Andre The Giant was literally larger than life in appearance but also in pop culture. He helped define 1980s profeessional wrestling.. That is why lots of fans were excited to hear that the WWE and HBO teamed up to do a documentary on his life.
Ric Flair shows up for the first time about 26 minutes in just to make a dick joke. At times, it’s exactly right. It’s maybe never as right as when Vince and Hulk spend about two solid minutes doing impersonations of Andre’s farts.At the same time, the “winner writes the history” version of WWE storytelling is heavy. Heavy. You’ve got Vince McMahon explaining how he took over the territory system by announcing that his product was “vastly better,” with no argument or even a conversation. It was just accepted as fact. Hulk Hogan’s the guy they go to when it’s time to talk about how Andre hated Macho Man Randy Savage, because of course he is, and at one point the documentary straight-up almost becomes a Hogan doc. They push Andre aside to explain Hulk Hogan, which takes time, but in fairness is somewhat necessary for the non-wrestling fan viewer to grasp the big WrestleMania III part. Hogan is there to talk about himself, wearing a Hogan’s Beach T-shirt. WrestleMania and how great WrestleMania is dominates the second half of the film. Mean Gene Okerlund is there to explain how he’d never seen anything as great as WrestleMania!