Bigger Than Life, Kinder Than Most🏆🐦‍⬛❤️

This week on the podcast, I’m joined by my friend Paige and her husband John as we dive into the incredible life of André the Giant—wrestling legend, cultural icon, and one of the most genuinely kind-hearted figures to ever step into the ring. 💫

We talk about André’s rise in the world of wrestling, the challenges he faced living with gigantism, and the stories that show who he really was beyond the spotlight. From his unforgettable role in The Princess Bride to the way he treated fans and friends with warmth and generosity, we explore what truly made André so beloved.

This episode is all about looking past the larger-than-life persona and appreciating the humanity, humor, and kindness that made him an icon in every sense of the word.

#PodcastEpisode #AndreTheGiant #WrestlingHistory #ThePrincessBride #KindnessMatters #PopCulture #PodcastLife #NewEpisode

Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to Corbits of Coffee. I'm Liz, and today I'm joined by Paige and John. Say hi guys. So we're gonna talk about Andre the Giant and his legacy, what he had to deal with for issues throughout his life, and some of his best and most memorable roles and who he was as a person. So let's start with his wrestling career. Uh and John, you said you had some good stories on um on him that you know about being a fellow fan of Andre.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

He when he first was in wrestling, he was a basically a side show attraction. It weren't really advertising for him as like seeing wrestle. It's like come see the seven foot four giant. Like he'd be lend out to different territories across the United States to help promoters make money.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

So he was like a sideshow for the beginning of his career.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Isn't that basically what wrestling was?

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Well, yeah, it was it was a carnival, like a bunch of it's it really started on the Carnies, and then once they try to settle into different territories across the United States, um they would just like trade their top stars with each other.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Yeah, because it looks like it says uh I'm looking at his I'm looking at Wikipedia, thank you, Wikipedia, as let's see, because yeah, he had a uh let's see, 1973 he had uh an agent for from the uh from WWF or Worldwide Wrestling Federation. Yes, now WWE, former WWW or view cubed.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

I lost to the panda.

unknown 1:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Now WWF is World Wildlife Foundation.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Oh, so they took the uh they took the acronym.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

That's the joke, isn't it, honey? WWE Tapped Out to the Panda.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Do you say Tapped Out to the Panda?

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Yeah. The logo for World World Wildlife Found Foundation is uh panda.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Well, I love that. I love pandas. Um yeah, it said that his yeah, his agent suggested several changes to his booking and presentation, to Ant's star power, and like a whole thing about portraying him as like an immovable monster, like it's a perception to the size, and like um for maneuvers like drop kicks, which I feel like is like the the one I remember when I first like heard about wrestling. I'm like, dropkick or suplex, because I love suplex. That just also just is fun to say suplex, and also it is a fun move. Looks like it hurts a lot, but it looks like a fun move.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

What was Andre's like signature move?

SPEAKER_03 2:24

Andre was he was just like he would slap guys in the corner. He would like just no-sell their offense. And I think a big splash, I think, was his splash.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

He could splash.

SPEAKER_03 2:33

Like they'd be on the like he would knock him to the ground and you just not front.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Oh, like you landed on the room.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

He wouldn't go up high.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Okay, because I'd be like, that would kill them for sure. I'd be like, there's a 520-pound man that's about to smack down on you.

SPEAKER_03 2:47

If if he liked you, he'll protect you.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

If he didn't like you who were some of Andre's like wrestling like friends and enemies, would you say?

SPEAKER_03 2:58

Uh no one really had a bad word to say about Andre, because again, why would you Yeah? Anchor the Giant.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

Um, I guess his most famous rival rivalry was probably with Hogan in 837. I want to say that's 87.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

Yeah, it's saying in the 80s, he had a thing with Hulk Hogan. There's actually a picture here on the oh my god, Andre had like a ton of hair in this photo. He had like a kind of like a mop top of like hair. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:25

So that was probably like a shortcut. They basically sold their they had to sold this 100,000 seat stadium on the back of Hogan and and Andre. Like come see this matchup. And arguably it's the most famous shot that WWE's ever had, is Hogan picking him up for the body slam.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Hulk Hogan picked up Andre?

