There are legends of the wrestling business, and then there’s Andre the Giant. By virtue of his size, his charisma, and aura around him, he transcended the wrestling business to become one of the most objectively famous stars of all time.
In wrestling, he spent most of his career as a beloved big man—an attraction too special for anyone to think of booing. However, he did play the heel on occasion, and that was particularly for WWE’s national expansion. On account of him feuding with Hulk Hogan when wrestling was quite arguably at its peak popularity, there’s a generation of fans that thinks of him more readily as a heel than as a face.
But was Andre better as a good guy or a villain? Let's take a look back at why he was compelling in each of these roles.
10 Better Babyface: The Cavalry
A big part of Andre the Giant’s persona was starring in the territorial years, when talents tended to rotate between promotions and only had a regional audience to entertain. Andre was especially well equipped for this era of the business. His size made him all but unbeatable, but his tendency to roam meant he never entered any title picture for long, and he never overstayed his welcome.
A big part of Andre’s act at that time was acting as the cavalry. Just as the heels outnumbered and overwhelmed the local heroes, Andre would swoop in as a one man rescue crew to even the sides and give the bad guys their comeuppance.
9 Better Heel: The Monster Heel
The monster heel is a classic concept in professional wrestling. It only makes sense that in fights between bigger and smaller performers, the smaller wrestlers would be de facto underdogs and heroes—David up against Goliath. With that dynamic in play, no one played the great big monster better than Andre the Giant.
Andre’s undeniable size, not to mention the size of his legend as an indomitable, undefeated figure when he turned on Hulk Hogan to join Bobby Heenan in 1987, made him the ultimate monster heel. While Hogan was already the most popular wrestler of the day, slaying Andre’s dragon was a moment instrumental in pushing The Hulkster toward immortality.
8 Better Babyface: King Of The Battle Royal
While a big man can readily play a heel in the battle royal setting, Andre the Giant presented a different proposition. Watching Andre do battle in a field of 15, 20, 30 or more wrestlers was like watching Michael Jordan navigate a field of nine other men on basketball court or Jim Brown cutting down a crowded football field. It was watching the best at a particular craft do his thing and outshine every other body around him.
Andre had a reputation for battle royal dominance throughout his territorial career. He had the opportunity to showcase what he could do at WrestleMania 2 in a battle royal featuring WWE Superstars and NFL players—a battle royal performance that may not have been his greatest, but that by happening at a WrestleMania has survived longer than any of his other battle royal showings.
7 Better Heel: WrestleMania III
It’s difficult to call Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III a great match. Take it out of its context, silence the crowd, and it was a pretty slow, underwhelming clash between two big guys, highlighted by one impressive body slam.
However, in its full context, it is the match more than any other that drew over 90,000 fans to the Pontiac Silverdome, and drove huge pay-per-view buy numbers. Hogan vs. Andre may well have been the most famous match of all time, and it was all about Hogan playing the hero against the overwhelming heel giant.
6 Better Babyface: The Princess Bride
Particularly as the years go by, Andre’s legendary wrestling career has faded from collective memory by degrees. Yes, hardcore wrestling fans remember him and his career was too significant to miss for younger fans coming up who go back through the annals of wrestling history.
For a more casual audience, though, Andre may well live on in greater fame for his role in the movie The Princess Bride than his work in the ring. The character Fezzig may start out a villainous sidekick, but even from the early stages in the film, demonstrates a gentler side. By the end, he’s a bona fide hero alongside the other characters who save the day and live happily ever after. As such, Andre, like his character, gets remembered as a lovable figure.
5 Better Heel: Partnering With Bobby Heenan
Bobby Heenan was the top heel manager of his day, utilizing his incredible talking ability and his willingness to take a bump to help get wrestlers over. The Brain was a villainous mastermind behind so many threats to Hulk Hogan and other babyfaces of the day, and Andre the Giant was the crown jewel of the Heenan family.
In addition to his most famous feud with Hulk Hogan, Andre worked under Heenan’s tutelage to stage confrontations with Randy Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, and Jake Roberts before one final heel run teaming with Haku. Along the way, the Heenan-Andre partnership put forth a model pairing of an evil genius with a monster do his bidding.
4 Better Babyface: The Killer Khan Feud
While Andre the Giant was often cast as an equalizing force—a babyface too big for heels to stand a chance, and thus a deliverer of justice upon them—Killer Khan offered up a very different dynamic. While Khan wasn’t as big as Andre, at six-foot-five and a legitimate 300 plus pounds, he was a formidable opponent who demonstrated killer instinct.
Khan most famously kayfabe broke Andre’s ankle. It was a rare moment when Andre generated legitimate babyface sympathy, and the angle set up Andre for a ferocious return to get back at the vile heel.
3 Better Heel: The Mega Bucks
Andre the Giant was well past his physical prime when he turned heel to challenge Hulk Hogan. WWE was strategic and clever in its use of the big man, though. After the initial Hogan run, a lot of Andre’s work was focused on tag team scenarios or serving as a heater outside the ring. Never was this dynamic better than when the Giant teamed up with Ted Dibiase as The Mega Bucks.
The heel tandem had all of the credibility of Andre’s size and legacy, paired with Dibiase as one of the best in-ring workers and talkers of his day. Together, they were excellent opponents for the Hogan and Randy Savage Mega Powers tandem.
2 Better Babyface: WrestleMania 1
Fans seeking to look back and remember Andre as he once was—as a legitimate full time wrestler and a hero to wrestling fans—need only look back so far as the first WrestleMania. While Hulk Hogan and Mr. T worked the official main event against Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff, Andre the Giant was just one step behind them on the card, working Big John Studd.
With all due respect to Studd, he wasn’t a legend on anything like the scale of Andre. He did, however, present a big body and reasonable foil for the Giant. Andre delighted fans by physically dominating Studd and ultimately body slamming him for the victory.
1 Better Heel: Survivor Series 1987
Hulk Hogan got the better of most of his battles with a heel Andre the Giant, but one notable exception was November 1987. As WWE sought to both cash in on Hogan vs. Andre one more time and compete with the NWA’s Starrcade spectacular, they scheduled the original Survivor Series, with these two larger-than-life stars captaining teams opposite one antoher.
Andre emerged the sole survivor after Hogan suffered an early elimination. A face Bam Bam Bigelow fought valiantly against three-on-one odds, but Andre played the ultimate monster heel role beautifully in proving too much for the Beast from the East to handle—particularly in his weakened state. Andre reigned supreme in this, his only PPV main event victory, which set him up to remain a world title contender going into 1988.