to action,
the pro wrestling world was going through a sort of seismic shift.
The Hulk Hogan era was starting in earnest
under the watchful eye of Vincent K. McMahon.
So in the early '80s, Vince buys out his dad
and embarks upon this program
of national conquest of professional wrestling.
He realized that with the rise of cable television,
he could turn the WWF from a northeastern wrestling promotion
into the first national promotion.
Vince took over in '82
and he decided he was gonna go national.
He had his local television that he taped in Allentown
and Hamburg, Pennsylvania,
and then Vince would send that tape all over North America.
Hello everybody, Vince McMahon here at ringside
welcoming you to another great championship card
of professional wrestling.
I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
And I wanted to compete with everybody.
And all the regional guys in the little territories,
some of them even did television out of a studio
and had a painting of an audience in the background.
They're tearing up about $175
worth of clothes off of him!
A match that you probably never thought
you would see on television.
A match that could fill in any arena,
anywhere in the world,
as two champions battle for supremacy at the...
The audience had never seen our show before.
And it was vastly better than anyone else's,
because we put production value in it.
Superfly on his shoulders!
Right now, he's got 'em. One, two, three!
The top stars from all these territories
were calling up Vince McMahon saying,
"Hey, I want to come work for you."
The "Macho Man" Randy Savage.
Paul Orndorff!
Tito Santana, making his initial appearance...
Magnificent Muraco!
There was talk at this time about cable television becoming a reality.
What would happen if suddenly there was a TV station
that would be seen all over the country?
How would that affect wrestling?
Remember when TV was its own little world?
Now with cable TV, the world has gotten a whole lot bigger. Cable TV.
Cable, all of a sudden, gave you national distribution
of your wrestling product.
That's when those territories went down the tube.
These networks were looking for programming.
They bombarded the USA Network. They were on all the time.
Hello everyone this is Vince McMahon in the studios of the USA Cable Network!
Welcome to the Superstars of Wrestling.
This is Vince McMahon at ringside.
Welcome to All-American Wrestling.
Hello, everyone, welcome to Tuesday Night Fight.
Before, your only outlets for self-promotion
were the pamphlets advertising the wrestling matches
or the magazines that would sometimes be national.
Now you're on cable TV once a week.
Your face on every television in the country.
You can't have any better self-promotion than that.
Combination of cable penetration
and syndication really brought
Vince and the WWE to the forefront.
And all of a sudden you had a universe.
He gets Bobby Heenan,
Jessie "The Body" Ventura from the AWA.
He gets the Junkyard Dog
and King Kong Bundy from Mid-South.
He goes to the Crockett territory
and gets Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat,
Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, and Rowdy Roddy Piper.
One of the most integral figures to the WWF
becoming the cultural force that it was, was Hulk Hogan.
McMahon, I found a man out in my backyard,
Venice Beach, California.
I seen this man over there pressing 615 pounds, 620 pounds...
You looked at Hulk Hogan,
you see everything that Vince McMahon wants a pro wrestler to be.
He's big, he's tan, he's got the long blonde hair.
He was an action figure come to life in the wrestling ring,
and he was young and vital in a way
the wrestlers that were famous
under Vince Sr. weren't necessarily.
The Hulk is supported by tree-like legs
that can leg press over 1900 pounds.
My real name is Terry Gene Bollea,
but when I first got into the wrestling business
they gave me the name Sterling Golden.
And it is Sterling Golden catching him
with the golden squeeze.
I went to Memphis with Jerry Lawler,
wrestled as Terry "The Hulk" Boulder,
and then Vince McMahon Sr. grabbed me and gave me the name Hulk Hogan.
And when I asked him why Hogan, he said,
"Well, we have all these ethnic type wrestlers.
Chief J. Strongbow for the Native Americans,
Bruno Sammartino for the Italian-Americans,
Ivan Putski for the Polish-Americans,
and you're Hulk Hogan for the Irish-Americans."
It was the character, the look, I grew up watching this stuff.
And so I would take a little bit from Dusty Rhodes, a little bit from Superstar Billy Graham...
