This week on “Talk Is Jericho,” Chris Jericho welcomed Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Dave Meltzer and Pat Laprade, the author of “The Eighth Wonder Of The World: The True Story of Andre The Giant.” The book is available now in bookstores or via Amazon at this link.
Meltzer and Laprade shared some never-before-told stories on Andre The Giant along with some debunked items that were accepted by some as fact for many years.
Here are some highlights from the interview:
Jericho asked Pat Laprade why Andre didn’t get the surgery for acromegaly so he would stop growing to unhealthy proportions: “The surgery was available for him. Even in 1981, when he got the surgery on his ankle, he was told again he had the disease and he could get the surgery. He always refused to get it. He said God made him this way and he didn’t want to change it. He was also scared that his dimensions were going to change with the surgery, then he felt he would lose what made him special. I would think he was misinformed because he would not have changed that much.”
Laprade talked about the reason why Andre had issues with Vince McMahon: “The big difference between the way that Vince Sr. and Vince Jr. used Andre was that Vince Sr didn’t use him much in his own territory because he was getting a cut on Andre when he was traveling all over the world. He was making money on Andre without using him in his own territory and what he had learned from was that if you used Andre too much in the same territory, he was not going to draw as much as when you first book him. That’s what Andre liked. He could travel the world, visiting different friends, different promotions, and I think that’ what he didn’t like from Vince Jr that Vince Jr kept him more in his own territory and Andre didn’t get to see all his friends. He was traveling all over North America, but it was the same locker room over and over. I think Andre had a lot of bitterness toward Vince Jr because of this.”
Laprade told the story of why Andre did not like Randy Savage: “I talked to Lanny Poffo, Randy’s brother about it and he said it was 100% true. The reason why was Randy was wrestling with baby oil on and Andre didn’t like it one bit. Even Lanny tried to tell Randy, why not skip the baby oil when you are wrestling Andre and Randy said he didn’t want to make any exceptions. The reason behind it was it was hard for Andre to take a shower when he went back to his hotel room because the showers in the hotels were not made for a person of his size. Some nights he would prefer to just stay at the bar alone at night and keep drinking rather than go back to his room and do nothing. It would be hard for us to get rid of all that baby oil, let alone Andre who had trouble just getting in the shower to begin with. I don’t think Randy understood that and Andre probably never explained it to him because he was too proud or he wanted Andre to find the explanation himself. He really didn’t like Randy.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
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