Andre the Giant Documentary Review

Fans, take a look at this. Can you believe that?

Perhaps even, let's compare it to the size of

my head. Andre the... And from Grenoble in the

French Alps, weighing 477 pounds, the eighth

wonder of the world... He's bigger than all of

us. He's bigger than all of us. He kept everybody

in line. He was the guy. He was famous on a different

level. Literally the biggest celebrity in the

world. How about your diet? How much food do

you eat a day? You knew that you were seeing

something unique in the world. Andre was an attraction.

There was no level of comfort. It had to be an

uncomfortable life They think of him as this

legendary drinker He drank because he was in

pain People would not leave him alone The reality

of who he was was getting more intense on him.

He knew he wasn't gonna live long month after

month you can see Andre failing Andre commanded

great respect. He was not the most articulate

man in the world. He spoke in other ways. He

was a figure of the imagination come to life.

Mother Nature has done something really magnificent

here. He did sports entertainment before there

was sports entertainment. Welcome to the podcast

arena coming to the ring at this time hello and

welcome to maya mikes this is episode thirty

seven we're going to be talking about the under

the giant hb0 documentary hb0 sports special

i'm of course tfg1 mike joining me is ryan the

uneven floe mergley hello sir yo yo man this

was interesting this episode is going to be kind

of like a combination between Talking about the

documentary and almost like a superstar spotlight

for Andre cuz wow his career is just crazy Yeah,

oh boy so yeah, we're to start you're probably

Getting into it a little differently than I am

that's great. I'll just start with the negatives,

okay There's a couple things that stuck out to

me so I've been a wrestling fan forever and One

of the stories I wanted to bring up is the fact

I saw Andre the giant wrestle in person Against

Jake the snake Roberts in Cornwall when I was

nine years old, okay? So that was a while ago,

obviously obviously but he was definitely I know

the phrase gets thrown around a lot in this special

and in general, but he was definitely larger

than life. And if you ever saw him, trust me,

it's memorable. Same with if you ever seen the

Undertaker come to the ring at all, that is also

very memorable. But Andre is just a different

specimen. He is, yeah. So this was done, this

special was done by the ESPN 30 for thirty team.

