André the Giant was a WWE Hall of Famer who was widely known for his height of 7 feet 4 inches and weight of around 520 pounds. He had a remarkable ability to consume large amounts of wine and was often involved in incidents related to his drinking habits.
Recently, WWE Hall of Famer Tully Blanchard revealed a story about André’s drinking habit. Blanchard recalled that on a morning flight, André asked him to drink with him, and the things that happened later on were nothing that he ever expected.
Blanchard reveals ‘horrific’ drinking experience with André the Giant
André the Giant was known for his legendary drinking stories, which many of his peers have recounted over the years. One of André’s past colleagues and WWE Hall of Famer Tully Blanchard recently shared his experience of drinking with André on an episode of “Wrestling Shoot Interviews.” Blanchard mentioned that André offered him a drink early in the morning, which was not something he was accustomed to.
“Probably the funniest drinking story that I ever had was that we were flying out of Chicago somewhere, and back in those days, you could upgrade your ticket for 25 bucks and sit in first class. So I upgraded my ticket, and we were on an 8 o’clock flight somewhere. And so I am sitting next to Andre at 8 a.m., I’m tired; I’ve been up most of the night, I’m wanting to go to sleep, and he said, ‘You drink with me?’ I said, ‘Andre, it’s 8 in the morning.”
“I can’t drink at 8 in the morning.’ And so he’s drinking coffee and whatever they had to put in his coffee, and he looked at me and said, You drink with me,’ so he ordered me a Bloody Mary, and two Bloody Marys later I am—it doesn’t take a lot of liquor to get you going at 8 in the morning, and oh my gosh. And instead of [when we landed] going to the gym and my normal routine, I had to go to bed; it was horrible. Having to drink with André at 8:00 in the morning is probably my most horrific story.” said Tully Blanchard.
André once drank 106 beers in six hours
André the Giant was a wrestler who lived up to his ring name. He had a dominating presence within the ring, often controlling the match to make it either easier or more difficult for his opponent, depending on his opinion. André’s larger-than-life persona extended beyond the ring and into bars around the world, where his unreal alcohol consumption became legendary in the wrestling world.
Wrestling icon Ric Flair was in attendance with André the Giant on a remarkable night when the Giant achieved an astounding feat. Flair revealed on “The Rich Eisen Show” that he saw The 8th Wonder of the World consume more than 106 beers in a single sitting.
“I was with him one night at the Downtown in Charlotte in ’74 or ’75 when he drank 106 beers. Here’s what happened. It was getting so ridiculous; he was having one after another, and he was with Frank Valois [Andre’s manager], myself, and a guy named Ivan Koloff. We were there drinking, and pretty soon the bartender just said, ‘I’m not believing this. Let me separate this,’ because Andre was drinking one beer and everybody else was drinking another.”
“I think he was drinking like regular Miller, not Miller Lite; [it] wasn’t around then, and we were drinking something else, so he just separated it out. Frank Valois drank 56, and André drank 106. That’s from 10 o’clock until like 4 in the morning.”
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