It’s no secret that throughout history wrestlers have enjoyed more than a beer or two. But as Ted DiBiase can attest, one wrestler in particular was on an entire other level.
While Andre The Giant was known for some incredible feats inside the ring, he also took part in some incredible feats outside of it as well.
Appearing on Stories with Briscoe and Bradshaw, DiBiase recalled being tasked with taking Andre out drinking. At the time, the Million Dollar Man was still in college and not even properly ‘in the business.’ No matter, DiBiase embraced on his latest challenge, taking the legendary big man to one of his usual student bars.
DiBiase recalled how as the pair approached the bar, the barmaid wasn’t quite prepared for Andre’s mammoth order.
“They said look, ‘Andre The Giant is coming in, we’re all gonna be out of town, would you be willing to take him out?’ I wasn’t even in the business yet, I was still in college. I said ‘Yeah I’d be happy to.’
My Gosh man. So I took him to the places where all of the college kids went. So this barmaid comes up and says ‘What will you have?’ Andre looks at her and says [Andre voice] ‘You have trash can?’
She looked at him and said ‘Yeah, we got a lot of trash cans.’ ‘
[Andre] ‘No, big trash can? Empty trash can, put five cases of beer on ice and bring it to the table.’
She looked at me like, ‘Is he serious?’ I said, ‘Yeah, do it.’
Andre’s hands were so big, if he just wrapped his hand round a can of beer You couldn’t see it. He was huge brother. Just huge. But what a great guy.”
After moving to the States Andre enjoyed a long unbeaten streak and feuded with the likes of Harley Race and famously Hulk Hogan.
After a series of matches in the early 1980’s, Hogan and Andre The Giant met at WrestleMania III. The match ended with Hogan hitting the famous “bodyslam heard around the world” for the win.
The former World Heavyweight Champion then began to appear more sporadically and appeared for WWE for the final time in 1991. The giant Frenchman continued to struggle with his increased weight and his body began to breakdown, severely restricting his mobility and ability to perform.
Andre wrestled his final match in December 1992.
Elsewhere in the conversation Ted DiBiase revealed how Vince McMahon turned him into The Million Dollar Man. The former Tag Team Champion explained that McMahon not only laid out the new character, he also presented him with $2000 in $100 bills to spend as he saw fit.