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WRESTLER OF THE DAY: ANDRE THE GIANT


RIPPA

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Okay - here is the deal. I fucking love Andre. Andre also passed away on my 18th birthday... which is today. (My birthday... not the 18th one. God - if only it was my 18th birthday.) I decided that in celebration of my impending doom - I was going to highlight some of my favorites this week. 

 

In one of the NXT threads - Matt asked me what my favorite Andre matches were. The answer might honestly be "almost all of them". Clearly I am not going to revisit the jobbing to Warrior in 30 seconds ones or the Japan matches during his last days on Earth ones. I mean - while sad - his early 90s All Japan run provided at least goofy matches (like Andre in a tag match against Foley) so they had that value.

 

If I every introduced some sort of "You Must Watch These 5 Matches Before Being Able To Post On This Board" system - Andre vs. Stan Hansen would be one of those 5. I thought about not including it here because of how cliched that would seem. But it is fucking Andre/Hansen and you don't need a fucking excuse to watch it.

 

http://youtu.be/bp0Wo7hLTIE

 

While embarrassing to look back at. I am glad that my moment of discovery of this match was recorded thanks to this very site.

 

 

Andre The Giant vs. Stan Hansen: 

Since, as I mention above, I probably starting watching wrestling somewhere in 1983- therefore meaning that I was only treated to Andre in the WWF doing the ubiquitous big guy offense and then later being squashed by the Ultimate Warrior in 30 seconds. I think I had seen one Andre in Japan in match before this and I don't know if Andre was always as surly as he is here but golly did he rule in this match. And Hansen is probably as slim as you will ever seen him but he still is an OAT (One Angry Texan). Now Andre is huge and you realize how big Hansen was when you see him next to Andre. This bad boy quickly registers in my Top 5. It had everything. Starts out right away with both guys waffling each other and the crowd is already freaking out. The first minute is spent cementing the fact that mercy is for the weak. Andre and Stan then put on a clinic on how to properly use a bear hug in a match. Andre starts squeezing the life out of Hansen. Hansen punches Andre right in the face. TWICE. Andre keeps the hold on. Hansen headbutts Andre really hard. TWICE. Andre keeps the hold on. Plus the look on Hansen's face during the headbutts is priceless. Finally, Hansen just winds up and BLASTS Andre in the ear which sends Andre sprawling with an audible thud. So now between Andre yelling at the crowd and him applying an armbar to Hansen's Lariat arm (Look Psychology!) it's Hansen pummeling Andre with various punches, kicks and chops. Hansen then slams Andre and goes back to work collect his $10,000 on Andre's hide. The two go tumbling out of the ring and brawl and get counted out. Now, amazingly enough, the match, which had already blown the crowd out of their seats, blows them right out of the arena. Andre and Hansen start filibustering with the ref to continue the match. Just imagine Andre yelling in English with his thick French accent at a ref who speaks only Japanese. The crowd is in an absolute rabid frenzy and that is when the ref gets on the mic and asks if they want the match started which of course gets a big response. The first time I watched this I was marking out so I would say that this is the best variation on restart theme done yet. Well, Hansen waits no longer and starts beating on Andre again. He then hits Andre with a THUNDEROUS lariat. I mean were talking Finger of God here. I guess with someone like Andre, you have to make it look like you really are trying to kill him. Andre goes flying out of the ring. While outside, he puts on his own elbow pad. (Remember, Hansen has one on his lariat arm that he always adjusts.) Well this sends a stir of panic through the crowd and Hansen who wants the pad removed. The ref argues with Andre a little too long and Andre lays him out with his own lariat. Okay, so the match is just a wild fight now but the highlights aren't done. One of the ring attendants gets in the ring to separate the two goliaths and the "For The Love Of God, Help Me Before They Kill Again" look he gives his pals is piss-in-your-pants funny. And then for good measure, Hansen breaks another attendants jaw with a lariat. A million, billion stars. (I had to take two stars away. One because Hansen didn't have chew dripping down the side of his face and one because you could hear and see Andre calling spots.)  
- from DVDVR #79
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Aw man, 

 

we're in business now.