SPEAKER_03 3:44

Yeah, Hulk. He's helping him, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Whoa. Dang.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Yeah, I hope he's helping him. He's gonna throw out his he would have thrown out his back, I'm pretty sure. Jesus, that's insane. That must have gotten so many views. Oh everyone must have gone crazy.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Was that at WrestleMania or is that a WrestleMania 3? Cool. How many WrestleManias was he in? He wrestled? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

He wrestled in the first six. Yeah. And didn't really wrestle much at the end because at that point Idra could barely move. 93. He famously had I think I think it was 14 bottles of wine before that.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Yeah, we were talking about um before recording, we're talking about his um because he couldn't the alcohol couldn't go through him quite quickly for like as a normal person and having to overcompensate by drinking more and drinking more like wine and like cases of beer. Uh that sounded like I'm I'm surprised his liver made it that far. But it's also the growth, uh the growth issue. I'm sure that also probably portrayed into that. So unusually large body with that kind of stuff. So probably unusually large organs as well.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

Yeah, he had the famous story.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

Oh, sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 4:54

The famous story was during the princess bride that he had it was 128 12 ounce beer uh like beers. And he kind of passed out on the hotel in the hotel lobby, and they couldn't get him up. So they just say that. They would threw a blanket over him and they put velvet ropes around him like uh do not disturb.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Like the ropes. I just imagine like a little do not disturb Sam, but it just hung on like his clothing or something, and just like hooked on there, and they're like, yeah, just sleep and be. Yeah. For Andre. Yeah. I hope he was comfortable or somewhat comfortable if they put some blankets on him and stuff. I mean, not sleep where you where you land. No one's gonna wake him up. Well, I wouldn't want to wake him up. Yeah, it says also a thing um on his wrestling after the hell Hulk Hogan matchup, um, he was pitted against uh Killer Khan, known as the Mongolian Giant. Uh, according to the storyline, snapped his ankle, so snapped Andre's ankle during a match in May of like early 81 um by leaping off the top rope and crashing down upon it with his knee drop. Man, there's some killer moves in wrestling. What's like the what's probably the most aggressive move you can do in wrestling that could cause some pretty bad bodily injury?

SPEAKER_03 6:16

See, things like cause cause legitimate injury. I'd say I'd probably say the spear, where they just it's a full shoulder tackles with a gut.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

How?

SPEAKER_03 6:27

Yeah. It depends on spear. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

What about like the pile driver?

SPEAKER_03 6:33

That probably was the tombstones. Being dropped on your head.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Yeah. Oh, so is it tombstone?

SPEAKER_03 6:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 6:39

Well you're not supposed to you gotta keep them safe.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Oh, you're not supposed to land them on the head.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Yeah, but just make it look like it.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Fake it.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

Yeah. Take it to the makeup.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

Exactly. Well, this is kind of a fun fact. Well, so they said for after that for the uh the injury, they were like he stayed at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, which is kind of funny. Uh, because my sister worked there at one point, uh my older sister. So I was gonna be like, that's really funny that that was the case. Um, and then he returned, and then I think they battled again, but it resulted in a double disqualification. How often does that happen? What does that happen?

SPEAKER_03 7:13

Why would it happen? Uh that was I was many for that haunted card. It was uh they did like a little schmaz the month before championships held up, and they didn't want to put the belt on either of them. So like, all right, so we're not gonna pin them. So someone brings in the chair, they hit him with a chair.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

The chair! Give him the chair!

SPEAKER_03 7:31

That's a DQ, and then the other one takes the chair and hits the other guy with it. It's like, all right, so I had to double DQ, even though the person that hits him first should be the one that gets swapped by it, doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Just bring him the chair.

unknown 7:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

The point, the point is we don't want to have a winner.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Makes sense. But geez, that's like actually, I don't know why. That reminds me of funny story from uh I went for a a wrestling thing in Worcester uh with Zach and some of our friends, and um there was one where they said, talk it out, and they were like yelling it, and then the guys both grabbed the chairs they're gonna hit each other with, and they sit down and they start talking, and then they slap each other.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

That's hilarious. Was that the thing at the DCU Center around Christmas?

