It's been over 30 years since the world lost its eighth wonder. Andr Ren Roussimoff, better known by most as Andre The Giant, may have died in his sleep on January 28, 1993, but his legacy in professional wrestling, as well as the wider world of mainstream pop culture, is still heavily discussed to this day.
From his humble upbringing in France, where he left school at the age of 14 to work on his father's farm, to being one half of one of the most historic matches in wrestling history his WWE Championship match with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 3 Andre has gone on to become one of the first names anyone thinks of when the word "wrestling" is brought up in conversation.
Since his death, those who were closest to him have looked back on the fond memories with the man many described as a gentle giant, with some of the stories shared about his time in the limelight sounding more like folk tales you would hear round a campfire, rather than actual stories. With that said, many of the strangest, funniest, and outlandish tales about Andre The Giant have actually come to light after his death, all of them adding to the legend of who he was as a human being.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy a journey through the life and legacy of one of history's most remarkable men., someone who was not only known for being a man with a giant heart (both figuratively and literally), but was also known for being able to drink an entire brewery's worth of alcohol and still wonder which bar he was going to next. These are just some of the details that have come out about Andre The Giant since his death.
It's already been mentioned so let's start with the fact that Andre The Giant loved a good drink. Not in the "glass of wine at a fancy restaurant" kind of way, or even the college frat house sort of way; if drinking alcohol was an Olympic sport, Andre would have won gold, silver, and bronze all at the same time.
There are many famous tales about how much Andre could drink, with Ric Flair famously claiming that he saw the big man drink 106 beers in a single night, while Andre himself admitted in an interview with David Letterman that he once drank 117 beers in one sitting. Naturally Andre would feel the effects of drinking so much as he once passed out in a hotel lobby after drinking a reported 119 beers, and had to stay in the lobby for the whole night as no one could physically get him to his room.
Hulk Hogan, someone who has been known to stretch the truth from time to time, has claimed that while travelling in Japan, Andre could drink up to 16 bottles of wine travelling from city to city, only for Andre to immediately go to the ring and wrestle as if he was stone cold sober. However, it wasn't just wrestlers who saw how much Andre could drink.
Cary Elwes, Andre's co-star in the 1987 movie "ThePrincess Bride," stated that he used to drink something called "The American." According to Elwes, the drink was simply a beer pitcher filled with every type of alcohol in whatever bar they had visited on that night, which Elwes did try one night, but immediately spat it back up, stating "I've never tasted airplane fuel, but I imagine that was the closest thing."
Speaking of "The Princess Bride," Andre The Giant's role as Fezzik in Rob Reiner's 1987 movie is perhaps the one piece of media that the former WWE Superstar is best known for outside of professional wrestling. He had already made appearances in movies and TV shows in the years leading up to "The Princess Bride,"but Fezzik was the role that Andre was most proud of out of his acting career, and he wanted to make sure that everyone else liked it as well.
Because the movie meant so much to him, he was very excited to see what people thought of his performance, and "The Genius" Lanny Poffo recalled being beckoned to Andre's hotel room one night, something that was extremely rare. Lanny recalled on an episode of his "Genius Cast" podcast being offered the chance to order anything off the hotel menu as Andre was paying for it. Andre then mustered up the courage to ask if Lanny would watch "The PrincessBride" with him, to which Lanny agreed, and like most people, was very impressed with Andre's performance.
This would proceed to happen a further six times. Lanny even described the second time he watched the movie with Andre as Groundhog Day as the exact same scenario played out. Even though he was a fan of the movie, Lanny couldn't watch it every night, and admitted that the only way he managed to avoid watching "The Princess Bride" for what must have felt like the 58th day in a row is by hiding from Andre. Lanny admitted that he did feel bad hiding from Andre, stating that no one has ever loved a movie more than how much Andre loved "The Princess Bride," but everyone has their limits.
While "The Princess Bride" is the film most people remember Andre The Giant starring in, the first major blockbuster he landed a role in was the 1984 movie "Conan The Destroyer" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Even though he was uncredited, Andre played the role of the Dagoth monster who Conan fights and ultimately overcomes, but once the cameras stopped rolling, Andre and Arnie became extremely close friends.
