Andre the Giant's drinking stories got a new chapter, courtesy of fellow pro wrestler Floyd Brisco who told about the late mammoth professional wrestler's incredible tolerance for alcohol.
Born Andre Rene Roussimoff in France, the 7-foot-4 wrestling star began working professionally at 17 but his career did not take off until 10 years when he debuted with the World Wide Wrestling Federation, using his nickname Andre the Giant for the first time, according to the
New York Daily News.
Brisco, who wrestled with his brother Freddie Brisco, told the
Tampa Bay Times Monday that many of the "crazy" drinking stories about Roussimoff were true.
"Andre used to ask me to get him six bottles of Mateus wine and ice them down," Brisco told the Times. "He would drink those before we went to the ring and no one could tell."
"One night in Sarasota, Andre is traveling with us. So we pull over and get two cases of tall boys. By the time we get from Sarasota to the Tahitian Inn on Dale Mabry, the two cases were bone dry. He was one of the nicest guys but I have seen idiots in bars all over the country challenge him, and with one little shove they'd be 10 feet away," Brisco said.
One of Roussimoff ring rivals, Hulk Hogan, told
WBZ-TV in 2014 that he believed the wrestler's immense size, weighing more than 500 pounds, allowed him to drink large amounts of alcohol with little effect.
"You've got to realize brother he was 7' 4" and he went between 500 and 700 pounds depending on how he ate, his health and stuff like that," Hogan told WBZ-TV then.
"… I was in Tampa — and once we became friends after he destroyed me for about eight years and I finally won him over — he was changing planes in Tampa. I was over at my mom's house visiting and I get a call. 'Hey boss I'm at the Tampa airport. I've got a one-hour layover.' I was like okay, it's 15 minutes or so from my mom's house. So I drive over the airport and I met him at the Delta Crown Lounge. By the time we sat down we had about 45 minutes before he had to walk to the next gate. He drank 108 12-ounce beers."
Fox Sports said another story included Roussimoff once drinking 40 vodka tonics after a Kansas City-area bartender dare telling him he could only stay at the establishment if he was drinking.
Along with being a wrestling star, he appeared as the character Fezzik in the 1987 movie "The Princess Bride."
Roussimoff died of congestive heart failure on Jan. 27, 1993, in Paris while attending his father's funeral, noted the Daily News.
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