Rypro 525

a bottom! The doc did reveal he did have a daughter so there was that

Red Hood

From my understanding and according to rumors, the last time Andre and Vince spoke, they had a huge argument. Vince called Andre after he showed up at this NWA/WCW Clash of the Champions event that was shown on TBS. Vince was livid and felt betrayed about it.

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DthRdrX

Holy Shit! I almost forgot Missy Hyatt was normal once upon a time.

Dr. DVD

This is a very well made documentary. I too noticed the uneasiness of VKM when asked about Andre's death. I think that deep down he may feel somewhat responsible for his death by getting him to perform well past his time, but who knows.

Goonies85

Really good documentary. Favorite part was the reminisces by Billy Crystal, Rob Reiner, and Cary Elwes...And the actress from Princess Bride, whose name slips my mind, at the moment...They had a lot of funny and sometimes sad stories to tell about him...

JeffTheAlpaca

Robin Wright was the actress

Mike86

I have to wonder if Vince feels a burden about all the guys he’s indirectly led to early deaths. I mean the life of a professional wrestler can’t be easy and I think in a lot of ways he made it harder and for as much as WWE might do as a company when you’re in that spotlight you’re pretty much worked to the bone until you either can’t go anymore or quit.

mphtrilogy

Very good watch, brought back a lot of memories, haven't watched much wrestling since those days....

Pointyskull

Watched this last night and really enjoyed it - and I was never really a wrestling fan.
My question is:
In the big Wrestlemania 3 Hogan/Andre match, in front of 93000, are we supposed to believe the outcome of the match was determined on the fly? While it made for a great story it seemed things would have been more scripted out before hand.

Noonan

It was scripted that Hogan would win but it sounds like Andre was calling how it would end real-time. I'm sure that happens often; they scrip the outcome and maybe some major parts but the rest is up to the wrestlers to improv.

Obi-Wanma

Historically, pro-wresting matches are called in the ring. Usually it is on the heel (or bad guy) to take the lead, which would have been Andre in this case. As Noonan said, the finish is scripted, but how the performers get there is usually up to them. This allows the wrestlers to be more interactive with the crowd, figure out what's working and what isn't, and change things up if the crowd isn't responding as expected.

The Randy Savage/Ricky Steamboat match at WrestleMania 3 however, was scripted in excruciating detail from start to finish, which was very unusual for that time period.

Today, a lot of wrestlers like to plan out the whole match, and the art of "calling it in the ring" is fading. It's a shame too, because too many of those guys who like to plan everything out don't know where to go when something isn't working or after a spot gets messed up.

Pointyskull

Thanks for the info, Noonan and Obi-Wan!

As a non-fan, it felt that wasn't really explained clearly in the doc. Makes sense now.

JeffTheAlpaca

That dork bought bought out WCW and ECW and who cares if Andre attends a NWA/WCW event.

Wrestling has gone downhill since the WWE became a monopoly.

sydonesia

Take everything Hulk Hogan says with a grain of salt. His story about the Andre WM3 match changes with each re-telling. His "booking the match on pen and paper" and then HAVING it there as proof was a new wrinkle I'd never heard before.

Also, there weren't 93,000 people there. It was a number WWF went with before getting the real attendance (and that number is still disputed to this day.)

DthRdrX

The way it usually worked was the champion would get a call from the booker/boss, in this case Vince, and is given a date/event and to who they will be losing the belt to. The talent would figure out the match either on the spot, or script it. In some cases, such as Hogan v. Warrior at WM6, they would rehearse the match in an empty arena the week before. Their rematch in WCW was not rehearsed, which is probably why it turned out to be one of the worst matches ever.

Hogan's fear was that Andre would "go into business for himself" which did happen back in those days. People forget, Just a couple years before WM3 a rival promoter, Verne Gagne of the AWA, offered to give the Sheik 100K and a job in the AWA if he would break Hogan's leg and bring the WWF title with him. Sheik refused and Hogan won the title from him launching the WWF era and Hulkamania. All rival promoters were not happy with what Vince was doing, buying all their talent and going nationwide. Hogan had a right to be worried about Andre being compromised if he wasn't talking.

As for Savage, he often scripted or went over things in the locker room with his opponents. He was said to have been a perfectionist in that regard, which is why a lot of the truely great in-ring guys loved working with him.