HBO dropped the first official trailer for its documentary André The Giant, and it's jam-packed with footage, stories, and classic wrestlers that pro wrestling fans will definitely want to see. Sit back, relax, and maybe eat a peanut while this wrestler-filled trailer shows us what we can expect from this biographical look at The Eighth Wonder Of The World:
Anyone who didn't get a shiver sent down their spine while watching that André The Giant trailer isn't a diehard wrestling fan, because that was an amazing jaunt through the sport's history. In-ring footage of André Roussimoff is masterfully complemented by stories from the folks who knew him during his peak, such as WWE head honcho Vince McMahon, former wrestler and announcer Jerry Lawler, announcer extraordinaire Mean Gene Okerlund, and even the ousted WWE legend Hulk Hogan. Hogan's appearance in the production is a bit surprising, given his current relationship with the WWE, but it's also expected, since it would be very difficult to tell Andre's story without the other half of one of his greatest wrestling feuds of all time.
The trailer for André The Giant showed the documentary will capture the high points of the wrestler's career, as well as some of the particularly low points. One picture showed André being all-smiles while meeting boxing legend Muhammad Ali, and not too long after that, André is shown massaging a pretty sizable surgery scar behind closed doors. Both visuals do a great job of teasing the bigger stories behind those incidents that fans may have never heard, while also keeping things vague enough to not spoil anything that's to come.
Some of the stories André The Giant will tell are ones that most avid wrestling fans already know. For example, many know that Andre suffered from gigantism at an early age, which inevitably led to great physical pain later in his life. Fans also know that excessive pain led to excessive drinking, which resulted in quite a few legendary drinking stories that the documentary will likely touch on. With Hulk Hogan on board to tell a few anecdotes, we can only hope the wrestler will recall his frankly unbelievable tale in which he witnessed Andre drink 102 12-ounce beers in under 45 minutes.
André The Giant will be an honest biographical take on the wrestler and actor that covers his early years growing up in France, as well as his time in the then-named WWF. The doc's executive producer Bill Simmons has described André The Giant as a "the ultimate unicorn," and he looks forward to presenting the full scope of André The Giant's life alongside director Jason Hehir. Simmons' production company Bill Simmons Media Group is producing the doc alongside HBO Sports and the WWE.
André The Giant premieres on HBO on Tuesday, April 10. For more on other upcoming programs headed to television in 2018, be sure to head over to our midseason premiere guide.