And I generally like how in depth they get into

certain topics. I kind of wish they had gone

a little more in depth on this. As somebody that

grew up watching wrestling and listens to podcasts

and that kind of thing, there was a fair amount

of stuff that I had heard before and knew it

would have been neat to me to get some confirmation

of some of the stories surrounding him. They

mentioned that There's so many rumors and that

sort of thing. They never really get into a lot

of them. Yeah, no. And I liked how they spoke

with the family. I really wish they had spoken

to his daughter a little more. There was really

only the one segment that kind of stuck out to

me a little bit. Yeah, because like, you know,

I mean, you know, you had his wife on there,

you had his daughter for the one segment, but

it's like, you know, I wasn't sure where they

were going to angle the the film because yeah

the reason why I say this is because I had no

idea he had any kids like I've never I've never

I don't look into personal lives of whomever

it could be wrestlers it could be this it could

be I don't I don't yeah you know I just what

you know i'd like to respect them for what entertainment

or sporting events or sports entertainment wherever

you want to call it and whomever doesn't matter

if it's wrestling or if it's cartoons or whatever

it's like you know movies i don't care you know

as long as tom cruise still gives me great mission

impossible movies i don't care what he does is

who he's married to this week uh... you know

it but the fact that you know the way that this

was presented was interesting because I was actually

almost like my jaw almost hit the floor when

he was when it was like oh he did this you know

he left everything to his daughter he did this

all for his daughter that it's like oh okay and

you got to remember though you know his career

was you know years and you know decades and decades

and decades ago when there was no social media

there was no internet there was no you know Celebrities

private lives were actually private. I mean,

you know you had to read something in the newspaper

to to find out about Whatever. Yeah, it just

would have been nice to see a bit more in the

familial familial life for yeah having said that

just taking this in order now I loved the I Loved

most of this actually and I really enjoyed the

opening bits just talking about his time growing

up and it's yeah it's time in france growing

just that was well done really enjoyed that yeah

i can't imagine what it would have been like

this is uh and i'll get this out of the way now

it's funny we were talking about infinity war

just before recording i thought this documentary

was kind of depressing it doesn't surprise me

how Isolated he was you know considering his

size and to They mentioned it a few times that

People are just people are dinks and yeah, a

lot of people were mean to him and that makes

me really sad Yeah, because he was well known

as a as a generally a nice person Yeah, the only

time throughout this entire documentary that

I saw him ever really get mad is his his handler

when his handler was telling the story about

how he first came in and you know I thought I'm

part of the crew and I get to go back and he's

like get out get out you know yeah that's the

only time yeah if you didn't respect wrestling

he didn't like you yeah yeah if you ever said

oh it's fake or something like that you were

in trouble obviously yeah um it surprises me

I don't know why because I I mean I was more

of a Hulk guy than anything else when I was a

kid so I mean, I remember Hulk vs. Andre and

all that, but it surprised me in the documentary

when they were like, ooh, he hated Randy Macho

Man Savage. Like, wow. A lot of it's because

Macho Man had an ego. Macho Man knew he was good,

which he is. Or was, sorry, but that doesn't

surprise me that much. So getting into the Hogan

stuff. That kind of bugged me because there's

a lot of time dedicated to Hogan in this yeah

Fair and there's a fair amount of time dedicated

to the Match which that sort of makes sense But

there was an awful lot of time dedicated to Hogan

and that's what really disappointed me. So this

is by the 30 for 30 guys, this feels like it's

very much a let's test the waters for Hogan to

come back to WWE and see how people feel about

him. Which I could have done without 20 25 minutes

of an hour and 40 minute documentary on Andre

the giant Being dedicated to the rise of Hulk

Hogan. I know they're intertwined a little bit

There's quite a few stories of it that I enjoyed

and segments that I think are really important

to have but not all the stuff No, not the only

thing I felt that was super important in this

with Hogan was when he was basically sitting

there telling us about how they communicated

for the match at WrestleMania 3. yeah that i

really enjoyed the rest of it i'm like wait is

this a documentary about under the giant or hulk

hogan i can't decide segments of the two of them

obviously i think right yeah that was good you

know the stuff where andres actually there for

that was yeah important and some of the of the

other things but yeah just having hogan there

and it's not meant as a Disrespect on Hogan or

no, it's more like what were the filmmakers doing

here? Like we mentioned this I don't know if

it was I don't think it was greatest for a moment

We might have mentioned this at WrestleMania

when I said that we were gonna be covering this

And I said it's an HBO documentary and I think

we had talked off air Well, how does that work

with WWE and blah blah blah and this that the

other thing and everything else? mean like you

said this is basically the third the 30 for 30

guys and the HBO people and all that like it

seems like other than interviews don't like Vince

isn't it doesn't seem like in this and it's not

gonna show it obviously but it doesn't seem like

Vince is throwing his weight around about how

this get this got done I don't know if whatever

background all that but like everybody that was

in this that did an interview, Vince, Hogan,

Ric Flair you know they pretty much got all the

old guard like I don't think there's anybody

that's actually new in like I would say in the

last 17 years I don't think there's anybody in

in this this documentary from WWE currently That's

talking about Andre the giant and why would they

be because it was a different era obviously,

but yeah No, they shouldn't shouldn't have had

anybody current and having Hogan kind of In this

that much to me felt like a little bit that It

was WWE in control in the end because they wanted

him to be portrayed really positively and they

went back to the era in which Hogan was at his

peak and There's nothing wrong with any of this

and Hogan is still alive. So I don't have a problem

with them Potentially redeeming his image. It

just feels really weird to do it in a have that

in an Andre the Giant special. It doesn't bother

me as much as what WWE has done with the Ultimate

Warrior, which is pretty much DFI, a guy who...

Warrior's kind of a piece of shit human being.

There's not a nice way to put that. He was super

racist, homophobic, and all of the above. Hogan,

I think, made a mistake. I don't think he's a

bad person. He made a major mistake, but he's

got the chance to teach people and he's done

that so far So that's not what I have a problem

with it. Just you know, it's an hour and 40 on

Andre's life There's some other stuff I would

have enjoyed seeing and the other reason I bring

all of this up and bring up WWE and that I feel

like they controlled it I really would have liked

to have heard from a doctor about whether or

not wrestling hastened Andre's conditions. Yeah.

