André René Roussimoff was better known by his nickname Andre the Giant.
He was also known as the Eighth Wonder of the World because of his enormous size.
For two plus decades, Andre was a wrestling superstar, entertaining audiences around the world.
Outside the ring, he also impressed doing superhuman things that only a man of his size could do, such as drinking a staggering amount of beer in one sitting.
Andre before he became a giant
Andre the Giant was born in 1946 with a condition called gigantism or acromegaly.
For Andre, this meant that when he turned 13, he was already the size of a large adult male.
Because of his large size, his father used him on the family farm, where his brother Jacques once said he could do the work of three men.
He moved from the countryside to the big city of Paris, where he worked as a mover during the day and began training as a wrestler at night.
In 1971, Andre made his way to North America and Canada, where he became a huge success, regularly selling out the Montreal Forum.
Eventually, attendance at his matches began to decline as promoters were unable to put him up against credible opponents due to his enormous size.
Inside the ring, he used his size and strength to his advantage
Instead of a wrestler who could perform various maneuvers such as dropkicks, McMahon wanted him to be considered an immobile animal.
It was also at the same time that McMahon dubbed him “Andre the Giant”.
Over the next 20 years, Andre developed numerous rivalries with other wrestlers, including Hulk Hogan, whom he first fought in 1980 at Shea Stadium.
Per McMahon’s request years earlier, Andre moved methodically around the ring, although later in his career, the pain of his condition caused him to slow down.
Despite his pain, he often demonstrated his immense strength by picking up other wrestlers with ease and knocking them down like rag dolls.
In one match, he picked up two 200-pound wrestlers, one over each shoulder, and walked them around the ring before putting them down.
In his career, Andre had a record of 127-23-41.
How big was Andre the Giant?
How big was Andre the Giant?
Andre the Giant holding a can of beer.
During his career, Andre the Giant was considered a 7-foot-4-inch, 520-pound wrestler.
His enormous size allowed him to do some pretty spectacular things outside of the ring as well.
One of the things he was best known for was drinking.
In the HBO documentary Andre the Giant, he regularly ate a case of wine or four six-packs in one sitting.
WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair said in the documentary that he once saw Andre drink 106 beers in a single sitting.
Andre the Giant throws Mike Adams.
According to one friend, Andre also had an appetite to match his drinking.
In a 1981 Sports Illustrated article, Andre described how he would have fun with his superhuman strength by lifting a friend’s car and moving it to another location.
Andre also earned big checks during his heyday where he was reportedly paid $400,000 a year in the 1970s.
Unfortunately, as is often the case for individuals with gigantism, Andre the Giant died at a young age in 1993.