WWE Smackdown live commissioner Shane McMahon appeared on ESPN’s “Cheap Heat” podcast and shared some childhood memories of Andre the Giant. Shane revealed that he has been following Andre since he was a child and dreamed of growing up to be his tag team partner. An adolescent Shane also thought that he could grow up to the size of Andre the Giant via vegetables.
“I knew Andre going back to… Worcester [Memorial] Auditorium. And I’d always tell my dad and my mom I was going to grow up and be Andre’s tag team partner and I’m not going to be small like my father, I’m going to be big like Andre. So that’s how my mom really got me to eat my vegetables and all the food on my plate and everything else for a long time, not having any idea that he was a giant and things wouldn’t be happening that way, but it was a nice dream as a kid,“ said Shane.
Shane recalled that Andre is highly regarded as one of the most well-respected and loved wrestlers of all time and had a larger than life presence in the ring, that was on a different plane to any other superstar.
“There was an immense amount of respect for Andre, from the locker room to every promoter, and from the fanbase standpoint. And Andre always delivered. He was the king in the locker room and was an unbelievable attraction, so it really goes back to that respect aspect of everything. He did a lot for the company.” said Shane
Andre had never been the face of WWE during his time, however, he had a huge fan base around the world due to his size and physical strength. During the interview with Peter Rosenberg, Shane also spoke about how his father Vince McMahon persuaded Andre to take part in the historic WrestleMania 3 match against Hulk Hogan.