I know they talked about that wrestling was the

one thing he looked forward to and he got the

operations in order to make it to WrestleMania

three. But they also talk heavily about the toll

or that his size put on his ankles and his knees.

Well, those are two things that wrestling works

over on anybody. whether it's Daniel Bryan or

The Undertaker or Andre, it doesn't matter your

size or anything like that. It takes a toll and

I would have been interested to hear a little

more on that because they did have the doctor

on who worked on his ankle of course when it

broke and he talked about that Andre's ankle

bones were the size of a normal human's knees

and he came up with the term for his condition.

Just would have liked to have heard of maybe

a little bit more about the medical condition

Yeah, I would I would have to but I'm pretty

well nitpicking. I really enjoyed this by the

way. Yeah And the end it was sad. Yeah, I mean

the fact that you know, he died alone in a hotel

room Not long after the death of his father.

Yeah, I mean Especially for a guy who loved people

I think the way he did but he was unable to be

close to a lot of people and watching this I

Watching this he and the way there's not a whole

lot of interviews with really close friends and

that sort of thing he was kind of isolated which

is sad and Vince brings up that he was angry

with him near the end and he Felt kind of bitter

About the business moving on from him and having

to retire and that sort of thing it's just a

lot of sad stuff there he impacted a lot of people

positively though and They had a fair amount

of stuff and stories from the Princess Bride,

which I really liked Yeah, that was and that's

definitely positive because that's a movie and

that's a performance that's gonna live on for

forever Yeah, I love that section because you

get Carrie Elwa's you get the actress that was

in the movie basically learning that So he didn't

have to lift any weight at that point. They basically

had her on wires. Yeah, and that was a little

bit more about why I kind of wish they had more

of the impact of wrestling or his physical condition.

But anyway, yeah. Sorry, go on. Oh, absolutely.

You know, yeah, it's one of those things where

looking at that, because let's face it, that's

his big non -wrestling. Fame thing is that is

that movie decades from now? He's he's actually

if not already Better known for it. Yeah, probably

gonna continue because absolutely Yeah, thanks.

I mean thanks to the network and I heavily recommend

to people They're Andre the giant collections

on the network go check some of it out his work

for I really wish I knew what changed in Vince's

mind, but his work for somebody who English wasn't

his primary language and who got things across

in different ways was amazing. I don't know why

Vince has very much moved on from that. Makes

me kind of annoyed because I look at a guy like

Cesaro who has absolutely everything going for

him. but Vince doesn't want to give him a chance

because he's foreign, essentially. Well, he gave

Andre, who is also a physical specimen, in different

ways a chance, and look how that turned out.

Wrestling would probably not be the same without

him. Yeah. Yeah, wrestling would not be where

it is today without Andre the Giant. I mean,

the undefeated streak... lasted pretty much 15

years or so 73 to 87 like that's what that's

the other thing I loved about this documentary

was how they chronicled the undefeated streak

and basically you know Andre the giant was who

he is before you know he was essentially the

70s and 80s version of the undertaker before

the undertaker came around kind of a thing Yeah,

and I just absolutely love that like who's gonna

come in and who's gonna do this and how is this

gonna be? Yeah, and I like the statements too

for some of the guys that if Andre didn't want

to lose to you Or didn't like the end of a match.

You couldn't do anything about it. Anyway Exactly.

That's why I like Hogan court, you know going

through telling us what the Yeah, the choreography

was supposed like he's like, how are we gonna

finish now? Are we gonna finish it? I don't know.

I don't know and and yeah, I What I also like

about this story is like Andre was essentially

a face his whole career until the whole Hogan

thing until the whole WrestleMania thing They're

like, how are we gonna turn this guy who everybody

loves into a heel? Like, how are we going to

turn him into a bad guy? How are we going to

do this and still have people... And the solution

was easy, just have him come out with Bobby Heenan.

