Watch wrestling’s real-life giant Andre the Giant on Showmax

Let’s start with a simple truth - yes, pro wrestling is scripted. That’s right, the sport that launched the career of Dwayne Johnson (better known by his wrestling moniker The Rock) and made household names out of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, The Ultimate Warrior and so many others, is fake. It’s an action soap opera.

Or is it? A new HBO documentary Andre The Giant gives a surprisingly candid peek behind the curtain. The story of Andre Roussimoff, who became one of pro wrestling’s most famous and best-loved stars, reveals some unexpected real-life plot twists.

The back story

Andre grew up in rural France and up until his mid-teens was a normal size. A hormone disorder, acromegaly, then began to turn his life upside down. Instead of growth tapering off at adulthood, Andre just kept getting bigger. He peaked at a reported seven-foot-four, weighing 225kg. The disease also gave him a highly distinctive voice, later put to good use in Hollywood, and exaggerated facial features.

The documentary covers the fascinating story of how shy Andre almost accidentally fell into superstardom - at one point he was called “the most famous person in the world”. It’s a kind of real-life Boogie Nights, just with wrestling instead of porn. With footage from the time and new interviews with many of wrestling’s stars, the sometimes joyful and sometimes tragic story of Andre’s life is revealed.

Intertwined with Andre’s story is the story of the rise of pro wrestling from a fragmented regional sideshow to the 1980s and 1990s pro-wrestling golden age. As the unstoppable travelling champion who toppled local heroes (although it was seen as a badge of honour to lose to Andre the Giant), he helped acquaint fans with the concept of national bouts and national wrestling stars, and ultimately helped bring into being the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).

Fans adored Andre and he was equally popular with fellow wrestlers. Women, money and parties were all part of his life. His drinking became the stuff of legend - in one anecdote, WWF star Ric Flair talks about Andre putting away more than 100 beers in one sitting. Somewhat frighteningly, other friends tell stories of his epic flatulence and how he gassed an entire plane-load of people.

Things eventually turn darker as Andre’s body starts failing. The documentary comes to a head with WrestleMania III, a stadium-filling pay-per-view title fight where Andre is cast as the bad guy to the all-American hero Hulk Hogan. Hogan reveals how he scripted the entire fight ahead of time, move by move, but how things ended up going in a very different direction.

It’s surprisingly touching to see an emotional Hogan and WWF boss Vince McMahon tell the story of this fight, and how it was the beginning of the end of Andre’s career and ultimately his life.

Watch Andre The Giant on Showmax now. If you’re a Vodacom subscriber, you can sign up to Showmax before January 31 2019 and get three months of Showmax for free, 5GB of free data every month for three months and R50 off on your Showmax subscription every month for nine months once the first three months have elapsed.
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This article was paid for by Showmax.