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ANDRE THE GIANT HBO DOCUMENTARY


RIPPA

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Okay - time to start the actual thread for it. It should go in the movie folder but as already noted today, you guys hate that folder

Release date: April 10

Another trailer for it

 

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On 3/26/2018 at 8:19 PM, odessasteps said:

As feared, Shoemaker is one of the main non-worker talking heads.

Dave wrote a lengthy positive review in the new WON and - in a nice way - basically says Shoemaker is the only bad part of the doc but of course he is featured heavily.

Dave then spends times breaking down all Shoemaker's comical claims so I am happy

Example

Quote

Shoemaker said that wrestling was changing when Andre was out with the broken ankle with Vince McMahon going national. but Andre's injury was in 1981, and he was only out of action for a few months. The national expansion wasn't until 1984, and Andre was pulled from going from territory-to-territory to being exclusively WWF and New Japan, and by late 1986, exclusively WWF.

 

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Don't forget the Andre the Giant documentary at 10 p.m. Eastern tomorrow night. If you have any questions after the movie is over, send them to us because we can probably answer and we'll also be doing a show with Pat Laprade, who was part of the crew that did the documentary sometime next week.

 

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Indeed it was. That scene towards the end where Vince actually starts choking up while talking about him..... when an old school alpha male like Vince McMahon is willing to let himself be seen getting emotional about someone you know that was a special person. 

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The claim that Vince came up with the name Hulk Hogan because it appeal to Irish fans is so weird.  Is Hogan really a popular Irish name?  I guess we should be happy he was called Hulk O Grady or Hulk O Sullivan or some shit like that.

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4 hours ago, BrianS81177 said:

Indeed it was. That scene towards the end where Vince actually starts choking up while talking about him..... when an old school alpha male like Vince McMahon is willing to let himself be seen getting emotional about someone you know that was a special person. 

Call me a cynic but Vince was totally "working" that moment.

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IDK i think if Vince was "working" the moment i think it'd be bigger and more grandiose. Vince is more later years Pacino than he is early years Pacino when it comes to his acting method. 

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6 hours ago, hammerva said:

The claim that Vince came up with the name Hulk Hogan because it appeal to Irish fans is so weird.  Is Hogan really a popular Irish name?  I guess we should be happy he was called Hulk O Grady or Hulk O Sullivan or some shit like that.

Vince Sr supposedly came up with "Bruiser Brody" for the same reason.

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16 hours ago, RIPPA said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Wrestling_Alliance_territories#/media/File:NWA_Professional_Wrestling_Territories.png

That link goes to the one on wiki - it might be a little easier to read. But just know it is only NWA territories

This one is better because the WWE version always leaves out Houston Wrestling. :angry:

 

 

I know someone had said that Vince was looking pretty old in this, but how about Cary Elwes? Holy crap man, what happened?

I was genuinely surprised his daughter not only got a mention but was actually featured in this, considering past controversy regarding her and her mother.

Overall, I really enjoyed it, it felt like it was shot well and the interviews were fantastic. Good to know Tim White is still alive!

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38 minutes ago, The Green Meanie said:

This one is better because the WWE version always leaves out Houston Wrestling. :angry:

The Texas wrestling lineage can get a bit confusing TBF. There was a long period of time where Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Amarillo were all sharing talent on the regular. 

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55 minutes ago, The Green Meanie said:

I know someone had said that Vince was looking pretty old in this, but how about Cary Elwes?

I actually thought Elwes looked better than he had in a long time. I'm thinking he had some work done to look a bit younger when he decided to make a living off of telling Princess Bride stories instead of making more straight-to-VOD serial killer movies. 

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Actually, my reaction was meh. Fun to see the old footage. Hadn't heard of the Shoemaker guy, but he was okay here.  Not surprised to see Kevin Dunn listed as an executive producer, because this was definitely a WWF-centric version of events, with what seemed like a third of the film devoted to Wrestlemania III.  Vince being credited as the guy who discovered you could put wrestling on cable was funny, given that GCW had been on TBS for years before Vince went national. His innovation was figuring out how to cash in on the national exposure. But history belongs to the winners, so there you go.

The only disturbing thing is that Andre's early death was treated as an inevitability due to the acromegaly.  His raging alcoholism was treated as a wonder and a joke rather than a contributing if not decisive factor in his death.  

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29 minutes ago, LP Steve said:

The only disturbing thing is that Andre's early death was treated as an inevitability due to the acromegaly.  His raging alcoholism was treated as a wonder and a joke rather than a contributing if not decisive factor in his death.  

Elwes addressed this directly, saying that people treated it this way when it was clear that Andre was drinking because he was in pain.

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Big Show had the surgery to arrest acromegaly only about a decade after Andre was diagnosed, and it seems based on his doctor's interview that he just decided not to go forward with any procedure. He was older in the 80s than Show would be when he had the surgery, so it may not have been as effective, but it almost certainly would have added years to his life. It's tragic he didn't quite understand how it would work or felt compelled to continue working without stopping for time to recover. 

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