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4 Andre the Giant­ and recite their prayers. In contrast, Andre the ­ Giant guzzled booze like ­ water whenever the thirst struck him. ­ Because he was so huge, the liquor did not readily affect him the way it did smaller people.­ Tension seemed to rise between the men. During a handshake the ­ Giant almost squished Hogan’s hand. Hogan intruded on an Andre the ­ Giant press event and Andre walked out. Then Andre ripped off Hogan’s shirt and crucifix, further inflaming tempers. On March 28, 1987, when the behemoths climbed into the ring for Wrestlemania 3 ­ there ­ were 93,173 witnesses—an astonishing crowd—­ and at the time a rec­ ord attendance for an indoor event of any kind in the United States. Andre the ­ Giant allegedly weighed 525 pounds, if ­ there was a scale around that could ­handle that. It was a memorable match. Hogan came out strong and scored points. Andre nearly pinned him, but the referee’s count did not call Hogan out despite Andre’s protests. Andre shoved Hogan all over the ring and seemed to be delivering a full-­ scale beating. At one point Hulk lay face down on the canvas with Andre standing on his back! And even more stunningly, Andre the ­ Giant lifted Hogan off the floor, raised him in the air, and slammed him down. The crowd went crazy. As Andre was battering the Hulk he yelled to the fans, “What do you think of your champion now?” (Brown 2014, 204). Andre’s foot met Hogan’s face and then Hogan was heaved out of the ring, only easing his fall by grabbing a rope. The men grappled outside the ring on the floor. Andre threw Hogan back into the ring to resume the action, but Hogan made a comeback. He shocked all watchers by lifting Andre up, a move that had failed many, many wrestlers before. Hogan jumped on Andre, and the ­ Giant took a three-­ count in defeat. Hogan retained his world title, but in such a fashion that it enhanced his worldwide fame and truly launched his popularity. Andre understood if it was always ­going to be mano a mano he was ­going to be favored and would dominate the scene. So he embraced the show business side of wrestling in order to make a living. His name was box-­ office gold, but he had to follow the story lines. A winner of the WWF world heavyweight crown and also a ­belt winner of the tag-­team crown, Andre shined in the ring in many ways, including events with the brightest spotlights like Wrestlemania and major tag-­ team events. In 1986, Andre the ­Giant emerged as winner of a 20-­man ­Battle Royal that included several National Football League players, including Russ Francis, whose ­father was a wrestling promoter in Hawaii and who as a seven-­year-­old was tossed into the Pacific Ocean by Andre the Giant.­ In a weird twist of gimmicks only pro wrestling would attempt, ­ after Andre the ­ Giant was famous the world over for a period of time the WWF asked him to play another character. Andre donned a mask and temporarily ­ adopted the name “­Giant Machine.” He certainly was one, but ­ after so many years in the limelight, Andre the ­ Giant could not fool ­ people. Also, Andre had gained an entire new legion of fans through an appearance as Fezzik in a campy 1987 movie called The Princess Bride, which appealed to all ages. Billed as a fairy tale adventure and directed by Rob Reiner, the film has become a cult classic. It is not as if Andre was ­ doing