I'm gonna bury the man. I'm gonna put my fist--
You know what a fist sandwich is?
I heard about it.
Salt, pepper, tomatoes, lettuce, ketchup...
Billy Graham one time said, "I can pull the bumper off a Cadillac, Jack."
But to me it turned into,
"I can pull the bumper off a Cadillac, Jack!"
And when I said it I wanted it to be something you never forget.
With all the fans, in every arena,
I feel like a thousand Hercules in one.
The 24" Pythons are undefeatable.
Hogan was picked to be in "Rocky III."
Sylvester Stallone wanted to do a boxer versus wrestler scene.
Tonight we have a most unlikely match for you.
The boxer against the wrestler.
I'm comin' after you, Balboa.
Let's call it off.
Aw, come on, it's for charity.
Back in the day when wrestling was still regional and territorial,
it was just a one-dimensional audience.
When they saw me standing in the ring with Stallone,
the tan, the full head of hair, 35 years ago,
I think it made wrestling more than one-dimensional.
They went, "Oh, my God, that's what a wrestler looks like?"
Aaaah!
It's all fake, meatball! All fake!
Thunderlips has gone absolutely berserk!
Ow! Ahh!
Run for your life!
I think it changed the dynamics
of what wrestling was
to the mainstream audience.
Somebody hand me a hatchet!
No one can believe the superhuman strength of Thunderlips!
- Adrian! - Rocky!
- Aaaah! - Catch me!
That's incredible!
Balboa was just heaved clear into the fifth row!
And the movie hit,
that Hulkmania thing took off like crazy.
Then I think Vince McMahon saw it, that's why he talked to me about coming back
to do this global takeover that we did.
Hulk Hogan once again with the Sheik.
And a big knee right to the throat area.
He's got him! We have a new champion! As Hulk Hogan....
Hogan wins the title from the Iron Sheik in Madison Square Garden,
and they have the big celebration
and Andre’s there essentially endorsing him.
André the Giant
congratulating the new heavyweight champion of the world.
That's nice of you. I'm really proud of you!
Pouring the champagne on him and everything like that
to make sure that everyone knew that Hogan is the golden boy now.
The next thing you see are Hulk Hogan action figures,
Hulk Hogan in music videos, Hulk Hogan everything!
He was a marketable commodity.
I was getting a lot of momentum.
You know, we had mainstream coverage with MTV
and they were the new kid on the block
as far as TV content, they were red hot.
It was just a perfect storm. It all just came together at the right time.
When it broke loose it really exploded.
I know I was there for "WrestleMania I,"
and that was absolutely the biggest thing
I'd ever been involved in in professional wrestling.
The greatest spectacle in wrestling.
Muhammad Ali!
Wrestling history is taking place right now! Right now!
I don't believe it! I don't believe it!
That period from '84 through the first "WrestleMania" was the real breakthrough.
Became more of an entertainment vehicle
as opposed to the old wrestling.
Andy Warhol, your impressions of what took place earlier on here.
Oh, I'm speechless.
That two-year period was huge
in changing the whole face of the business.
In the '70s, pro wrestling
was still sort of a niche attraction.
But in the early '80s, you saw this explosion.
Hulk Hogan was on the cover of "Sports Illustrated"
and there were wrestlers appearing
on "Saturday Night Live"
and André the Giant
gets cast in "The Princess Bride,"
a major motion picture.
"The Princess Bride" is a comedy.
It's a fantasy film. It's a romantic adventure film.
It has everything. It has giant rats, giant eels.
It's one the classic fairytale movies of all time,
and one of the leading characters in it is a giant called Fezzik.
Everybody move!
Bill Goldman, who wrote the screenplay and the book,
described himself as a lunatic fan of Andre’s
and really wrote the part for him.
So when Rob Reiner came onboard as the director,
Goldman said to him, "There's only one guy who can do this."
He auditioned for the part,
and I didn't understand a single word he said.
I didn't understand anything.
How long do we have to wait
before if we know if the miracle works?
I think he like to scream at us.
But he was perfect for the part! He's a giant!
