February 08, 1993
- The issue opens with a 12-page obituary for Andre The Giant, who passed away on Jan. 27th at the age of 46. Usually I just skip past the usual obits that Dave writes, but Andre is arguably deserving of a place on the Mount Rushmore of professional wrestling and this obituary is a masterful telling of Andre's life and history so I'm gonna sum up the more interesting parts. But if you ever wanted a reason to sign up for the full newsletter, this is it.
- Andre had flown home to France 2 weeks earlier for his father's funeral and remained with his family for a couple of weeks after. The morning of his death, Andre wasn't answering the phone in his room. Hotel staff broke down the door to find him dead. No autopsy was performed but it appears he died of heart failure in his sleep. Andre had requested to be cremated within 48 hours of his death, but 6 days after his death, that still hadn't happened because they couldn't find a crematorium in France that could accommodate the size of his body. When he is finally cremated, his ashes will be scattered on his farm and a service will be held next month.
- Although billed at 7'4, Andre was really only about 6'11 at his tallest and more likely only 6'9 or 6'10, and he got shorter as the disease he suffered from took a toll on his spine and caused him to stoop. Many people have claimed they were the ones who got Andre involved in European wrestling in the 1960s, but the truth of his early years in the business are somewhat a mystery.
- The name "Andre The Giant" came about in 1973 and was given to him by Vince McMahon Sr. who brought Andre in and had him debut at Madison Square Garden. From there, McMahon Sr. essentially loaned Andre out to all the NWA territories where he traveled the country and built his reputation as the biggest draw in wrestling history, until 1984, when Vince McMahon Jr. decided to keep Andre exclusively to himself and no longer allowed the other territories to book him. Although he was promoted as "undefeated" at Wrestlemania 3, that's not entirely true. Andre had lost matches before (Harley Race, Antonio Inoki, and a couple of others all pinned him at some point) but for the most part, he did very few jobs during his career.
- Stories of Andre's eating and drinking ability are legendary, though possibly exaggerated. One of the most famous stories was of him drinking 119 bottles of beer at one sitting and passing out in a hotel lobby. Since he was so huge, nobody could move him. They simply put a piano cover over him and let him sleep it off and acted like it was covering a large piece of furniture. Killer Kowalski said in an interview, "He used to drink to numb himself to the reality that he wouldn't live long in this world." It was true that doctor's had told Andre years ago that he wouldn't live past 50 and as that got closer and his health deteriorated, Andre became more and more of a depressed loner.
- Near the end of his career, he turned heel and had the record-shattering match with Hogan at WM3 and then wrestled sparingly from there. When he wasn't in front of a crowd, he was often sitting down or in a wheelchair that he used to get to and from places. During his final run, he often had to hold on to the ropes during matches just to remain standing. His final American TV appearance was at last year's Clash of the Champions, where he required 2 canes to walk. His final matches took place in All Japan, about a month ago. Andre never married. He was engaged in the 1970s but reportedly got cold feet and backed out. He had one daughter, now 13 years old, though he only ever saw her once or twice.
- At live shows and on this week's Monday Night Raw episode, WWF announced the death of Andre and gave him a ten-bell salute. All Japan did a similar ceremony on their TV shows. Andre's death received major news coverage throughout the world.
- On to actual news now: Ric Flair signed his WCW contract this week and they plan to announce that Flair will make his return at the SuperBrawl PPV later this month. They're also expected to announce Davey Boy Smith's debut at the same PPV.
- Hulk Hogan was at the CNN Center in Atlanta last week. Word is he was there negotiating a movie deal, although rumor is that there have been some discussions between Hogan and WCW. Hogan and friend Brutus Beefcake were both at WWF offices last week as well and Beefcake returned to the company on the most recent Raw and talked about Hogan, which Dave takes as a pretty good sign that Hulk is coming back.
- Kerry Von Erich's latest arrest, reported last week, was for cocaine. It's likely his current probation will be revoked and Kerry could end up facing some serious jail time.
- WWF held a Wrestlemania press conference in Las Vegas last week. During it, Bret Hart made some negative comments towards Ric Flair, calling him overrated as a worker.
- In a follow-up to the controversy around the Doink/Crush angle, WWF made a point on TV this week to say Crush was fine and would be back soon.
- WCW will be doing it's first steroid test on Feb. 15th
- Ultimate Warrior is telling people he doesn't want to wrestle anymore and is currently training in martial arts, martial arts weaponry, and horseback riding because he's looking to break into action movies. Or ninja westerns apparently. He's asking for $5,000 plus first class airfare simply to appear at autograph shows.
- Johnny B. Badd's contract expires in a few weeks. His current contract is for $156,000 per year. Bill Watts has offered him $350 per night for 200 shows ($70,000 per year) with the possibility to earn another $30,000 a year in bonuses. Which even under the best circumstances still amounts to a more than $50,000 per year paycut. Dave says odds are very good that he'll be heading to WWF in March. He almost went there last time his contract was up but chose to stay with WCW.
- Diamond Dallas Page's contract is up also and he received a low-ball deal from Watts. DDP turned it down. He's out injured right now anyway but may be heading to SMW when he heals.
- TBS/WCW executives Bob Dhue and Bill Shaw are taking a more hands-on approach at WCW, so expect some noticeable changes over the next few weeks. A lot of them may be big changes (the payoff to this one comes tomorrow).
- Terry Funk has been cast in an upcoming Sylvester Stallone movie called Demolition. (Obviously this is Demolition Man and I'm pretty sure his scenes got cut because I've watched that movie approximately 8000 times and he's not in it. Sadly. Because that would make an already classic movie even better).
- Steve Austin & Brian Pillman will likely be given the name Hollywood Blondes as a tag team name.
- At the WCW TV taping on Feb. 1st, the whole show was stopped because a pipe broke in the bathroom and flooding the backstage area where all the equipment was. They held up the show for about 20 minutes trying to get it under control before cancelling the taping altogether and announcing they would be back on Feb. 9th to try again.
- WCW's Marvel comic book is being discontinued.
- Rocky Mountain Wrestling will have the first ever barbed wire match in Calgary between champion Beef Wellington and challenger Chris Jericho (I think Jericho has talked about this before, but yeah, there's you a fun fact: Chris Jericho did a barbed wire match in 1993. Sadly, I can't find video of it).
- Canadian Vampire Casanova won the UWA title in Mexico this week and legitimately broke down and cried after. They say Vampire is making $7,000 a week which doesn't quite make him the highest paid wrestler in the world, but considering the cost of living in Mexico compared with the U.S. or Japan, he might as well be.
- There's a 6'9, 280 pound Canadian rookie wrestling in Mexico wrestling under the name Goliath el Gigante. He's said to be the fastest moving giant the business has ever seen and those who've seen him say he has great potential. That ended up being Kurrgan.