Exactly! Heenan in so many ways, for anyone who

didn't grow up with him, was similar to Paul

Heyman now, and no disrespect meant to Heyman,

but well, Heenan might be the greatest talker

of all time, so that was smart, and it was...

Good segment for them to include obviously obviously

yeah part of history Yeah, I just liked the you

know they bring it up to that Andre took pride

that he never hurt anybody and Man, look at him.

You know they mentioned it in the documentary

if Andre wanted to hurt you or Didn't like the

finish or didn't like how you're treating him.

There was nothing you could do about it He was

just too strong too powerful for anyone to do

anything And these are pro wrestlers they could

throw either of us around like a rag doll and

Here's Andre the Giants who could do the same

thing to all of them It's not a it's not something

you ever see Again, probably either No, the only

person And I know this is gonna be sacrilegious

Heenan But the only person currently that is

anywhere close to what Heenan was the awesomeness

that was Bobby Heeman at the time as far as being

a talker Honestly is Heyman Say what you will

about Paul Heyman, but I mean he is one of them.

That's why I made that comparison Yeah, but for

anyone that's what I mean for people now That's

the the closest comparison I can make but who

of human was he was just they mentioned it on

the video that Sorry in the HBO series that coming

out with he and it was the most evil thing you

could do and He that's so they pair Andre up

with him and they have the segment on You know

another guy good old Piper's pit with her honey.

Oh, yeah It's so neat seeing all of these people

together and they mentioned that they had When

WWF there we go got to say it normally for once

Took over all of the territories. They mentioned

a lot of the classic guys They brought in like

Piper junkyard dog and of course Andre bringing

everyone together and saw snippets of I saw Andre

wrestle Jake the snake. It was the middle of

their feud and So that was pretty neat for me

Because I saw that 28 years ago now roughly.

Oh wow. Yeah, it was a little bit of time ago

But yeah, he's not somebody you ever forget and

if you ever see him you won't forget him either

and there's very few Humans that have existed

Much less in my lifetime, but overall like that

and the fact that he was He genuinely seems to

have touched people in a positive way and he

used his Size to be positive when so many were

negative towards him is is touching And it makes

the ends that much sadder. I mean he died at

46 which a part of it is because he refused a

lot of treatments fearing that It would impact

his wrestling career Which is too bad. You wonder

if that would be allowed today right We look

at it with stuff how they treated daniel brian

for example would they let him take the personal

risk of injury nowadays who knows i hope not

by the way yeah i hope not i mean that would

not be good no but it's yeah it's just i hate

doing this in order because obviously we end

with the negative which is his death Yeah, should

have done this should have done this show the

reverse. Yeah, watch it in reverse and watch

everybody walk backwards Yeah Still though this

is worth a watch for anybody who in particular

anybody who didn't live through that era or maybe

didn't follow wrestling through that era or somebody

who has seen the princess bride and wants to

know more about this guy who I Even in a movie

He doesn't look anything like anybody else that

was on screen, right? Absolutely He literally

was larger than life people as I said before

people use that term to describe People or things

or events, but in his case it it's the only way

to describe him. Yeah Yeah, I mean Like Again,

what I liked at the beginning of it is how his

mom and his brother are talking about him growing

up. Quite literally, growing up. And the gigantism

and all of that, and just the struggles he had

to go through. And yeah, you're right, it is

kind of sad that they end on his death, but...

I don't want to sound disrespectful here, but

there's no other place you could really end on.

