Andre The Giant HBO Documentary: 14 Things We Learned

By Jack Pooley / April 12, 2018

13. Andre's First Gimmick Was A French Lumberjack

Andre's wrestling career kicked off in France in the early 1960s, where his first persona was "Geant Ferre", a lumberjack character with a desire to put down the axe and become a professional wrestling superstar.

Hilariously, the doc even featured rare footage of Andre decked out in a typical lumberjack uniform, chopping wood and being interviewed about his wrestling aspirations.

Upon arriving in the U.S., the Geant Ferre name was ditched, because a promoter thought "ferre" sounded too much like "fairy", and thus, the elegant simplicity of the Andre the Giant moniker was born.