André the Giant

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André René Roussimoff FranceFrance
André the Giant in the late '80s.jpg
Data
Ring name André Roussimoff

Jean Ferré
Géant Ferré
Monster Roussimoff
André the Giant
Giant Machine
Additions to names "The 8th Wonder Of The World"
"The Gentle Giant"
height 213 cm
Fighting weight 140 kg - 250 kg
birth May 19, 1946
Coulommiers , France
death January 27, 1993
Paris
Announced from Grenoble , France
Alsace-Lorraine (as Jean Ferré)
Japan (as Giant Machine)
Trained by Michel Saulnier
debut 1965
retirement 1992

André René Roussimoff (born May 19, 1946 in Coulommiers , France , † January 27, 1993 in Paris ), better known as André the Giant , was a French wrestler and actor . Roussimoff suffered from the growth diseases giant stature and acromegaly , which made him very tall and caused a very massive constitution. Because of this gigantic appearance he was also called "The Eighth Wonder of the World" and was the most successful star of the wrestling business in the 1970s and early 1980s. The same illness caused Roussimoff's relatively early death. He was inducted posthumously as the first member to the WWE Hall of Fame in 1993.

Private

Roussimoff was born as the son of the Bulgarian immigrant Boris Roussimoff Stoeff and his wife, the Polish Marianne, née. Marasjeck was born in Coulommiers, France. While his parents and four siblings were of normal height, he suffered from gigantism and later acromegaly.

Growing up in the small town of Molien in the municipality of Ussy-sur-Marne , he had to work on his parents' farm at an early age. He finished school after the eighth year of school and left the farm at the age of 14 to do an apprenticeship as a carpenter . However, he did not complete this, returned to his parents' farm and then worked in a factory that manufactured motors for hay processing machines. According to his brother, his enormous growth began at this point and he reached a height of around 2.00 m at the age of 15.

Roussimoff was never married. He has a daughter (* 1979).

Career

Beginnings

In 1965, while working, Andre met Robert Lageat, a former boxer who subsequently appeared as a professional wrestler. He saw potential in the young giant and offered to train him in Paris. Among other things, he financed his life and training there as a movers and doormen. The meanwhile 2.10 m tall and about 140 kg heavy Roussimoff had his first official match as Jean Ferre ' on January 25, 1966 in Rouen against the experienced Ted Lamar. The next two years Roussimoff appeared in France and in 1968 finally received the French heavyweight title from Belgian Franz van Buyten.

In 1969 Roussimoff toured Europe, where he was prominently presented in Great Britain . Here he also experienced his first individual “defeat” against Kendo Nagasaki .

In 1970 he appeared as Monster Roussimoff for the first time in Japan and received the IWA World Tag Team title. The Japanese public accepted the giant's attraction very well, and Roussimoff was even bigger than its Japanese counterpart Giant Baba .

In 1971, Roussimoff, through the intercession of Adnan Al-Kaissie , was able to deny a match with him in Iraq , in which the later President Saddam Hussein was present.

Through contact with wrestlers Frank Valois and Edouard Carpentier since 1966 , Roussimoff finally came to Montreal , Canada, where the latter supported him as a mentor. The brothers Paul and Maurice Vachon took over the promotion of the giant. Grenoble was chosen as the place of origin for Roussimoff , as the city was still known from the previous Winter Olympics and was considered the capital of the French Alps , the highest mountain range in Europe. With its impressive height of around 2.13 m and a weight of over 170 kg, it became an absolute public attraction. However, his height was praised as 2.23 m, so that he surpassed the then physically largest, successful professional athlete Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in advertising. Typical for Roussimoff were handicap matches against 2 or 3 opponents at the same time or against other physically relatively large wrestlers, such as Killer Kowalski or Don Leo Jonathan .

Further career

1973-1983

To guide his further career on the right path, Frank Valois arranged for him to meet Vince McMahon Sr. , then President of WWWF (now WWE ), and in 1973 he had his first match in that organization as André the Giant . His wrestling style was changed and he was now portrayed as a giant even more emphatically. From then on, the Frenchman's career took off. Since Roussimoff McMahon brought in a lot of money and the attraction of the giant shouldn't wear out, he loaned him out for guest appearances at other organizations, such as the National Wrestling Alliance , the American Wrestling Association and to Japan . From 1974, the veteran Arnold Skaaland was placed behind the scenes as a guardian, as Roussimoff's alcohol consumption was already increasing.

Roussimoff made his first appearance on a television series in 1975 when he played Bigfoot in The Six Million Dollar Man, alongside Lee Majors . He also appeared on the Tonight Show and had a show boxing match in 1976 against the 1.97 m tall professional boxer Chuck Wepner .

In 1981 Roussimoff hired Frenchy Bernard as a manager. At this point, he already weighed almost 230 kg and had severe back problems. An article about him appeared in Sports Illustrated that same year . A broken ankle resulting from his high body weight was used as a storyline for a feud against Killer Khan . In addition, Roussimoff feuded at this time with wrestlers such as Abdullah the Butcher , The Sheik , "Big Cat" Ernie Ladd , Stan Hansen and the young Hulk Hogan .

1983-1988

In 1983, Roussimoff was introduced to Big John Studd, a man who came close to his own stature. It was used to write a storyline for a long feud about who was the "real giant" of wrestling. This feud culminated at Wrestlemania 1 in 1985, which Roussimoff concluded with a win.

