10 Facts about Andre the Giant

Andre the Giant was most known for his time in the world of pro wrestling, but he has also become a pop culture icon over time as well. Billed from “Grenoble in the French Alps,” Andre the Giant toured the world as an attraction from the early 1960s all the way through 1992, most notably headlining events for the World Wrestling Federation, now WWE, from 1973 through 1991.

Unfortunately, at a hotel in Paris on January 27, 1993, Andre the Giant passed away in his sleep at the age of 46 due to congestive heart failure. However, his legacy remains as one of the greatest the world of pro wrestling has ever seen. Here are ten giant facts about Andre Roussimoff, better known as Andre the Giant.

10 Andre the Giant Facts

1. 1. Andre the Giant wasn’t as tall as he was billed as on television. (source) Wrestling has been known to exaggerate one’s size, and the case with Andre the Giant was no different. On television, the former WWF Champion was billed as being 7’4″. In reality, he stood at 6 foot 9 and ¾ inches.

2. 2. Andre the Giant once had a bar tab of close to $40,000. (source) Andre the Giant starred in the film The Princess Bride, which debuted in theaters in 1987. When he checked out of the London Hyatt after filming the movie, he had a bar tab of nearly $40,000.00. Andre the Giant was a notorious drinker. There are stories of Andre downing more than 150 16-ounce cans of beer in one night.

3. 3. Andre the Giant had the shortest World Heavyweight Championship reign in the history of WWE. (source) On February 5, 1988, the WWF aired The Main Event as an NBC Special, headlined by a WrestleMania III rematch as Hulk Hogan put up the World Title against Andre the Giant. Following a controversial ending that saw Andre end Hogan’s nearly four year reign as WWF Champion, Andre surrendered the strap to Ted DiBiase, making it the shortest WWE World Championship reign in history.

4. 4. By age 12, he already weighed 200 pounds and was over 6 feet tall. (source) By the age of 14, he would leave home, and when he returned home by the age of 19, he had grown so much that his parents barely recognized him.

5. 5. Andre the Giant is one of only 4 wrestlers to have a match at the first six WrestleManias. (source) Andre the Giant was a staple in the earlier days of WWE’s biggest event of the year, having appeared in featured matches at the first six WrestleManias. He’s one of only four wrestlers to do so, along with Tito Santana, Brutus the Barber Beefcake and Hulk Hogan.

6. 6. Andre the Giant wore a size 22 shoe. (source) Not only were Andre the Giant’s wrists in size equivalent to that of a Gorilla’s, but the man wore a size 22 shoe.

7. 7. In Japan, Andre the Giant often had to substitute hotel toilets for bathtubs. (source) As a world-traveling pro wrestler, Andre the Giant did many tours of Japan. However, the hotel bathrooms in the Land of the Rising Sun are much smaller than they are in the United States, so Andre the Giant often times had to use the hotel bathtubs instead of toilets — or, as Hulk Hogan has said, newspapers were used as well.

8. 8. Andre the Giant was the first person to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. (source) Over the course of Andre’s career in wrestling, he worked more than 5,000 matches, earning him his rightful spot as the first ever inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame back in 1993. He was the only inductee that year, and to date, there are 234 inductees.

9. 9. He reportedly consumed more than 7,000 calories of alcohol every day. (source) There are countless stories of Andre the Giant in bars over the years, as well as several accounts of him drinking several bottles of wine or hundreds of cans of beer in a single sitting, giving him the title by many as the “Greatest Drunk on Earth.”

10. 10. If a friend drove a small car, Andre the Giant would play pranks on them by moving the vehicles. (source) During his time living in Paris, Andre the Giant realized that he was strong enough to physically move small cars. To play pranks on his friends, he would move their vehicles to place them between buildings, turn them around, or put them up against trees.

Andre the Giant is one of the most famous professional wrestlers ever, and remains a pop culture icon today. Do you have any Andre the Giant facts to share? Let us know in the comments!

Featured image photo credit: John McKeon, Late 1980s. Originally found on Wikimedia. Image was resized and cropped. Creative Commons 2.0.

This page has been updated to include more facts.