one i don't know that's that is how it goes yeah

it's disrespectful it's just yes that's the way

life is unfortunately that that's how how it's

gotta go but wow the impact he had is something

that's not It's it's a net positive. It just

can't be underestimated or anything like that

there's so many people who got into wrestling

because of him and Because of the spectacle and

because of that WrestleMania 3 that changed an

entire Changed an entire industry, but I think

he could make a point that it helped change sports

in general as well as WWF's using cable and becoming

a national sort of phenomenon as well as WWF

just they knew how to expand and how to take

over cable and Andre was a huge part of that

so he changed He really changed cable. He changed

sports. He changed wrestling He changed a lot

of things he changed everything almost for the

better pretty much so throughout his entire career

that's the other thing about this is they basically

give us a give us and Everybody else watching

it that may not know what we know a history of

wrestling in the territories and all that and

basically how Vince jr kirk you know visit kennedy

mcmahon basically came in and took over pretty

much the entire world at this point and so that's

it is the uh... uh... it's always the businessmen

you know pretty much so uh... anything else we

want to say about our day watch this it's he

uh... There were so many times that I was touched

on this, or touched by this, that he had touched

watching this by his life. And as I said before,

it's worth it whether you're a fan of him or

not. And it was well done enough that yeah, I

definitely think it's worth it for people to

watch. I think the... ESPN 30 for 30 ones on

different wrestlers in particular the Scott Hall

Episode was also excellent and worth a watch

for people also not a Who also a tough story

at points, but Andre lived He lived 46 years,

which I The sad part is a lot of them weren't

painless years They mentioned we brought up to

the time on Princess Bride, but they brought

up your Carrie Elwes told the story that He drank

so much to get away from the pain. That's How

he did it and that's a sad aspect but the positives

are he did live 46 years and he did really kind

of change things for the positive you watch how

Billy Crystal and Kerry and everybody that was

associated in particular with the Princess Bride

segments. Watch how they beam when they talk

about him. He changed people's lives for the

positive that he met. And that's something that

no matter how much time or how little time he

got to spend, not everybody can say. It's a net

positive. Where whatever you believe I hope he's

able to know that he changed a lot of people

and he changed a lot of things For the positive

in his short time here Yeah, he did absolutely

they do obviously because it was part of his

life. They do focus a little bit on the drinking

and everybody that talked about it is like Yeah,

Andre can't just drink a beer Andre has and Andre

didn't really like beer Andre like wine and Andre

didn't just drink one glass of wine he drank

a whole case of one like you know 20 and 21 yeah,

yeah exactly like Just looking at like There's

an image in the in the in the documentary of

him holding a single beer bottle and the beer

bottle looks like It's nothing in the palm of

his hand. I mean, you know, blink and you miss

it kind of a thing. Oh yeah, he's just, oof,

then the pictures of his feet beside other people,

or his hands, or... My favorite moment is him

and Mean Gene when Mean Gene's like, look at

the size of his hand compared to mine, and then

just without anything, Andre just puts his hand

over Mean Gene's face, and I just love that because...

I am a huge fan of Mean Gene. I've always been

a huge fan of Mean Gene. And he's like, wow.

I'm like, yeah, wow. It's so crazy. I mean, there

really is no other score to give this documentary

other than, you know, 5 out of 5 or 10 out of

10 or whatever. Do we wish certain things were

focused on more than others? Yes, but... It's

the life and time of the guy and With what his

career was and you know who was always in his

corner and most of the time that was Hulk whether

they're facing each other or whether they're

friends Yeah, I just absolutely dug this this

was so good He was a blast overall and as I said

before it's worth watching Really, no matter

who you are fan or not fan or whatever side question

yes one of the negatives with these HBO documentaries

and the ESPN 30 for 30s how available is this

to you okay get into this too much but I had

trouble finding this in a easy or legal manner

I found a legal manner because I have something

here in the states that just Canada just doesn't

like or the service doesn't like Canada or doesn't

want to be in Canada. It's called Hulu. You can

add premium stuff to Hulu and I got a one -week

free trial for HBO versus having to pay $14 .99

a month right off the bat so I'm gonna obviously

have to cancel that because while I love HBO

is no I'm not we are no I just well I do love

HBO and all that and I love all their work I'm

not adding that into my cable package yeah and

it's all rights and that sort of thing see I

don't I don't think that's all right I I mean

I get it right as in it's it's the different,

so different TV stations have different rights

to show things. Those are all these, oops. And

then you've got the additional problem of the

CRTC limiting content because there's not enough

Canadian content, et cetera, et cetera. So it

was a pain to try to find this. So there's, we

do have HBO Go up here. Right. Yeah. Well, if

you had, if you - It's a pain in the ass to use

up here, though. Is it really? I find it is.

And another subscription for a lot of stuff that

I just get on Blu -ray when it comes out. Yeah.