There is nothing nearby, not for miles.
Then there will be no one to hear you scream.
The size of his hands
were startling.
And I remember being freezing cold, we were out in the woods.
He came over to me and just put his hand
on my head, and his hand came down to here all the way around.
Keep my head warm.
The cliché of gentle giant...
- Hello, lady! - Is André,
that's what he was!
He did not do bad guy well.
- No. - That was not his thing.
Beat it or I'll call the brute squad!
- I'm on the brute squad. - You are the brute squad.
He had this poetry about him
and the sensitivity that was so appealing.
He talked about the village he was from
and his parents, and he just wanted to go back there,
and he talked about this farm in North Carolina.
He said he loves it because "nobody looks twice at me."
There were two sides to him.
There was the performer, there was André the Giant,
and then there was André Roussimoff.
The public André had to be always on,
and then the private André
just wanted to hang out and be one of the guys.
That's really who he wanted to be.
He just didn't want to be treated differently.
One day he came to work and I said,
"What did you do last night, André?"
He says, "I went to the bar, I had a couple of drinks."
I said, "Well, tell me, what do you drink What do you drink?"
He said, "Well, I had six bottles of wine, three bottles of cognac."
I said, "You must have been drunk!"
He said, "No, no, I didn't get drunk.
A little tipsy, but not drunk."
So now, at 9:00 in the morning,
the Nouveau Beaujolais comes out.
And André-- I'm not exaggerating--
He starts drinking and by the end of the day,
I'm not exaggerating, he had drank 20 bottles of Nouveau Beaujolais.
André couldn't fit on a horse, he was too heavy,
we had guide wires from the ceilings being lowered
a 500-pound drunken giant.
And he goes, "Hello, boss, hello!"
Like this. And I thought, this is an interesting job I have here.
Are there rocks ahead?
If there are, we'll all be dead!
No more rhymes, now, I mean it!
Anybody want a peanut?
It's difficult everywhere I go.
They don't build anything for big people.
They build everything for blind people, for crippled people,
for some other people, but not for big people.
So we have to fit in there,
and it's not too easy all the time.
People think, oh--"
That's the first question they ask me,
"Hey, do you go drinking with André?
Wasn't it fun to drink with André?"
'Cause they think of him as this legendary drinker
and they think it's funny, but in fact
he drank because he was in pain.
And I asked him one day and he explained to me
that his spine and his neck and his knees gave him a lot of trouble.
He wasn't that well during the course of the movie
'cause his back was so bad.
And I always thought
that the hard part would be his performance,
but the wrestling was the hardest thing for him.
That early fight he couldn't do against the rock.
- And he couldn't catch Robin. - He couldn't catch Robin.
There's a scene where I'm supposed to fall
from the castle and he catches me.
And they had to put me on cables so that he had no weight in his arms.
He had this wonderful sense of humor about himself,
but he had a sadness too.
The reality of who he was was
was getting more intense on him.
He knew he wasn't gonna live long.
André knew that he wasn't long for the world.
And he was hurting, he was really, really hurting,
and I went over to visit with him.
And André told me, "I'm done, boss."
When he said done, he meant not just wrestling,
but "After this, I'm done, " basically, "I'm gonna go die."
And he told me about his neck and his back
and things of that nature
and what it would take to have it fixed,
but he was not interested at all.
And then when I spoke to him about,
"Well, here's why I came over, you know,
because there's a building in Pontiac, Michigan,
it holds 93,000 people...
...and I think that we could set up the promotion correctly
and I think it would sell it out."
What would everyone really want to see?
And as mean André comes in, "Who's gonna stop André?"
If he had a temper or if he's a bad guy, who's gonna stop him?
Well, there's only one person who might be able to...
André was in bad shape.
André needed the back surgery.
Vince had to tell André, "Get the operation,
prolong your career, come back to wrestle."
André wanted to have a reason to live, not a reason to die.
And he knew that, "Wow,
I would have a whole lease on life
if I can get through this operation."
The allure of Hogan pulled André through.
Hogan in a lot of ways was the sort of
territorial hero,
but now the territory is the entire country.