SPEAKER_02 8:12

No, is that uh this one was kind of a like, I don't even know. This kind of looked like it was like a rec haul or something. I'll have to find out the name exactly, but you guys should come with us next time because it was really funny. And then somebody yelled, Kiss, Kiss, and they didn't do that, obviously, but it was it, it was the suggestion in the audience were insane. Um, and then I got to actually take a picture with one of the female wrestlers who was uh named Gomi, who was dressed up kind of like a gnome, and she was so funny, but she's like this thing of tooth right here. She was like, she's much shorter than I expected when like she stepped off the stage because it's pretty high up. And I was like, oh, she's like a lot shorter, but she's like like bulky though. And she was like, she's really like, she's like, they're like amped up. Um and I was just like, she was like one of the nicest people, but she wasn't the heel, so it kind of made sense. She was she's the winner. There's also somebody that's called, I think it was like a wrestler by the name of like um it's your mom. Like literally, that's the whole name, it's your mom. And it's just like this guy that kind of looks like he's from like a party rock music video. That's the only way I can describe it. I'll have to find pictures of it. I'll put it in the post.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Well, uh, John, do you John, do you have any other tales of Andre the Giant that you can recall?

SPEAKER_03 9:25

Uh that is those those are the famous ones.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Those are the famous ones. Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Well, wait, we should tell him the wait, we should tell him that last thing that we we read that was really uh heartwarming. Remember the thing when he watched his when he watched the copy of um The Princess Bride with his friends? Have you heard this? So here it is. All right, so it was one of his favorite roles, and it meant so much to him, especially with people that like like when he he said that when he was in like the role of Fezik in The Princess Bride, like no one stared at him on set. Everyone was like really cordial to him. And he ended up, he in an interview with somebody, he mentioned this. He he loved the movie so much, like it meant like a ton to him that he ended up making a few of his like wrestling pals watch it with him. So they watched an advanced copy of it on VHS, and he watched they watched it with him like over and over again while like having dinner, drinks, and then he like asked like really nicely each time, he was like, Did you guys like my performance? And I feel like that's so like cutest. That's just so heartwarming. That's so sweet. I will have to find that clip of um everyone saying so many nice things about him because that makes me cry every time, like whenever they talk about him, like he died too young because he didn't have the stuff where the medical you know support for that kind of issue, which I hope they do now. I'll do some research, but yes, there you go, John. I hope that makes you feel even better about Andre. I'm loving Andre the Giant.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Bye, John. He's going back to his nap. Enjoy your listeners.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

That that John is my husband.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Yes, and they're very cute. I was at their wedding.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

He has like encyclopedic knowledge of sports and fast.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yes. Good, because I don't know much about sports. I'll sort of know about wrestling, but it's violent and it's fun.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Everything I know about wrestling and sports comes from that guy.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

So hey, you got a professional though, which is good. You got somebody that knows their knowledge. Got a man on the inside. You got a man on the inside. That's what everyone needs. You need to, you need to know a guy, you know. You know a guy. Uh there's so we could talk about his childhood because I have his early life up on Wikipedia. Actually, if you want to bring it up on your end too, um, we could go through it. So he was, let's see. So he's a son of immigrants. Um, and he, let's see, his father was Bulgarian, his mother was Polish, he was raised Catholic, and he had two older siblings and two younger siblings. And apparently his childhood nickname was D D. And when he was born, he was, oh my god, he was like a really big baby. He was 13 pounds when he was born. Oh, that's a big baby. 13 pound that's a big that's like a that's like a grown that's like a toddler coming out. That's crazy. And it said um he displayed symptoms of his like gigantism, noted as having a good head taller than other kids with abnormally long hands. It's interesting how it's like long hands, but like not like legs or arms or something like that. I mean, it said they did an interview with his mother. She was five two at the time, and his dad was six foot two. And according to his father, his grandm father was seven foot eight. So he might have had gigantism. And then by the time Andre was twelve, he was about six foot three. And I I know we joked earlier, like off recording, because I was like, yeah, when I I relate because when I was in middle school at 12, I was five seven. Uh, because I was abnormally tall for my I'm I'm like the I'm I guess I'm on the other end of the the height, not the average, but like the ending of like, you know, when they give you like a range, you're like, oh yeah, usually women are between like this and this height. I'm on the longer, I'm on the taller end of it. So yeah, that's that just means I had to slow down my strides when I when I walked in all greens. Yeah. Let's see. So what else did he have? Um if you want to read. Do you have the Wikipedia page up? Yeah. Perfect. Yeah, I'm trying to think what else there is. Heck is he? Man, he had a ton of ring names. So yeah, while you look at over, he his he had, let's see, Andre the Giant Frenchman, the ultimate giant, giant Ferrer. I don't know if I'm saying that right. Um, Giant Machine, Jean Verrer, Monster Eiffel Tower, Monster Rosimov, and the Polish Giant. That that's a lot of names. But yeah, what do you want to mention from his um you can do it for like childhood or otherwise?

