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Andre The Giant
Andre Rene Rousimoff was
born on 5/19/46 in Grenoble, France. He was born
with a condition called acromegaly which caused
his large size. He started his career in the
60's. In 1972 he was signed by Vince McMahon Sr
and had his name changed to Andre the Giant.
Andre would wrestle in the territory system for
the next decade and would sell out everywhere he
went.
Main Stream Success:
During this time, Andre was used as a special
attraction. He never needed a belt to boost the
attendance of a show he was at. He started
getting acting roles on shows like The Six
Million Dollar Man and the 12/21/81 issue of
Sports Illustrated had their longest feature
story ever about Andre.
The Heenan Family:
In the mid-80's Andre feuded with Heenan
family members Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy &
Ken Patera. On one occasion, they cut his hair
and another time broke his ribs. During this
feud, Andre missed a TV match and was suspended.
In reality, he was filming the Princess Bride
and resting his body.
The Machines and a new manager:
When Andre was suspended a new masked tag
team from Japan called The Machines made their
debut. It was obvious Andre was one of them.
They feuded with the Heenan family, however
Andre was not in most of their matches. In early
97, Andre's suspension was lifted. After 2
strange appearances on Piper's Pit, he came out
2 weeks later with Bobby Heenan as his new
manager and challenged Hogan to a match.
North American Indoor Attendance Record and
return to network primetime TV:
Hulk & Andre fought at WrestleMania 3 in front
of over 90,000 fans. Hulk won the match but
Andre would get his revenge a year later. On a
primetime NBC special, Andre would become World
Champion. He quickly surrendered the belt to
"The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase.
A few feuds:
By this point it was obvious that Andre's
health was starting to deteriorate. He had a few
feuds with Jim Duggan, Jake Roberts, & The
Ultimate Warrior. Many of the matches against
the Warrior consisted of him being pinned in
less than a minute. At WrestleMania 6, he lost
the tag team belts in a match he was barely in,
but at the end he beat up Bobby Heenan to become
a face again.
The Giant Remembered:
Andre died on 1/27/93 while in France. He
was in town for his father's funeral which took
place less than a week earlier. Shortly after
his death, the WWF created The Hall of Fame and
Andre was the only person inducted in it's
inaugural class.
Notable Matches:
6/25/76 Shea Stadium - beat boxer Chuck
Wepner by countout
8/9/80 Shea Stadium - pinned Hulk Hogan
3/31/85 WrestleMania - beat Big John Studd in a
bodyslam challange
10/5/85 SNME - with Tony Atlas beat Big John
Studd & King Kong Bundy via DQ
11/2/85 SNME - with Hogan beat Studd & Bundy via
DQ
4/7/86 WrestleMania 2 - won battle royal
featuring NFL players
3/29/87 WrestleMania 3 - lost to Hulk Hogan
11/26/87 Survivor Series - sole survivor in his
match against Hulk's team
2/5/88 Main Event - Beat Hulk Hogan to become
World Champion
3/27/88 WrestleMani 4 - fought Hulk Hogan to a
double DQ
8/29/88 SummerSlam - with Ted Dibiase lost to
Hogan & Randy Savage
11/26/88 SNME - lost to Savage via DQ
4/28/89 WrestleMania 5 - lost to JAke Roberts by
DQ
8/28/89 SummerSlam - with Big Bossman & Akeem
lost to Demolition & Jim Duggan
11/25/89 SNME - lost to Ultimate Warrior by DQ
12/13/89 - with Haku won the tag team tiles from
Demoltion
4/1/90 WrestleMania 6 - lost tag team titles to
Demolition
(Sources: PWI Almanac &
Andre the Giant .com)
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