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Andre And The Extinction of Wrestling’s Giants

Posted: Nov 19th 2024 By: Brian Damage - RingTheDamnBell.Wordpress.com

At one time, there was an era in pro wrestling where being a giant nearly guaranteed you a spot in the business. There was always room on the roster for a man who stood over 7 feet tall,and to some degree that may still be the case…but not as necessary. Like most things in life, unless you adapt and evolve with the times…you become irrelevant and/or extinct. The days of the dominating wrestling giants have come and have now gone.

Perhaps the most successful and widely known big man was Andre Roussimoff better known as Andre the Giant. At his biggest, he stood 7 foot 4 inches tall and weighed over 640 pounds. He was feared and beloved by both fans and his peers. Many remember Andre as the big lumbering giant who had a devastating head butt and wrestled at a slow, methodical pace. At one time however, Andre was slimmer, a lot quicker and somewhat agile. Either way, Andre was booked as an unstoppable, unbeatable freak of nature. He was a big attraction that people paid to see wrestle. At one point in time, being the highest paid wrestler in the world. His crowning achievement came at Wrestlemania III when he faced Hulk Hogan in the Pontiac Silver Dome in front of 90,000 plus.

When Andre passed away in 1993 at the young age of 46, an era also died with him. The era of giants that ruled wrestling. In Japan, the era lasted a bit longer with the Giant Baba, but when when he passed in 1999…wrestling giants became a thing of the past. That’s not to say bookers and promoters didn’t try to find “The Next Andre.” Many tried but all failed to capture the aura and the dominance of the man hailing from “Grenoble in the French Alps.” Men like El Gigante, The Wall, Nitron, Giant Silva, Kurrgan, The Great Khali, Reese, Jackson Andrews and Eli Cottonwood have all tried and many if not all failed. The only wrestler who has come close enough to succeeding like Andre has been Paul Wight AKA The Big Show.

His sheer height and mass make him the most likely successor to Andre’s throne. While Wight has accomplished a great deal and made a considerable amount of money, there is no arguing that overall he hasn’t been the dominating giant that people expected. Some of which is not all his own fault. Whether it was poor booking decisions, multiple heel or face turns or in the early years his negative attitude…none of that has been as damaging as the evolution of pro wrestling. Fans have embraced the smaller wrestlers and have now grown accustomed to high spots, quicker paces and bell to bell wrestling.

The shorter attention span of fans have made slower pace matches involving giants nearly impossible. While there are more successful big men in wrestling such as Kane and the Undertaker…both men adapted with the times. The Big Show sadly can’t simply by his look. He looks like a giant therefore has to act the part of one…even though wrestling has evolved past that look. In a way, he is essentially “typecast” as a wrestling giant. If he were competing in Andre and Big John Studd’s era, I can only imagine the success he could’ve had.

The days of the Body Slam Challenge at the first Wrestlemania and guaranteed favorites to win a battle royal are all but dead and extinct. Long live the era of high flyers and youtube sensations. The wrestling Giants are now a memory.