The Daily Stream: Andr The Giant Documentary Proves He Truly Was The Eighth Wonder Of The World – /Film

Thanks to the internet allowing a view into celebrity lives unlike ever before, Andr the Giant very well may be the last great folk hero. The image of Roussimoff was titanic in nature by virtue of his size, wearing 22 size shoes, with hands that could cover an adult man's entire face, and a towering height rumored to be 7'4" before his numerous back surgeries, but everything else about him was also notoriously huge. He could throw around the 6-foot-8 Big John Studd like nothing, could easily drink a case of wine as a pre-game warm-up, and was said to rip farts that could clear out a whole room. There was no such thing as "go big or go home," because when it comes to Andr the Giant, big is home.

Unfortunately, this meant that the circumstances which led to his colossal size were ignored. Roussimoff was born with acromegaly, a rare condition where the body produces too much growth hormone, causing body tissues and bones to grow more quickly. Not only did Andr spend much of his life in the physically demanding and taxing world of professional wrestling, but he had to travel without any proper accommodations. "It'd be like having to sit on baby furniture for your entire life," Hulk Hogan describes. As much as Andr was beloved the world over, he was also seen as a "freak of nature" by those who were unfamiliar with him. In the doc, "Mean" Gene Okerlund recounts a few touching instances where he confesses Andr would be brought to tears by some of the hurtful comments from strangers, but he'd never let the public see him cry.

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The Daily Stream: Andr The Giant Documentary Proves He Truly Was The Eighth Wonder Of The World - /Film