JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The day was March 30, 1987. Hulk Hogan was still on top of the world as he had just beaten his biggest foe ever (literally and figuratively) the day prior at the historic WrestleMania III in front of 93,000 people at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan.
His opponent however, now billed at more than 500 pounds was entering the last phase of what had been a larger than life existence in every sense. Andre Roussimoff was only 40 years old when he lost to Hulk Hogan. He had lived a life that was really unprecedented in the human experience. He had massive size, yet travelled in airplanes and on long car drives daily for decades in the grueling life of a professional wrestler. Often the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) had a veteran referee named Tim White accompany Andre from city to city. White aided him in getting around the globe. Because in addition to constantly having to cram into spaces meant for normal men, he was a global phenomenon. People on every populated continent knew Andre and he couldn’t hide his celebrity. Prior to the rise of Hulk Hogan in the mid-1980′s, Andre The Giant was widely regarded as the most famous professional wrestler on the planet.
Life wasn’t easy. And time along with the brutal sport of pro wrestling takes its toll on anyone. Even giants. While pro wrestling is widely known as a pre-scripted form of entertainment, that doesn’t mean it’s not brutal. Being punched, kicked and occasionally body slammed (a rarity for Andre) five to six nights a week affects the human body no matter how huge you are. But Andre, being a global attraction kept plugging along.
One way he did this was with alcohol. Andre The Giant is as known for his superhuman consumption of alcohol as he was for anything. Just look at his wikipedia page for an entry of some of the more legendary nights:
- 119 12-ounce beers in six hours
- He told David Letterman in 1984 he once drank 117 beers
- Veteran wrestler Mike Graham claimed Andre once drank 156 16-ounce beers in a sitting
These are just a few examples. If you scan online you’ll find a lot more. Going Ringside asked Dr. Harold Laski with the Southside Medical Center in Jacksonville, Fla. about Andre’s ability to consume so much alcohol. He said the acromegaly (Andre’s condition that led to his immense size) Andre suffered from actually contributed to his ability to drink so much. “The growth hormone not only affects growth. It affects the liver,” said Laski. “And the liver is where alcohol is detoxified in the body so it might be why he didn’t feel the affects as much as other people would have.”
Following the mega-event that was WrestleMania III, Andre spent the next year feuding with Hogan. They were still the marqis names going into WrestleMania IV at Trump Plaza. “The largest man that I’ve ever seen to this date,” said former President Donald Trump at his WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2013. “The great Andre The Giant.”
But following WrestleMania IV, Andre was starting to slow down and eventually the WWF to help Andre put him in a tag team. They teamed him with another wrestler Haku who was very athletic and could handle much of the hardest in-ring work and Andre could stand on the side of the ring to be an attraction and not do as much physicality.
Andre remained with the company sporadically until 1991. During those final WWF years he had surgery on his leg and was often seen on crutches or with a cane. His final feud was a tease with another giant wrestler Earthquake in 1991. He eventually left the company in the latter part of that year.
Following his departure from WWF Andre began to travel the world once again and was spotted wrestling in both Mexico and Japan. His deteriorating health could often be seen in his face as he just didn’t look well. Andre still suffered the effects of acromegaly as his bones had stopped growing longer but the rest of his body did not stop growing. In one of his final matches in Mexico was a six-man tag match (3 on 3). One of his opponents in that match was a wrestler called the Great Kokina. The Great Kokina’s real name was Rodney Anoa’i, he would eventually go to the WWF and wrestle under the name Yokozuna.
In January of 1993 Andre got some bad news that his father had passed away. At age 46, Andre traveled back to his family home in France to attend the funeral and be with his mother. Days after the funeral, in a Paris hotel room, Andre the Giant passed away in his sleep from congestive heart failure. The widespread belief is his untreated acromegaly led to his death.
Dr. Laski said if Andre had his acromegaly treated when he was young it could have saved his life. But Andre grew up as a poor child in France and there was no medical options for him at the time. As he grew up he decided to live with untreated acromegaly. This was unlike another giant wrestler Paul Wight. He was known in WWE as “The Big Show” and works for Jacksonville-based AEW. His surgery was designed to stop the pituitary gland from secreting growth hormone. Andre never had that done.
“It is absolutely treatable in the beginning,” said Laski. “Once the bones start growing they can no longer become elongated and so they start growing outwards. They grow thicker, they grow wider and a whole myriad of problems come with the acromegaly.”
In addition to looking at Andre The Giant we also have a preview of WrestleMania 40 in this episode. Internet wrestling host “The Masked Hope” joins us to break down the card.