Remembering Andre

Trying to measure up to Andre at Wrestlemania 22

It's hard to believe Andre the Giant died 18 years ago today (January 27th).  I often wonder what his role in wrestling would be today had he lived.

  He was only 46 years old when he died, and although his body was broken down even years before his death, I would like to think that Andre could have had some sort of role today.  At least making special appearances like the other Hall of Famers and Legends still do from time to time.

The first memory I have of Andre had to be in 1982 or 83, I wasn't even a wrestling fan at that time.  My dad and brother watched all the time.  I remember seeing Andre beating the hell out of Nikolai Volkoff.  I don't think this was WWF, but I'm not sure.  Andre was even using a chair at one point.  Now remember, I was only 8 or 9 years old when I was seeing this, and remember thinking Andre needed to stop, or this assault would surely lead us to war with the Russians.  (Tensions between the USA and USSR were running rampant)  And this was before John Stossel's expose on wrestling on ABC's 20/20 program.  So I was under the impression that everything I was watching was legit.

I never got a chance to see Andre wrestle in person.  My brother and dad saw a match between the Giant and King Kong Bruiser Brody at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.  This had to be sometime in '83.  My brother tells me it was a wild fight that ended in a double disqualification.  A couple years later when I saw Brody wrestle in person, I understood how things could get out of hand.

Outside of Hulk Hogan, I believe that Andre the Giant was probably the most recognizable wrestler from the 1980's.  I think even nearly two decades after his death, if you showed non wrestling fans a picture of him, they would be able to identify him.  Even my kids who are pretty young know who Andre is.  That's in part due to the fact that I have the Legends action figure of Andre on my desk at work. I've had it since 1997, so it's been around longer than they have.

The cast

As I mentioned I never got to see the Giant live in person.  Just some of the memorabilia from his career, including the hand prints.  As you can see they were huge.  At Axxess in 2010, we also got to see some more artifacts, although I can't figure out why they saved his leg cast after an in ring accident against Killer Khan in 1981.

For fans who weren't around in the 70's and 80's to see Andre in action, Hulk Hogan isn't the first people to slam the Giant as the WWF wanted us all to believe after Wrestlemania 3.  Although as a kid, seeing that moment I felt like I was a part of history.  It's still in my opinion one of the most defining moments in Wrestlemania history.

But I was able to find this YouTube page showing the Giant being slammed through the years.  Some of the guys I knew had done it, but others I wasn't aware of, specifically Butcher Vachon and the star out of Mexico.  Despite the slams though, to the best of my memory Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior are the only two wrestlers to pin the big man.  Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Even though I didn't become a wrestling fan until the twilight of Andre's career, I still believe he had a huge (no pun intended) impact on the business that is still felt today.  RIP Andre.

Saturday Night Special

One of my favorite memories of wrestling from my childhood is Saturday Night's Main Event.  I was 12 when the very first one hit the airwaves in May 1985.

I loved the way each show started off with the quick promos featuring the guys who would be going at it that night.  Then "You're My Obsession" would start to play and lead us to Vince McMahon and Jessie Ventura standing by.  I think it's appropriate they picked "You're My Obsession" because as a skinny, ugly duckling wrestling was my obsession as the girls didn't want to have much to do with me.

I can still remember what I think was the opening match, George "the Animal" Steele, Nikolai Volkoff, and the Iron Sheik vs. Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat, Barry Windham, and Mike Rotunda.   That was the night the Animal turned face and joined forces with Capt. Lou Albano.


That night also featured Hulk Hogan and "Cowboy" Bob Orton going one on one.  "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Mr. T and eventually Paul Orndorff all got involved in the match.

As you might imagine from the picture to the left, I've been strolling down memory lane with the Best of DVD.  It's been fun watching the old matches and segments and also hearing from the superstars talk about their memories today.

I'm not sure if it was because I was a kid or because wrestling wasn't so overexposed, but those were some great times back then.  We were seeing matches on TV that we normally didn't.  It was usually SD Jones or Steve Lombardi or Jose Luis Riveria getting beat upon by King Kong Bundy, Ricky Steamboat, or Jake "the Snake" Roberts each Sunday morning on SuperStars.

Now, each week twice a week (3 if you count SuperStars) we're treated to matches without the constant jobbers.  They're pretty good matches.  Stuff back then we only got every 6 or 8 weeks on SNME or had to wait to see on pay per view (which ran only 4 times a year)

I've talked about it before, I think it would be nice to go back to that formula, at least for the pay per views, but with the almighty dollar being as important as it is, I don't see that happening.  There's no more suspense or build up.

Look at the Hulk-Andre match at Wrestlemania 3.  The only time they touched each other prior to the match (in a physical way) was about 30 seconds in that SNME battle royal prior to Mania.  There were a few punches thrown, a shoulder tackle and then Andre headbutted Hogan and tossed him over the top rope.  That was it.

Today, we get confrontations and tag team matches leading up to the big event.  By the time the PPV rolls around, we've seen some version of the match happen at least once before they lock up and we pay for it.

I guess that's just a sign of the times.  Maybe I'm just an old, cranky mark who misses the good ol' days.  Don't get me wrong, I'll never stop watching wrestling, but since this is My 1-2-3 Cents, I figure I have to complain every once in a while.  Thanks, and check out My 1-2-3 Cents on YouTube too!