4 Things I've Learned Watching 'Andre the Giant'

[oakenguy]

1. 'Gorilla Monsoon' is a FANTASTIC name for a wrestler.
1a. It's a fantastic name in general! I've been trying it out in my head in different genres, "Paw! Paw! The Gorilla Monsoon gang is robbing the bank!" and "Foolish Earthling! Now you face the might of...Gorilla MONSOON!"...and they All. Work.
1b. An excerpt from G. Monsoon's wiki page: "Marella totally revamped his image, growing a long beard and billing himself as Gorilla Monsoon, a terrifying giant from Manchuria. Supposedly born on an isolated farm, 'Monsoon' traveled across the countryside with a gypsy caravan wrestling bears, spoke no English, ate raw meat, and drank his victims' blood."

2. While it was relatively easy to get Andre the Giant to fall down, watching three wrestlers try to throw him over the ropes and out of the ring was like watching Sisyphus with his rock.
2a. If Sisyphus's rock occasionally headbutted him.
2b. Which would be totally awesome.

3. Maybe this goes on all the time and I'm not just aware of it, but to my knowledge the rivalry between Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka (Fiji) and The Wild Samoans (Samoa) was the first inter-Polynesian rivalry in U.S. sports.
3a. For some reason, just hearing a wrestling announcer say "inter-Polynesian rivalry" totally tickles me.

4. While the fights I've watched so far have been as fake as cotton candy (even the boxing match. ESPECIALLY the boxing match), watching Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka climb onto Andre the Giant's shoulders, balance there, and jump from that 6'9" height onto the mat? That's a beautiful human spectacle.

Comments

[sistahraven.livejournal.com]

ROFL. If it were possible, I would have snarfed my cereal

[triplehdm.livejournal.com]

And for someone named Gorilla Monsoon, he sure knew the longest, most multi-syllabic ways to say things like "big toe" and "back of the head".

Something i learned from Andre the Giant; when you tell someone that you're coming for their soul, you'd better make damn sure they believe it... and he did, didn't he?

[coscaram.livejournal.com]

"He hit hard on the rear occipital protrusion"!

I once shook hands with Gorilla Monsoon. He was very personable, but looked more like a hefty rabbi, than a wrestler. Seeing Andre in person was quite an experience, as well!

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

I totally did not know the backstory on Gorilla Monsoon. (Who of course, as a proper child of the 80s, I knew only as a commentator.) Thank you for educating me.

Andre the Giant, in his later years, was... not much of an athlete. Was he any better earlier in his career?

[ketala.livejournal.com]

Now I am extremely tempted to play as Andre the Giant in our Smackdown Vs. Raw video game...

Things I Never Knew About Andre the Giant

[lediva.livejournal.com]

http://www.moderndrunkardmagazine.com/issues/10_06/10_06_andre_giant.html

"You won’t find it in the Guinness Book of World Records, but Andre the Giant holds the world record for the largest number of beers consumed in a single sitting. These were standard 12-ounce bottles of beer, nothing fancy, but during a six-hour period Andre drank 119 of them. It was one of the few times Andre got drunk enough to pass out, which he did in a hallway at his hotel. His companions, quite drunk themselves, couldn’t move the big man. Fearing trouble with cops, they stole a piano cover from the lounge and draped it over Andre’s inert form. He slept peacefully until morning, unmolested by anyone. Perhaps the hotel people thought he was a piece of furniture.

Think about it: 119 beers in six hours. That’s a beer every three minutes, non stop. That’s beyond epic. It’s beyond the ken of mortal men. It’s god-like."

[magdellena.livejournal.com]

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Andre the Giant. Every interview I saw of him he seemed utterly charming. Besides that... my eldest brother (who is a 6'9, 400 lbs, former Sumo Wrester) reminds me of Andre, so I can't help but have affectionate leanings.

[jesshartley.livejournal.com]

Your references to Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka dredge up memories I'd thought long (and thankfully) lost.

I share the pain.

Hulk Hogan's Rock And Wrestling Cartoon (circa 1985-87)

[fightguy.livejournal.com]

Ah, Jimmy Snuka was always such a joy to watch. You rarely get that kind of high-octane aerialism outside of Mexico.

The thing that charmed me most about Andre wasn't his wrestling (he was impressive for his size, not his technique); it was the fact that, due to his gigantism, he was supposed to have been dead before he reached 30. He lived to be 47, and I'm convinced that it was because he was just having too good a time! Not only did the man live the life he wanted to live, and with gusto, but he did it for far longer than anyone thought he could...