 

I really, truly think the MSG Demos vs Colossal Connection isn't online which is a damn shame.

 

 Few bullet points on Monster Roussimoff vs Strong Kobayashi

-His headlock takeovers are just amazing. They're just huge and the amount of air he gets dragging Kobayashi over is nuts.
-I love how they start from the headlock base and build to the headscissors counter. It matters a lot when it actually happens.
-I also love how pissed Andre gets when the fans say he's cheating on the top wristlocks. He's like king kong rampaging as they take all the pictures of him.
-Andre already has a lot of the Andre-isms, including the big set up to the nerve hold, etc. 
-The slam is pretty huge but I love how it just pisses Andre off to lead to the first fall's finish. When did he stop using the tombstone because Andre the Giant fucking tombstoning someone is the awesomest wrestling thing imaginable.
-Kobayashi's attempts to find a way to hurt Andre are pretty great. The slam didn't work so he goes to the hand. That ultimately fails as Andre is able to start the nerve pinches again so he goes to the midsection. 
-The "Choke in the ropes" spot is great. It's nuts heel Big Show doesn't use that. Would it not work with the WWF ropes?
-One of the most interesting things in the match is that Andre isn't Andre yet so there aren't all of those proscribed "Things you cannot do to Andre" rules that seemed to be in there by 1980 and mandated by the NWA and Vince, Sr. Here there's the old "Hanging on to the bottom rope as my opponent grabs my legs and pulls me out so I can take a bump" spot which would never happen to later Andre.
-He's already got the in the ropes tie-up spot down, and I loved the over the top rope bump.
-I really like the big TIIIIIIMMMBEEEER spot too and the epic battle for the crab.
-Andre's stooging with the handshake towards the end was great and the countout finish was beautiful.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEdcHBKiV7g

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When I was a child, whatever promotion that fed whatever air force base I was living on would bring in Andre and he would beat the crap out some tag team and it was awesome TV viewing.  Mid-Atlantic, being the greatest territory to ever grow up watching, showed THIS film- despite not ever bringing in the Sheikh.  All I know is that I saw this as a SEVEN years old and the Sheikh was the only wrestler I had ever seen beat Andre- THUS the Sheikh was fucking horrifyingly scary to me forever.  I think that's why I love garbage wrestling so much.  The Sheik's fireball on Andre opened up a whole new vista of awesome- outside of just general Texas death matches and Anderson Brother bloodbaths.  This was just fucking EVIL.

 

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-j3GL6D2s4

 

Skip the guy in the front. On the one hand Dick the Bruiser is such a terrible FIP. On the other, you kind of feel bad for him because it's his promotion and you can tell he REALLY wants to get in there and help out in the shine and it's totally unnecessary. Krupp and Ox are such great Andre opponents here, stooging all over the place. You can practically see the delight in the fans' eyes when Andre's doing his thing.

 

I think my favorite out of ring thing about Andre was how jovial heel Andre was in promos. He was the hero of his own story and you can tell that he just loved his fellow Heenan Family members. I love the celebration after the Brainbusters win the tag title and I think there's a Survivor Series promo where he goes on about how he's doing it all for his fans that's great. 

This isn't those but it's still a great Heenan + Andre promo. Heenan's sort of understated because he can be. He has freaking Andre next to him:

 

This promo, on the other hand, is just glorious, even just visually:

 

And frankly, the bits of the clip at the start here terrified me as a kid because it seemed like the grossest thing in the world when I was 10. Granted I was also afraid to get licked by the Bushwhackers:

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People sleep on Andre more than any of wrestler I've ever seen. Yes, he was a giant. Yes, he had the presence and the voice and all of the nature, but at the same time, he could have been Spike Dudley sized and he probably still would have been an amazing wrestler, because he's so good at so many things. His timing is amazing. His selling is just right almost all the time. He'd bellow and give exactly as much as he was supposed to exactly when he was supposed to. Every move he did looked like death and he carried the respect that made people sell it like death. 

