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Peoria-area man collects memorabilia of WWE wrestler Andre the Giant

Posted: Jan 5th 2022 By: Steve Stein

Chris Owens has a giant, museum-quality collection of Andre the Giant memorabilia in his home.

The collection is so big that Owens is known throughout the world as one of the foremost authorities on the life and times of the late 7-foot-4, 520-pound professional wrestler and actor Andre Rene Roussimoff.

Owens' expertise about Andre and his collection have been praised and documented in print and on television shows, most recently in an episode of "WWE's Most Wanted
Treasures," a series on A&E.

A&E's two-hour show on Andre debuted June 13, is available online, and is being translated into other languages to be shown overseas.

"Why am I fascinated with Andre? He transcended professional wrestling," Owens said. "Most people know a little bit about him."

Who was the Andre the Giant?

For those who don't follow professional wrestling, Andre is probably best known for his role as the giant Fezzik in the 1987 film "The Princess Bride."

Andre grew up on a farm in France and had only an eighth-grade education.

Ignoring his parents' wishes for him to work on the farm, he began his professional wrestling career in 1966.

Despite many health issues caused by gigantism and his grueling match schedule, Andre was still wrestling a few weeks before his death of a heart attack Jan. 28, 1993, in Paris, France. He was 46.

After Andre died, the man who was billed as "The Eighth Wonder of the World" became the original inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame.

The foremost Andre the Giant collector Owens is 48. He doesn't collect Andre the Giant memorabilia for a career. He's managed health care offices in Pekin for
more than 10 years.

Owens started collecting Andre memorabilia when he was 8, while growing up as a young professional wrestling fan in Iowa. He hasn't stopped since, gathering items from other collectors and Andre's friends.

"I've told Andre's friends who have sent me items that I will uphold his name and present the items in the best way I can," he said.

Owens' Andre collection has hundreds of items, some very rare.

One rare item is a passport that belonged to Andre, one of only three that are known to exist. Owens got the passport from one of Andre's friends.

The WWE has one of Andre's passports, and the other one is in a museum in North Carolina devoted to Andre. Andre lived on a ranch in North Carolina in his later years.

Collection was part of a TV showA segment of "WWE's Most Wanted Treasures" on Andre was filmed in Owens' home during a long eight-hour day in October 2020. Professional wrestler Big Show was part of the show's entourage.

The show's producers offered Owens $20,000 for Andre's passport. That was the show's purpose ... to track down and reclaim elusive WWE collectibles.

The passport stayed put in Groveland.

"I told the people from the show that the passport wasn't for sale," Owens said. "Was it tough to say no to all that money? Yes and no.

"They had to film our discussion about selling the passport three times because of technical issues. I finally told them that was enough, and gave them a poster that was on a wall at Madison Square Garden before Andre's debut there in 1973."

Owens didn't sell the passport, but he contributed much to the show, answering a multitude of questions that came up during the filming.

"Chris became my personal Andre encyclopedia," said show producer Kate Wathall. "When we had a question about Andre, Chris' word was gospel.

"Chris wanted the show to be accurate because he's passionate about Andre. He loves the guy. We really appreciated Chris' help. There was extra pressure on us to
get things right because Andre isn't with us anymore. We didn't want to offend his friends and family."

Owens is proud to point out that he's in the first segment of the show, "and I made it through a commercial break."

What else is in the Andre collection?

Also in Owens' stash of rare Andre memorabilia are X-rays of Andre's hands, feet and skull that were taken before he underwent back surgery following his historic match against Hulk Hogan in front of more than 90,000 fans at WrestleMania III in 1987.

"We saw a lot of Andre memorabilia collections while doing the show," Wathall said. "Some of the collections had items in boxes. Some collections were just chaos. Chris'
collection is like a small museum."

Owens has a Facebook page devoted to his Andre collection. He no longer has a YouTube account that attracted more than 25,000 subscribers and 10 million views.

What to know about Andre the Giant Interestingly, Owens saw Andre wrestle in person only twice, when Owens was a teenager. Both times, it was at Veterans
Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa.

So what should professional wrestling fans — even those who are casual fans — know about Andre the Giant?

"He was a locker room leader who wanted the other wrestlers to treat what they did like a business, and respect the business," Owens said. "He helped other wrestlers
financially, and he helped people in his community in North Carolina.

"He was honest, genuine and a smart businessman. He knew how to market himself."