They bring in villains for him to face,
and at some point you gotta
come up with something bigger and better.
André the Giant, as a villain,
was bigger and better than everything that had come before.
Wasn't sure how it was gonna go down,
I didn't have a problem doing the job and André beating me.
It made me just as big in my mind.
I wanted to be him, he was the guy.
On the surface, this is earth-shattering.
André and Hogan are going to have a match
after being buddies for so long
and they've never fought before.
In reality, of course, they had fought before.
They'd only wrestled all over the country.
They'd wrestled in Florida, they wrestled in Georgia,
they'd wrestle in Alabama,
they'd wrestle in the northeast.
And they would often be a tag team.
And it was a great attraction,
André the Giant and Hulk Hogan tag team
against whoever the villains were at the time.
I can't think of a better partner,
a better person that'll stand toe to toe
and fight with me all the way
than the big boss André the Giant.
For the purposes of "WrestleMania III,"
none of that ever happened.
That was a hard and fast rule.
Anything that happened before "WrestleMania III,"
forget about it.
The majority of the fans
that are new cable fans
have not seen these two guys wrestle before.
Now, I'm sure that Hogan and André
had wrestled sometimes in the New York area,
but the world had not seen these guys go against each other.
Wait, what's going on here? Hold on, man.
What are you doing with him?
Hogan and André are both on "Piper's Pit,"
and André comes out with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.
You're the reason I got into professional wrestling,
you were like a God to me, a role model!
You can't be here with him, man.
Aligning yourself with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan
is the most evil thing a professional wrestler can do,
except maybe slapping an old lady.
He's sick and tired of you and what you stand for.
It's the first time any wrestling fans
had seen André turn heel.
He had worked heel in Japan, but again,
if it didn't happen on American TV,
it doesn't count for the WWF.
You're so jealous of this man
you can't stand it!
This is the man for 15 years
that is undefeated.
But did you ever once--
No, man, you're wrong, you're wrong!
The company told the story so perfectly.
This was Cain and Abel.
Look at me when I'm talking to you.
I'm here for one reason,
to challenge you for the World Championship match
in "Wrestlemania."
André, please, no, it's not happening.
I wanted to have it be such an emotional moment.
I knew when André ripped the shirt
if I could shed a tear, that that would seal the deal.
We're friends, André, please.
You can't believe it?
Maybe you'll believe this, Hogan!
What are you doing, man?
I had Vicks VapoRub on my finger,
and you could see me as he's ripping the shirt,
I'm trying to stick it in my eye,
but he's jerking me back and forth...
I really didn't need it.
It was just so upsetting that he did that
that I was in the moment anyway.
What is he doin'?
You're bleeding.
- What's-- Andr? - Come on.
We wanted a clear-cut good and bad guy.
André became bitter and jealous and evil.
The significance made the fans go, "You know what?
We want Hulk Hogan to beat this big, nasty giant now.
Now we're all on Hulk Hogan's side."
Are you or are you not gonna fight him
at "WrestleMania III" for the World Heavyweight Championship?
Yes or no?
Yes!
We are here for the most auspicious signing
for any heavyweight title match in history, as you all know.
It was monumental,
Because André had been such a revered character
for so many years.
He was the kind of guy that people could relate to
and felt that they knew the real André
and that he was genuinely a good guy.
All of a sudden we're gonna create a new character,
totally different from anything that people had ever seen,
and that's the bad guy André the Giant.
You never once gave this man an opportunity.
Now he's got that opportunity.
Sign it if you're gonna sign it!
In the fans' eyes, they were shocked.
When you tore my shirt off, man, when you tore the cross,
you tore the heart and soul out of all the little Hulksters, man.
Not just me.
For fans of my generation,
that wasn't just the first time we'd seen André as a heel,
that was the first time that we'd even thought about morality on that level.
We can't possibly imagine Hogan losing.
But we also can't imagine him beating André the Giant.
You know, it's crazy, but we would really talk about these things
like you're talking about Ali-Frazier.
Both are physical phenoms.
