Andre the Giant may have been the most successful big man in the history of the industry, and a man who transcended wrestling into pop culture, but wow, was it hard to watch him at the end of his career. As stated by many wrestlers, Andre was a man that lived as much life as he could during his short time on earth. He partied hard, he was a legendary drinker, and he was in constant, agonizing pain. As the 80s came to a close, he was incapable of competing in anything more than a tag match, where his partner did all the work. His last notable singles run was against The Ultimate Warrior, jobbing to him sometimes in a single minute, leaving paying customers feeling ripped off. When Andre was on offense, he had to rely on holding the ropes just so he wouldnt fall over. It was a sad thing to watch from such a larger-than-life human being. When He Should Have Hung Up The Tights: The most obvious choice would be at WrestleMania 3, after losing to Hulk Hogan in one of the biggest battles in history. However, Andre was also key in drawing 33 million fans to the rematch at Saturday Nights Main Event in February of 1988. Perhaps a clean loss to Hogan that night would have been a good way to go out.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