With the filming for the movie taking place in Mexico City, Mexico, Andre would work matches in between shoots for Mexican promotion EMLL, now known today as CMLL, with Arnie getting front row seats to all of the shows Andre worked in the legendary Arena Mexico venue. After the events were over, both men would go out for dinner, but there was one problem they hadn't encountered; they both wanted to pay the bill.
During an interview on "The Rich Eisen Show," Arnie recalled telling Andre that he was going to pay for the meal, only for Andre to lift him up in the air and place him on top of a cabinet, before casually going over to pay the bill, leaving the man who would eventually go on to play "The Terminator" sitting on a shelf like a helpless child. This was a stark contrast to Wilt Chamberlain, who also worked with Arnie on the same film, who the Austrian native would jokingly describe as cheap compared to Andre.
Arnie would go on to appear in the HBO Documentary about Andre's life in 2018, and thanks to his friendship with Andre, as well as the likes of Jesse "The Body" Ventura and Bruno Sammartino, Arnie would go on to appear in WWE many times over the years, even being inducted into the WWE Hall ofFame in 2015.
Every wrestler needs a way to pass the time while they are on the road. In the modern era, some people will take game consoles with them to keep themselves occupied, others will listen to music and read books, while a handful of stars will vlog their way around the world, letting their fans in on what it's like to be a professional wrestler on the road. Back in Andre's time, he didn't have portable game consoles or wireless headphones to listen to his favorite podcast, all he needed was a pack of playing cards.
Cribbage and poker were the main games of Andre's choice, with "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan telling "Title Match Wrestling" you know exactly where Andre would be when you walked in the locker room; sitting in the corner playing cards with someone. One of Andre's closest friends in wrestling,Jake "The Snake" Roberts, even recalled a time where Andre, who had presumably been playing cards against anyone who would walk in the room, was in the middle of a game with Roberts when it was time for Andre to get ready to leave and perform for his match. However, Andre made it very clear what his priorities were and said "screw the match, we're not through with this game yet."
Playing cards was something Andre loved to do with anyone he called a friend, and on January 27, 1993, one day before he passed away, it was reported that Andre had spent the afternoon catching up with some old friends in France, all while enjoying several games of cribbage throughout the day. Even in his final days, Andre was doing something he truly loved, something that involved no physicality, crowds, or excessive drinking, just a simple game of cards with some old friends.
Due to his size, things in life that many people don't even think of were a lot more difficult for Andre The Giant. He had to have king sized rooms in every hotel he stayed in as normal beds were too small, he didn't smell the best as he was unable to fit in a normal shower, and travelling from place to place was often very uncomfortable as planes, buses, and cars, weren't meant to hold someone of Andre's size. Then there are his own bodily functions, which themselves have become legendary.
Many professional wrestlers have felt the wrath of one of Andre's farts, with Hacksaw Jim Duggan being blissfully unaware of what a "mudslide" was when Bobby "The Brain" Heenan called Andre to perform one on Duggan during a match. After being squashed and farted on, Duggan never took a mudslide again. Jake "The Snake" Roberts, despite being Andre's friend, also got farted on to the point where Roberts said his skin was vibrating, and there are multiple stories of wrestlers claiming that, because Andre's rear end was so big, he had to defecate in the bathtub as that was the only place that could hold what he was pushing out.
The aforementioned Cary Elwes also heard some of Andre's farts, most notably the legendary 16-second fart that legitimately halted the production of "The Princess Bride." However, TedDiBiasealso revealed that there was a time where he and Andre were in a packed elevator and more people seemed to get on at each floor. Becoming uncomfortable with how cramped it was, Andre farted so loudly that everyone evacuated the elevator at the next possible floor, leaving it all to Andre and DiBiase for the rest of the journey.
By this point, virtually every wrestling fan knows about The Bloodline. The Samoan Dynasty which goes back generations has produced multiple world champions over the years including Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, and most notably, The Rock. While many fans know roughly who is in the legendary Anoa'i family and who is related to The Rock by blood or through marriage, a young Dwayne Johnson saw Andre The Giant as family despite not having a single French bone in his body.
Andre was extremely good friends with The Rock's father, Rocky Johnson, as well as his grandparents, "The High Chief"Peter Maivia and Lia Maivia. He would routinely hang out with them at their house, drinking and playing cards as would be expected with Andre, but the relationship he had with the Samoan family ran so deep that when he was a child, The Rock would see Andre less like a family friend and more like an actual uncle. Not in the same way as someone like King Haku, someone The Rock also saw as his uncle but would end up being involved in The Bloodline saga thanks to his sons Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa, but close enough that The Rock could rely on Andre when he needed him most.