André stands at 7'4"
and weighs 525 pounds.
We were kids, but we were breaking this down like
it was a real sporting contest,
even though on some level we knew it was fake, right?
But it's just like, "How could this possibly go?"
Hulk Hogan, champion for over three years,
André the Giant, undefeated for 15 years.
It promises to be the greatest title bout in wrestling history.
Hulk Hogan versus André the Giant in "WrestleMania III."
Sunday afternoon, March the 29th.
André was in dire straits when it came to his health.
He had had the back surgery,
and he was walking around on a cane.
And I said to myself,
"That's gonna be your main event for "WrestleMania III?"
How are these two guys gonna pull this off?"
André didn't let Hogan know a whole lot
about what he could or couldn't do in the ring.
And I think that kind of weighed on Hulk Hogan
in the back of his mind for a match of that magnitude.
It bothered him.
Hogan was really concerned that André wasn't gonna,
quote, "Put him over."
And André did not want Hogan to know.
Terry had so much respect, again, for André,
he just wouldn't come up to André and say,
"Are you gonna put me over?" You know?
He wouldn't do that because that would be disrespectful.
So it was always this bit of doubt.
And Hogan kept coming to me,
"Are you sure the boss is gonna put me over?"
"No problem."
"Are you sure?"
"No, he's gonna do it, Terry."
He was nervous.
Because André kept playing to him:
"I'm gonna do what I wanna do."
And Hogan would hear that, "What the fuck?"
I kept asking Vince, "What are we gonna do for a finish?"
He goes, "Hey, don't worry about it, I'm gonna talk with André."
Finally we're in Detroit, okay?
The night before "WrestleMania."
He goes, "Well, what do you picture the match as?"
I said, "Give me your yellow legal pad."
So I get Vince's legal pad
and I go, "Okay, walk to the center of the ring,
start arguing, I'll start shaking my head.
André throws a punch, I block it,
hit him one punch, two punch,
I go to the slam, he falls on top of me,
one-two, almost pins right out of the chute.
Picks me up, slam me again, step on my back"--
I wrote it all down.
Wrote the hole match from top to finish,
and then I left the finish open.
Gave Vince the legal pad,
Vince goes to talk to André.
André loved to bust balls,
and, you know, he was busting Hogan's,
and out of respect to André
I'm gonna go right along with it.
So Hogan was concerned all the way up
to the day of the show.
The next day
I'm at the building early,
and I said, "Hey, man, what's the deal, brother?
"Oh, don't worry, you're gonna be okay."
I said, "Well, what's the finish?"
"Andre’s gonna do the right thing."
Welcome to the magnificent Silverdome...
and welcome to "WrestleMania III"!
If Vince knew the finish,
I don't remember him telling me that "You're gonna win."
I never remember him saying that to me.
I never remember him saying, "You're winning."
When he got to the building that day, André, typical André,
he went in, put a bottle of wine on the table,
started playing cards.
Everyone's running around, nervous wrecks.
I mean, this was the biggest show of all time.
Usually I didn't sit next to him in the dressing room.
But that day he wanted me in the dressing room.
And I know his back was killing him.
And as we were sitting there I said,
"André, what do you want to do out there?"
"Don't worry." I said, "Okay, I won't worry."
André just kept playing cards. Wasn't sweatin' a thing.
Hulk came over a couple times and said, "We good, boss?"
He goes, "I don't know."
And André the Giant just moments away from
you're stepping through the ropes
and into the ring to meet Hulk Hogan
in the biggest title match of all time.
I want to get your thoughts.
Gene, you see me now, and I'm going into the ring,
and believe me, it's not gonna take me too long
to come back right here in front of the camera
with the World Championship belt around my waist.
We're getting ready to go out for the main event
with 93,000 people,
and maybe André changed his mind.
Vince wasn't completely sure.
This is the main event of the evening!
There was this incredible buzz.
It was time for the main event.
That's a sight to behold,
just André on that cart going to the ring
and how big he is standing next to Bobby Heenan.
An awesome figure,
that 7'5" frame of André the Giant.
