That Was Then 4.20.07: True Feats Of Manliness - Andre's Final Years
Posted by Sam Caplan on 04.20.2007
Andre The Giant should not have been in the ring at any time after 1986. However, he was willing to come back to put over Hulk Hogan and earn a big payday in the process, and then stuck around for several years after that. Unfortunately, he was in a lot of pain the entire time as his body continued to deteriorate.
Welcome back to 411 for more TRUE FEATS OF MANLINESS!! This week, we look at one of the manliest (and biggest) men around in Andre The Giant. Andre was perhaps the most famous wrestler in the world up to the mid 80s, but his career was thought to be winding down as the MTV Generation arose and latched onto Hulk Hogan. However, he was coaxed back to the ring for one final run, and it began with the promise of a huge payday.
The Background
In the 1970s, Andre The Giant was the most recognizable wrestler in the world. Billed at 7'4" and 500+ lbs, there was no wrestler who had the physical presence of the big man from the French Alps. Regarded as a major attraction, Andre was loaned out by his promoter Vince McMahon, Sr and would travel from territory to territory taking on the top stars. He would never stay long because no promoter wanted him to get old as an attraction, and so he spent a lot of time on the road in those years. Though he did occasionally challenge for the World Title, he was never seriously considered for a title run, partially because eventually they'd have to get it off of him, but also because he was in some ways as big or bigger an attraction than the World Champion.
Fast forward to the mid 80s: Hulk Hogan had burst on the scene, won the WWF World Title, and became the face of professional wrestling. He was a media sensation, appearing on MTV, talk shows, and everywhere else there was for a celebrity to appear in those days. He was clearly the man who was being positioned to lead the WWF (which by that point WAS pro wrestling to many people) to the promised land, and though his contributions to the McMahon family business was appreciated, Andre was pushed to the background so as to not overshadow Hogan, who was seen to have more long-term potential than Andre.
Andre took the repositioning gracefully, especially since his own body had begun turning against him. His large size caused his body to wear down much more quickly than an average man, especially given what he did for a living. His back and knees were in especially bad shape and, after being written out in 1986, Andre underwent back surgery and had no plans to rush back into the ring. However, in late 1986, Vince McMahon came to him with a proposition that would be hard to refuse. He wanted to have Andre face Hulk Hogan in the main event of Wrestlemania 3. It would be held in the Pontiac Silverdome in front of what would be a record audience and, if everything played out, Andre stood to make a bigger payday than anyone in the business had made up to that point.
Andre decided that the money he was being offered was too good to pass up and agreed to the match. He sucked it up and began preparing for the biggest match of his career.
Physical Decline
Andre looked huge as he stood next to Hogan in the middle of the ring and was dominant in the match itself but, as we all know, Hogan slammed Andre in an amazing visual, then dropped the leg and pinned him. Business was so good that Andre stuck around and continued his feud with Hogan for another year and a half. He was slammed several more times by Hogan and also had a run of title matches with then-WWF Champion Randy Savage on the house shows. Andre was making money hand over fist, possibly even more than he had made in his heyday in the 70s.
However, it clearly wasn't the same Andre in the ring. He was slower, he didn't seem to have his heart in it the way he used to, and he even had to stop and lean on the ropes every so often while his opponent was down. The pain got worse and worse and his body wasn't getting any younger. After losing to Hogan at Wrestlemania 3, he didn't wrestle again for eight months, but he still wasn't the same. His back continued to give him trouble, and he wore a new singlet with a shoulder strap to conceal the back brace he wore underneath because he didn't want to appear weak to the audience. Getting slammed constantly by Hogan didn't help matters, because even though a bodyslam might not seem like a tough move to take, it is a surprisingly bone-rattling bump for even your average size wrestler. For a wrestler who was over 500 pounds and had a bad back, it was an excruciating experience, but Andre took it and never said a word.
After his feuds with Hogan and Savage were over, he was moved down the card and began feuding with men like Jake Roberts and the Ultimate Warrior. Though he was still portrayed as an indestructible monster, it was apparent that his opponents were mostly working around him because of his limitations. By late 1989 his body had deteriorated to the point where he was doing jobs to the Ultimate Warrior in 30 seconds every night because he couldn't handle anything longer than that. An attempt was made to prolong his career even further by putting him in a tag team with Haku so he'd be protected by being allowed to spend large amounts of time on the apron while Haku did the wrestling. The duo was given the WWF Tag Team Title, possibly as a thank you to Andre for all he had done.
Finally, the pain became too much and Andre came to grips with the fact that he wouldn't be able to continue wrestling, at least not anywhere near as frequently as he had been. He and Haku dropped the WWF Tag Team Title to Demolition at Wrestlemania 6 and, after a quick face turn against Haku and manager Bobby Heenan, left the Toronto Skydome and his full time wrestling career behind forever.
The Aftermath
Andre had known that he was not going to live as long as a normal person, and lived life to the fullest while he had it. He had his big money run with Hogan, and then stuck around for a couple more years to give something back to the business that made him a rich man. However, by 1990 he could not physically continue to wrestle regularly and disappeared into retirement. A return to the ring was teased a year or so later, but that idea was quickly nixed because Andre was reduced to walking around on crutches. This also was originally thought to be an angle, but he continued to be seen using the crutches well after he had again disappeared from the WWF, this time permanently.
He wrestled a handful of other matches over the next year or so, always tag team matches that required minimal physical effort from him, but his best days were long behind him. His deteriorating physical condition finally caught up with him, and he passed away in his sleep in France while in town attending his father's funeral in January of 1993. He left behind a huge legacy as a famous, beloved wrestler, but also as a man who toughed his way through incredible pain, first for that one last big run that turned out to be the biggest of his career, and then to give back to the business that made him.