The Rock stated in an interview with Vulture that when Steven Spielberg's "E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial" came out in 1982, he begged his parents to see the movie but they both said no, as they were too busy. Fortunately, Andre was on hand to take him to the movies instead, with little things like this playing a part in why The Rock has routinely posted about Andre on social media, and why the big man is portrayed in the "Young Rock" TV show by football player Matthew Willig.
The Rock might have seen Andre The Giant as his uncle, but the "Eighth Wonder of the World" had his own family, one that he didn't see that much of.
Andre was never married , but he did have a number of girlfriends and partners, with Jean Christensen being the woman with whom he would eventually have a child. Robin Christensen-Roussimoff was born in France in 1979, but grew up in the United States with her mother, seeing very little of her father due to the hectic nature of his life, touring around the world every week of the year.
Robin has gone on the record to say that she recalled seeing her father approximately five times during her entire life, with the courtroom being one place she saw him, as her mother wanted to make sure she got some financial reassurance so she could raise her. Backstage at wrestling events was the other venue in which she got to see him. However, Robin recalled Andre visiting her shortly after "The Princess Bride" was released, a movie she absolutely loves, with the two watching it together and having Andre quote some of her favorite lines back to her while she watched.
They did stay in contact, with Robin speaking to her father one month before he passed away, and over the years, Robin has forgiven Andre for being so absent in her life. It didn't make watching old footage any easier for her after he passed away, but Robin was more than happy to show her face at the premier for the HBO Documentary about her father's life, as she reportedly worked on it, and still makes occasional appearances at conventions where she shares never before heard stories about the man she called "Dad."
As previously mentioned, the match that everyone usually remembers Andre The Giant for is his WWE Championship bout with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 3. By the time March 29, 1987, actually rolled around, Hogan and Andre had known each other for many years, already working together in then-WWF, as well as companies like the AWA and New Japan Pro Wrestling. However, WrestleMania 3 will go down as one of the most historic nights in WWE history, the night that Hogan conquered the "Eighth Wonder of the World" by slamming him to the mat for the very first time.
Having said all that, Hogan's stories regarding his match at WrestleMania 3 vary massively. During the 2024 "McMahon"documentary that was released on Netflix, Hogan claimed that he genuinely didn't know he was going to win the match as Andre never told him how it was going to end, causing Hogan to be extremely nervous as he didn't know whether Andre was going to go into business for himself. After all, at this point in his career, Andre already had trouble moving around, sporting a back brace under his singlet to help him deal with the pain, and if he wanted to change the match, what was Hogan going to do?
Fortunately, Andre was fine with losing to Hogan in front of a crowd WWE claimed to be 93,173 people, with the match being the final time in Hogan's career where he'd successfully defend the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. With that said, if you wanted to seek out a similar match, footage of their original feud in NJPW, complete with Hogan slamming Andre, has surfaced online in recent years, much to the chagrin of WWE historians.
Due to his wild temperament, there were two sides of Andre The Giant: the good side, and the bad side. Everyone wanted to be on Andre's good side, where he would call you "boss" and be more than happy to have a game of cards over one, two, or in Andre's case, over 100 drinks. However, if you were on his bad side, life could become very difficult.
One of the most famous feuds he had in the locker room was with "Macho Man" Randy Savage, with the two men not seeing eye-to-eye over, and this is 100% true, baby oil. Savage's brother, the aforementioned Lanny Poffo, explained that Andre hated baby oil and anyone who used it;when things were discussed Savage said his gimmick was baby oil. Poffo was on Andre's good side, as proven by how many times he got to watch "The Princess Bride,"and knew that working with Andre would be simple if some exceptions were made, but Savage told his brother "f*** you" instead.
Andre and Savage would eventually work together in 1988, when the two men feuded over the WWE Championship and wrestled dozens of matches at live events together. They still didn't like each other, regardless of whether Savage had baby oil on or not, but that might be down to the other reason Andre didn't like Savage; Andre's daughter Robin would reveal that her father hated anyone who used steroids, something that Savage would frequently use during his time in WWE. Because of this, it's not clear whether the two men patched things up before Andre's death in 1993, but until his own death in 2011, Savage never spoke at length about the "Eighth Wonder of the World."