The roof of the Silverdome about to explode here!
I remember it was just so loud in there
my jaws watered like I smelled food or something.
It was just so electric and so loud that it was just pure adrenaline.
You got 93,173 fans
standing on their feet for this one, Gorilla.
The irresistible force meeting the immovable object!
We started the match,
and out of nowhere he throws that first punch.
Whoa. I block it.
I throw one, I throw two,
and I go under him for the slam,
and we fall backwards exactly like I wrote it down.
And the Hulkster unloading, going for a slam!
Oh, he almost got him up! He collapsed! One, two!
He pulled himself up by the ropes, and I'm waiting, he picks me up and slams me.
Oh, a slam! André picked him up with ease!
Ohhhh!
Then he stood on me and walked over me with his foot.
Exactly what was written down there.
The whole match was built around Andre’s limitations.
And Hulk Hogan working around André.
André couldn't move.
His back was really bad,
he probably should not have been in the ring.
Oh! The bear hug!
It was a very basic match.
One of the key spots in the match,
actually one of the most memorable spots
'cause it was like four minutes,
André grabbing him in a bear hug.
Usually when we grab the bear hug
I'd jump up and he'd hold me up in the air
and rag doll me--
I wouldn't let him do any of that.
Made sure I stood up straight
so he could stand up as straight as he could.
The Hulkster, just withering away here.
One more time. If that arm drops, it's over.
Tossing it up! It's up there! Listen to these fans!
André knew what to do.
André could do the basic things that he had to do
that didn't tax any physicality.
André being stung now!
But they were so popular, it didn't matter what they did.
It was like no way this match couldn't work
short of André getting hurt and then being unable to continue.
André now with an Irish Whip!
Oh, he dropped the big guy!
That's the first time I think that
the Giant's ever been knocked off his feet like that!
Look at the look on the face of the champion!
He's Hulking up, Jess!
Finally, out of nowhere, "Slam!"
Holy shit, he called slam.
Look at this!
He slammed him! I don't believe it!
Right when he hit I heard him go, "Leg drop!"
I went and hit the leg drop, thinking he's gonna kick out.
You know? And he didn't kick out.
Hulk dropping a big leg!
Over for the jumper! He got him!
Unbelievable!
I never thought it could be done, Gorilla.
Neither did these 93,000 plus
as the World Heavyweight Champion,
Hulk Hogan, has proven to everyone what he's made of.
Hmm.
At the time he knew much more than all of us.
He knew that that's what had to be done
to get me to where I needed to be
to help Vince move this business forward.
That's 525 pounds of living flesh
that he picked up and slammed.
There go the losers. Look at Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.
André still extremely upset.
And that man right there has won the hearts of everyone.
Look at what the Hulk is giving them now.
For the narrative of wrestling,
you want that old star to pass the torch to the new star,
and that was, you know, the moment that it happened.
In the history of wrestling, it was-- it was huge.
If Hogan talks about his legacy,
I bet you that's the first thing he talks about still.
Hogan beating André was symbolic of Vince McMahon
putting the ghosts of the territorial era to bed.
This is Hulk Hogan defeating the biggest star
in professional wrestling history until Hulk Hogan.
Andre’s career started going downhill
pretty much immediately after "WrestleMania III."
They kept him feuding with Hulk Hogan,
but I don't think he ever wanted to be a heel.
He liked to ride into every town with people cheering him on.
And that sort of reaction is addictive.
It's hard to be booed when you go out in public,
especially if you're 7'4" and it's impossible
to hide from those sort of reactions.
At one time,
André was a hero to young and old alike,
male, female-- didn't matter.
Everybody loved André.
But now? Persona non grata.
There he is outside the ring,
and the fans are letting him know
he's not very welcome here.
It was over a matter of time.
You didn't see it every day.
But month after month you could see André failing.
First he starts working a very limited ring style.
Now he can barely walk around the ring.
I mean, you see him in some fights where
he constantly has one hand on the ropes.
Or he has his hands on his opponent, to get--
He just needs something to steady himself.
André the Giant with glazed eyes.