SPEAKER_01 13:41

That's a good question. He's got such a such a long career. Could read off his discography. Oh yes, please. Okay. So he's been in a few movies. Uh the first one I cannot pronounce because I think that's French, and I cannot pronounce that word. That looks very French. Yep. Yeah, I don't know. It's a French one. I don't want to try. It was uh nice. Yeah. Uh let's see the six million dollar man, BJ and the bear, the fall guy, Liz brilliant, brilliant, brilliant?

unknown 14:22

Brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

The greatest American hero, Conan the Destroyer, Mickey and Maud. I like to hurt people. The Goonies are good enough, the Princess Bride and Trading Mom, which was a post posthumous release.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

There's a cool fact about his uh about Guinness World him being mentioned in the Guinness World Records book, if you want to mention that one.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Sure, yeah. He was mentioned in the 1974 Guinness Book of World World World Records as the then highest paid wrestler in history. He earned an annual salary of approximately $400,000. Uh the equivalent to that in 2025 is two million two million, two point six million dollars.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

That's a lot of m also, it's kind of crazy to think when you're like, it was this much like back in the day, it would be this much now, is quite the jump. Um damn, that's like a lot. I don't even know what like the average wrestler is paid, but I don't even think it would be like that much, even for like the like the top one. Like I think that's even more than most athlet athletes usually start off with or get to at least halfway in their career. Damn.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

He does have a child. Her name is Robin, and she says she only saw him five times in her entire life until his death. So but speaks very highly of him and his legacy. That's nice.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Oh, it does have the thing about um, because we talked about um recording, we had talked about his issue with alcohol because of being a much larger man and needing to over like compensate with it with more alcohol to get to actually get the feeling of being drunk. Let's see, it says, yeah, it's under the health section of um Doug does the greatest drunk on earth, once consuming 119, 12 US fluid ounces of beer. Um, and it says in total over like 400 liters in six hours. What? That shouldn't be humanly possible, but everything's grown is more expanded in size. So I guess that makes sense. So probably his liver is a lot more well, probably not durable from after that, but I feel like it still had the same problems. And then it mentions the hotel incident where he passed out. Yeah. So yeah, yeah, there's his cause of death, which was in 1993. If you want to talk about that one. Also just look up something here.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

He died of congestive heart failure and an apparent heart attack in his sleep, likely associated with his um acromyalgae, which I think is his growth disorder. He was only 40 today.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

Oh, he was he was too young to see.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Sad. Yeah. Well, he was in Paris, so he passed away in Paris and he was there at the time to attend his father's funeral. That's sad.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Yeah, it said like he had a lot of daily struggles, like he couldn't fit in standard cars, which I know there's like a lot of stuff for like uh on like shows, especially talking about like people that have like a like you know, the very um unusual height difference or size difference because of kind of problems similar to Andre, like getting things that are custom, especially back then, like pre-2000s, trying to get things that uh would be would fit somebody like that. I'm just like probably couldn't get most cars. And I'm like, how do you travel like that? How do you get on a plane like that? And he couldn't fit like for bathrooms or hotel beds. Um, yeah, it definitely says like he had a lot of issues with it, and also the accelerator rate at which his bones would grow. Um, and like um, we talked about chronic pain he had, which must have been very constant. It definitely says that you know, he was very much the gentle giant personality, even with his WrestleMania kind of like um persona, but he seemed like he was very much a sweet person, especially from what they say in like his cast from Princess Bride said about him. And what was the thing you said with um was it with Robin Wright really taking a liking to him?

