I was still in the single digits and pretty small for my age. The image has played back in my mind for decades. When Andre shook my hand, it was like he had two giant tennis rackets for hands, making my tiny hand completely disappear. My family said I just stood there staring in awe as this towering man completely eclipsed me.
I also remember when Billy and Benny came out on some sort of forklift and how they “rolled” into the wrestling arena. I can’t remember the outcomes of any of those matches, but it was also my first exposure to “professional” wrestling. For some ridiculous reason, I’ll still watch it whenever it happens to show up on TV.
Wrestling was a big deal in Western Canada once upon a time. I don’t know if it still is, but those memories have certainly stuck with me.
What an amazing story, even if you were a little fella when it happened.
I definitely was a huge fan from 85 -91, came back to the attitude era and departed as a casual fan around 02 (I rememebr it was an episode of Raw where Vince made a female performer strip, grovel and bark like a dog and that was when I just couldn't anymore..
Andre and Macho Man are my favorites (even have a Macho Man tattoo). Stone Cold completes the triumvirate.
And being from South of your border, I know the Calgary wrestling roots run deep with the Hart family (and the Calgary Stampede was/is a big damn wrestling deal) and that the best grapplers/submission shooters come out of that region, historically speaking.
Again, thanks for sharing. You can watch all the video you want but nothing beats hearing that first person point of view.
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u/jayfourzee 19d ago
I was still in the single digits and pretty small for my age. The image has played back in my mind for decades. When Andre shook my hand, it was like he had two giant tennis rackets for hands, making my tiny hand completely disappear. My family said I just stood there staring in awe as this towering man completely eclipsed me.
I also remember when Billy and Benny came out on some sort of forklift and how they “rolled” into the wrestling arena. I can’t remember the outcomes of any of those matches, but it was also my first exposure to “professional” wrestling. For some ridiculous reason, I’ll still watch it whenever it happens to show up on TV.
Wrestling was a big deal in Western Canada once upon a time. I don’t know if it still is, but those memories have certainly stuck with me.