So for their shows, I picked up Westworld and

I buy Game of Thrones on Blu -ray when they come

out rather than illegally download. or some of

the other alternatives but there's not enough

stuff that I don't own or that I don't buy for

me to justify a using HBO goes and yet another

separate service I already have Netflix and all

these others right I buy TV seasons from Google

play frequently which is not half bad and stuff

like that but What happened to everything being

easier to find because of yeah, really Yeah,

it's it's crazy, um, but yeah, I yeah the the

good thing here in the states is Yes, there is

HBO Go. Yes, I could have added HBO with my cable

package kind of a thing, but it's just so much

easier to just do it as an add -on through Hulu

since they offer it. And they offer a one -week

free trial, so I was only going to watch one

thing, which was this one thing, so... I mean,

technically, I watched it for free, but I watched

it for free legally. Oh! So what you're saying

is we're never doing any HBO specials again.

Until they give you another free trial. Possibly,

who knows. I don't know. Coming up next, folks,

we have the first co -branded pay -per -view

since they're not doing the split brands anymore.

We have Backlash. Are you ready for the Backlash?

No. Oh, boy. I barely know what the card is.

Part of that's because we just had the... Roam

rumble. Yeah, and some of the stuff was just

set up for backlash matches other stuff just

It was just to do for the rumble, which is fine.

I don't mind when they do this Every once in

a while I wouldn't want them to do it every month

where they have got two pay -per -views or a

big event and then the pay -per -view right against

each other So I'm not not complaining. It just

yeah Hmm Yeah, I don't know. It's just crazy.

Yeah, I'm watching Raw and SmackDown, but I don't

know. I enjoyed raw partially because it was

from Montreal and yeah, absolutely That was awesome.

It hasn't been a secret that I'm a huge fan of

Sammy and Kevin It's really oh if you're Vince

you have to be really concerned though, but the

fact I know it's his home country But you have

to be concerned about the fact that gender got

cheered more than Roman That is problematic not

to mention. We've talked about it a few times,

but man Braun Strowman beat up Sammy and Kevin

and still got cheered. If that's not a sign that

maybe he's the guy, you should be building around.

I don't know what is. Yeah. This is their hometown

and he got cheered. They were speaking French

and they cheered Braun. Yeah. Anywho, that's

not good. Yeah, that's not good though. Like,

that's not a good thing. Well, not if you love

not if you're in love with Roman as Vince for

some reason is I don't understand that at all

If they just turned him bad turn him heel looking

Andre Yeah, he'll briefly and had a mega feud

For him imagine if they did that with okay, they

give Braun the belt and you know, they give and

then Roman turns heel and Turns on him. Yeah,

he hated people would love to see him get beat

up I mean he'd be hated more than he already

is. Sorry Yeah, anyway That's another discussion

for another show. See now. We're pulling the

WWE. We're talking about Things that don't are

not important to Andre the Giants life in an

Andre the Giants special. That's true The Actually,

there is one cool thing that happened between

Greatest Royal Rumble and now. One of my tweets

actually got liked by Titus O 'Neil. It was the

one where I said something about, obviously,

the trip and fall. Yeah. I said, WWE Graves 13's

reaction to Titus O 'Neal tripping into the ring

at WWE GUR is priceless. So great. Titus O 'Neal

favorited that. So that was kind of cool. Nice.

Yay. I'm Twitter famous. Not really. Sorry. I

don't care. um... but yes it's a pretty neat

title so it seems like a good guy yeah he's a

really good guy uh... very cool so yeah coming

up like i said greatest road network is from

a lot of backlash for interest role god i'm losing

my mind today uh... backlash and then after that

who knows folks something to some things will

happen between backlash money in the bank or

whatever is next after backlash where the people

find you online sir at night being on Twitter.

I am at TF2 and Mike on Twitter. You can follow

at GeekCastRadio and at This Week in Geek for

the respective network Twitters. And we will

catch you next time here on Mayhem Mikes. And

we're gonna close it out with some Andre the

Giant clips. Andre commanded great respect. He

was not the most articulate man in the world.

Look at me when I'm talking to you. He spoke

in other ways. Oh, boy, look at that.