Then he starts working predominantly tag team matches
where he can just stand there and look imposing.
I spent every day with him.
And I could see it going this way.
He was in a lot of pain.
To look at him in the rear view mirror,
he was-- you could see it on his face, the pain he was in.
I'd say, "Boss, you all right? " "Don't worry, boss."
He was so easy even though he was suffering.
Andre’s body was breaking down and he could not perform.
So we could slow things down for André
in the latter years, and what have you.
But eventually it does catch up with you,
and your career is over.
And it's difficult for someone to accept that.
André got knocked out of the game.
It was very hard on him... you gotta remember this was his life.
Now all of a sudden where you're not in action,
you're introduced as a guest.
André didn't like that.
He kind of disappeared off the scene
and was spending his time more down in North Carolina,
kind of on the shelf.
As his physical health started to deteriorate,
his knees and his back were succumbing
to the weight of his body.
And he wasn't laughing and joking as much.
I still think he had that...
that instinct, you know,
"I'm young at heart, I love this business."
I think he wanted to be out there with the fans.
He just loved this business, and he lived for it.
I'm going to be here
for a long, long, long time.
That happens to a lot of us. You know?
It happens to a lot of the guys,
and André was our leader.
When his career was over,
he had no value, you know, to himself.
"No longer. I'm not gonna be around the boys
and socializing and things of that nature.
I'm stuck here in North Carolina,
and I was responsible for the fact that business was good."
And everybody else was going on without him.
André more or less wanted to blame me
and resented me a bit
because he knew that the business was going to go on without him.
I think André resented that a little bit too,
that his time was up, damn it. You know?
And yet I was gonna continue on.
And sometimes it can even be a situation whereby
"Well, you used me."
No longer, when I was in Andre’s presence,
no longer was it this loving, warm, admiration
that we had for each other.
Wasn't there.
In December of 1992,
Andre’s health was getting worse.
He really, really was in bad shape.
He was still growing,
but the organs,
and especially the heart, weren't.
His father had been sick
and in and out of the hospital.
And he flew back to France.
I get a call saying
that his father had passed and he was staying there
for the funeral.
While he was in his hometown,
he had been sitting in the local bar/restaurant
with his friends.
The skin tone and texture in the pictures...
he just looked so bad.
I don't know, it's almost like he already looked like he was dying.
One of the legends
of the professional wrestling world
is dead tonight.
André Roussimoff,
better known as André the Giant,
died of an apparent heart attack in Paris.
The professional wrestler known as André the Giant
has died in Paris of an apparent heart attack.
He was 46 years old.
We all have regrets in life, but I wish...
There's no cryin' in wrestlin'.
I wish I could have been there.
With him.
He died all alone in a hotel room.
I can't change that now, can I?
Do you remember the last time you spoke with him?
Not specifically.
Um...
No, I don't.
I have a facility to...
to get rid of negatives very quickly.
And if something hurts me, I get rid of it.
Did Andre’s passing affect you more than other passings
that you've experienced?
More than what?
More than other passings that--
Oh, God.
He was special.
You never know, maybe tonight
will be my last night.
Maybe tomorrow will be my last night,
and so I don't make any plans, I just keep going.
He was like...
a brother.
He was like a big part of me.
How do you replace that?
He was the guy, and he always will be the guy.
And I say all the time, I don't want to be the champion,
I just want to be the Giant.
I just want to be André the Giant.
André never needed costuming.
He never needed to paint his face or wear strange robes.
The single most extraordinary athlete
of this or any other generation...
He was absolutely unique.
He was a figure of the imagination come to life.
We're a myth-making people.
That's how we understand ourselves
and the world around us.
He's not the only real person
around whom mythology has grown.
William Wallace,
Vlad the Impaler, Davy Crockett.
These are real people around whom
these incredible mythologies grew over the years.
André the Giant is one of those people.
He is at once a real human,
but at the same time he's a mythological figure.
I like to make everybody happy
and that's why I'm traveling all over the world.
I want to make everybody have the chance
to see the Giant,
and I want to say hello to everybody.
This has been a presentation of...
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