After he feuded with Hogan against King Kong Bundy and Studd in 1986 and was finally allowed to win a Battle Royal at Wrestlemania 2 , he had to undergo back surgery and was officially suspended to explain his absence. He then returned first under a mask and appeared together with Bill Eadie and Blackjack Mulligan as The Machines against Bobby Heenan's group Heenan Family .

André with Hillbilly Jim against King Kong Bundy with Big John Studd .

1987 saw a major turning point in Roussimoff's career and he was portrayed as a villain (heel) for the first time, at least in the United States . He was given that Heenan as manager and had him demand a title match against his former friend Hulk Hogan. The match took place at Wrestlemania 3 at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan in front of an allegedly over 90,000 crowd. While WWE has exaggerated the number of spectators, it was the largest number of spectators at any wrestling event. Roussimoff was about to lose what is commonly seen as the passing of the torch between him and Hogan at the helm of the wrestling business.

1988-1992

However, Roussimoff was allowed to win the following Survivor Series with his team against Hogan and in February 1988 in a staged, controversial decision ( Ted DiBiase exchanged the twin brothers Earl and Dave Hebner as referees) for the first time to receive the WWF World Heavyweight Champion title . However, according to the storyline , Roussimoff "sold" the title directly to DiBiase, and so the title was declared vacant. The background was that for health reasons it was no longer possible to plan with him as a long-term title holder. Roussimoff's last appearance in a major match of the WWF took place at the major event Summerslam 1988, where he appeared together with DiBiase as Mega Bucks against Hogan and Randy Savage . At that time, Roussimoff had a body weight of 250 kg and was now struggling with serious health problems.

He briefly feuded in 1989 with Jake "The Snake" Roberts and met at Wrestlemania 5 on this and his old arch-rival Big John Studd, who acted as guest referee. Roussimoff could no longer contest individual matches afterwards. Therefore, they formed a team with Haku , located Colossal Connection called. Managed by Bobby Heenan, they were allowed to take the titles from the then tag team champions Demolition , but lost them to them again at Wrestlemania 6. After this fight Roussimoff switched back to the Face and was now chasing Heenan. He made a guest appearance on Wrestlemania 7 and his last appearance at a major WWF event was at Summerslam 1991, in support of the Bushwhackers . On December 4, 1992 Roussimoff played his last match in Japan. Another 6-man-tag match took place shortly before his death in Mexico against Bad News Brown , Bam Bam Bigelow and Yokozuna .

death

On January 27, 1993, André René Roussimoff died of heart failure in his room at the Hotel La Tremoille. Twelve days earlier he had traveled to Paris to attend his father's funeral. He had to be transferred to the USA because no crematorium was big enough. His ashes were scattered around his ranch. He was the first to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame that same year.

André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

Hulk Hogan presents the André the Giant Memorial Trophy .

On the March 10, 2014 edition of Raw, his former rival Hulk Hogan paid homage to the late Roussimoff and announced that a Battle Royal would be held in his honor at Wrestlemania 30. Since then, a Battle Royal has been held every year at Wrestlemania , with the winner being awarded the André the Giant Memorial Trophy .

Wrestlemania winner
Wrestlemania 30 Cesaro
Wrestlemania Dec. Big show
Wrestlemania 32 Baron Corbin
Wrestlemania 33 Mojo Rawley
Wrestlemania 34 Matt Hardy
Wrestlemania 35 Braun Strowman

Others

Trivia

  • Roussimoff took the nickname "The 8th Wonder of the World" from the movie King Kong .
  • His shoes were US size 24 (roughly equivalent to 61 in European shoe size).
  • Roussimoff raised horses and cattle on his ranch in Ellerbe , North Carolina .
  • Drank tons of alcohol behind the scenes, sometimes even several bottles of wine before his performances.
  • Roussimoff had to sit outside the ring in the late 1980s due to circulatory problems and pain in his legs and back in a special wheelchair.
  • The WWE Hall of Fame was established in his honor in 1993, and he was the first to be inducted.
  • Roussimoff served as the template for Shepard Fairey's “André the Giant has a Posse” or “Obey Giant” street start campaign.
  • At Wrestlemania 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 and 35 each an "Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal " was contested.

successes

title

Independent Wrestling Association
  • 1 × IWA World Tag Team Championship (with Michael Nador)
National Wrestling Alliance
  • 1 × Australasian Tag Team Championship (with Ron Miller)
  • 1 × Florida Tag Team Championship (with Dusty Rhodes )
  • 1 × United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State Version) (with Dusty Rhodes)
World Wrestling Federation

Awards

World Wrestling Federation
  • WWE Hall of Fame 1993
  • Wrestlemania 2 (Battle Royal Winner)

Filmography

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry on www.catchmatch.de
  2. ↑ Title history of the IWA World Tag Team title at www.wrestling-titles.com
  3. ↑ Andre wins and sells the title to Ted DiBiase
  4. ↑ The Colossal Connection receives the Tag Team title
  5. ↑ Demolition defeats the Colossal Connection to get the title back

Web links

Commons : André the Giant  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME André the Giant
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Roussimoff, André René (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French wrestler and actor
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Coulommiers , France
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1993
Place of death Paris , France