 

That's my favorite thing about the really late Andre stuff. He wasn't mobile at all but he was like a walking explosion. If he touched you, just touched you, you would go flying across the ring, and it was the most believable thing in the world. The action came to him, because he had the sheer gravity to draw it to him and make it work.

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8muus_andre-the-giant-vs-kamala-cage-matc_shortfilms

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Holy shit, Happy Birthday, Rippa!

 

The entire documentary, Andre The Giant: Larger Than Live, that was featured on A&E Biography channel is on the YouTubes.

 

 

You may want to get some tissues for your eyes when the room gets dusty.

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Watch this match. Watch Andre do everything he was supposed to in order to get across the story and really execute everything well. Watch Warrior follow directions well for the sake of the big picture of the match and sell the match to the crowd.

 

Tell me that's the worst match of 1989. Just tell me. It's not top rate Andre stuff, sure, but it's still so logical and almost everything means something and matters.

 

Frigging Action Junkie bozos.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xkiGavjk7M

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This is the Best Wrestler of The Day Ever.

 

When I was young I got tall really fast. I'm not actually a tall person, mind you - I'm 6 feet. But I reached that 6 feet by the time I ended 5th grade and was taller than every person in my grade school, including teachers. They thought I was going to be pretty fucking huge, but it all just stopped. But during those early days of me growing, Andre was one of the guys I looked up to, because I felt like I was going to be like him. But no one can be like Andre the Giant.

 

I think Andre was the first famous person death that I remember EXACTLY where I was and what I was doing when I found out. Anyway, He's the fucking man, and I won't stand for anyone saying otherwise.

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Interesting that we talk of his passing. He died the same year as Vincent Price, which was more important to me at the time, but that was one of the first celebrity deaths I remember too. I wish I had saved their respective obits as I later did with Peter Cushing and Ronnie James Dio. The first celebrity death I really remember is Lucille Ball because my mom was crying in the bathroom over it. 

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And frankly, the bits of the clip at the start here terrified me as a kid because it seemed like the grossest thing in the world when I was 10. Granted I was also afraid to get licked by the Bushwhackers:

 

This is worth it just to see Vince in that Zubaz tracksuit...

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I'm fairly positive Andre's death made me cry as a kid.

 

 

That Hansen match is just so fucking awesome.

 

But...  Are we SURE Giant Machine was Andre?  I mean, it could have been Baba, right? ;)

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Announcer: "GIANTO MACHINE!" Check out young Hash at ringside. Who's the guy with the bullhorn?

 

 

The guy with the bullhorn should be "Shogun" KY Wakamatsu. If I remember correctly, I think he did the bullhorn gimmick first and that's where they got the idea for Jimmy Hart to use it.

 

Anyway, here's Andre/Gerry Morrow/Kerry Brown vs. The Strong Machines No1 & No2/Hiro Saito.  Given that Kerry Brown is a fat boy and wearing a shirt that says "DADDY" on it, I'm surprised Dean doesn't have him tattooed on his arm.  Something happened that make Andre a face here.  I did like the Machine's hanging tree choke to set up the electric chair into a top rope move.  KY gets pantsed by Andre.

 

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When I was a kid, Andre was one of the first wrestlers I cheered for regardless of the circumstances.  I was on his side when he feuded with the Heenan Family, and I was firmly on his side when he joined forces with Bobby Heenan himself to take down Hulk Hogan (who I never liked regardless of the circumstances).  Even when he was a heel in the WWF, though, you could always see that fun-loving twinkle in his eyes, as evidenced by the Duggan promos on the first page.

 

It wasn't until Youtube came about that I discovered Andre in Japan.  I had absolutely no idea he was a villain there, let alone how villainous.  What a mind-blowing experience seeing an angry, surly, downright hateful Andre the Giant tear apart everyone and everything in his sight.  If your attitude and style in the ring can make, of all people, Adrian Adonis a plucky, sympathetic babyface, you're the best.  Andre will always be the best.

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