Andre the Giant....
Andre the Giant....
Modern Drunkard's got a nice article about the drinking exploits of the late, great Andre the Giant.
I'd heard all the stories before, as biographies and autobiographies of professional wrestlers are something of a guilty pleasure. I would like to take a second to address a couple small points with the article:
First, Wrestlemania III's attendance is mentioned as 78,000. That's one of three or four numbers you hear in conjunction with the event held in 1987, and it's the one I'm most likely to accept as most plausible. The WWF/E holds to this day that 93,173 people were in attendance, as was announced by the company during the show itself, which legitimately sold more than 70,000 tickets--no mean feat for any event, fake fighting or no. It was a huge arena, and the WWF did paper a substantial number of tickets for the event. I think the 78,000 number most closely matches the amount of turnstile turns for the day itself....
Also, Richard English mentions that Andre wrestled a "body slam" match against Hulk Hogan. Though it was very much the defining point for Hulk Hogan's career when he bodyslammed Andre during the match, the match did not carry any stipulations surrounding the feat. Andre did wrestle Big John Studd in a Body Slam Challenge at the first Wrestlemania, so some confusion may come from those two matches.
Lastly, the way one final passage is written, it makes it seem that Andre retired after that Wrestlemania match with Hulk Hogan. I think it's a sloppily written passage, and not necessarily a mistake, as English mentions earlier in his piece that a rematch between Andre and Hogan after the Wrestlemania III match aired on NBC drew 33 million viewers. I'm gonna have to check the math on the rematch--the rematch I think is being referred to was likely the Main Event match between Hogan and Andre in February of 1988, some ten months later, rather than two.
I should also mention to clarify, Andre wrestled three more Wrestlemanias after Wrestlemania III, though it was on a much lighter schedule than the rest of the WWF's roster at the time...generally, he was on hand for pay-per-views and Television tapings (with the major New York, Philadelphia or Boston house show on schedule, as well...)
All in all, though, a nice read. I'm mostly writing this to get some words onto paper, and to hear the sound of the wind rushing out of my head.....
Modern Drunkard's got a nice article about the drinking exploits of the late, great Andre the Giant.
I'd heard all the stories before, as biographies and autobiographies of professional wrestlers are something of a guilty pleasure. I would like to take a second to address a couple small points with the article:
First, Wrestlemania III's attendance is mentioned as 78,000. That's one of three or four numbers you hear in conjunction with the event held in 1987, and it's the one I'm most likely to accept as most plausible. The WWF/E holds to this day that 93,173 people were in attendance, as was announced by the company during the show itself, which legitimately sold more than 70,000 tickets--no mean feat for any event, fake fighting or no. It was a huge arena, and the WWF did paper a substantial number of tickets for the event. I think the 78,000 number most closely matches the amount of turnstile turns for the day itself....
Also, Richard English mentions that Andre wrestled a "body slam" match against Hulk Hogan. Though it was very much the defining point for Hulk Hogan's career when he bodyslammed Andre during the match, the match did not carry any stipulations surrounding the feat. Andre did wrestle Big John Studd in a Body Slam Challenge at the first Wrestlemania, so some confusion may come from those two matches.
Lastly, the way one final passage is written, it makes it seem that Andre retired after that Wrestlemania match with Hulk Hogan. I think it's a sloppily written passage, and not necessarily a mistake, as English mentions earlier in his piece that a rematch between Andre and Hogan after the Wrestlemania III match aired on NBC drew 33 million viewers. I'm gonna have to check the math on the rematch--the rematch I think is being referred to was likely the Main Event match between Hogan and Andre in February of 1988, some ten months later, rather than two.
I should also mention to clarify, Andre wrestled three more Wrestlemanias after Wrestlemania III, though it was on a much lighter schedule than the rest of the WWF's roster at the time...generally, he was on hand for pay-per-views and Television tapings (with the major New York, Philadelphia or Boston house show on schedule, as well...)
All in all, though, a nice read. I'm mostly writing this to get some words onto paper, and to hear the sound of the wind rushing out of my head.....
posted by Tommy at
06:35
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