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Yeah, I'm just reading that you know that you know that brand Obey. Yeah, that's his face.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Why I think I saw that so I remember seeing that brand, and I was like, I think when I first saw it, I was just like, who is that supposed to be? And then yeah, and then I was like, I remember I think he actually mentioned it to me a while ago, and I was just like, that's what it is? I was like, I've always seen that, and everyone says how iconic it is, and I'm like, that makes sense why it's is uh it's like that makes sense. It's like of course it's like him be like a kind of immortalized in that uh in that brand. Yeah. And yeah, it's just it's crazy because I mean I'm sure he had to deal with a lot of a lot of um issues in like his youth too, especially with being somebody that big. And I mean, I I feel like they definitely still have it now where when you have differences to you or you look different, or you have these kind of um things where you know you your growth is such a big thing of being like really tall and being this large, and people kind of either thinking of you something like I'm sure some people were probably either intimidated or scared of him because of his height, but I think he really proved them wrong with being like such a kind and pleasant soul on this earth. And, you know, I think a lot of people did like him, and he, you know, I think a lot of people sympathize with him having to deal with being different, even back then too. Um, and he's such like an icon through um through and through life. But I hope that they've been able to, you know, find ways to um help um people who have gigantism or similar pituitary gland issues. I think there's definitely they have some stuff now, especially from the research. I I just did they have stuff like um, I think they do some surgeries on the pituitary gland, they do medications. I think they have like different forms of treatments for it to help halt excessive growth in a way, or to help with things like joint pain and heart issues and help prevent like long-term complications. It's good to that they have that now, but it's it's kind of like it it it just it just sucks that they couldn't have had that sooner because he died so young. But hey, he's forever an icon and he's like one of the most memorable characters from a Princess Pride and one of the most memorable wrestlers from wrestling history. Yeah. So I think he he left behind quite the legacy in that short time. Ooh, I found a facts page on Andrea the Giant. Let's see. Would you like me to send it? Or we could wrap it up if you want. Actually, we're what's our time? Oh yeah, we're like 25 minutes. So yeah, we could wrap it up with a few facts. Let's see. It looks like he had a legendary undefeated streak. So when he joined in the early 70s for WWE, he had a winning streak that ran nearly 15 years, and then it ended uh 1987 um with Hulk Hogan defeating him. Let's let's see. What else was he? He's known as like, you know, the eighth one he was nicknamed the eighth wonder of the world, which I could see why. It says he liked to play cards. He played um Britain's national card game, which is called Cribbage. So I guess he was a fan of cribbage. Interesting. And they have a picture of him playing cribbage with somebody. Nice. It's really cool. And then I also wonder if he named if he named his kid after Robin Wright, the actress he worked alongside in the Princess Pride. I wonder if that's why he named her Robin.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

That's a good question.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Actually, what does she she look like now? How old is she? Let's see. He was both babyface, a babyface and a heel in wrestling. So he was loved and hated by fans. Let's see, he also won PWI's Match of the Year Award in 1981. And he's the most popular wrestler in 1977, 1980. And he's a Hall of Famer, so he's in WWE Hall of Fame.

unknown 21:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

And was one of the very first inductees to it. Good. I I think I'd have loved to meet Andrew the Giant if he was still alive now. Uh because he's definitely an in he definitely had an interesting life and lived through you know, a very interesting uh condition as well. And I know it was probably harder back then being different to go through it, but he I think he took it in stride. Because you can be so different and and and then become this really, you know, amazing symbol to everyone else. But I think that's I think that's where we'll wrap up. It was great to talk about it with you, Paige, and get some good stories on Andre and John. John, thank you for the stories. And I think that was really going because it was nice to talk about such an amazing icon and also from an amazing movie. Very good. But we hope you guys stay tuned for more episodes. We hope you enjoyed this episode and do some of your own research on Andre the Giant. And we'll come back to you soon with another episode. So enjoy your night and stay tuned for more. Say bye Paige. Paige bye guys