Andre's the Unknown Stuntman, Who Made Munson Such a Star

Killer Typhoon vs. Handsome Howard, Grand Olympic Auditorium, The Fall Guy "Ladies on the Ropes" 2/24/82 - FUN

ER: Lee Majors, TV superstar, had a lot of friends. This was most evident on his 112 episode 80s hit The Fall Guy, which boasted one of the most unique runs of guest stars and cameos in television history. This was towards the end of the Golden Age of character actor TV appearances, but Lee Majors was like Angela Lansbury in that he knew everybody and was able to get guests that no other show had. There were two different Fall Guy episodes with Roy Rogers storylines (each with multiple Sons of the Pioneers song interludes, naturally), and most notably there was an entire episode where Richard Burton guested. Most of the episode took place on a train, where Burton was in a room adjoining Colt Seavers' room, and somehow Burton wound up in as many scenes as Majors himself! Richard Burton was not an actor who did any TV, ever. He wasn't going to be showing up on next week's TJ Hooker, because he was Richard Fucking Burton. He didn't do any TV...except that episode of The Fall Guy. Lee Majors knew Guys and called in all the favors throughout the very fun run of The Fall Guy, including one large old friend.

In the middle of season one, he went back to a major guest star from his long Six Million Dollar Man run, bringing in Andre the Giant as uncredited professional wrestler Killer Typhoon. Lee didn't have enough pull to get Andre to don the Bigfoot makeup again - Andre wrestling as Bigfoot with 1982 Andre ability could have made this an even better guest role than Burton - but he got him to work actor Douglas Barr in the Grand Olympic. Andre wrestled Hulk Hogan at the Olympic. He wrestled Harley Race at the Olympic. Andre wrestled Ernie Ladd 2 out of 3 falls at the Olympic. Also, Andre wrestled Tiger Chung Lee, JC Dykes, and now Howie Munson at the Olympic. Andre is billed as the Killer Typhoon, 7 foot 5 inches tall, weighing 465 pounds. An old lady in the front row/a completely differently location than Andre the Giant yells, "You're a bum, Killer! You're an ugly bum!" Handsome Howard weighs in at 175 pounds, and I think they undersell his size. His Fantastics bowtie comes off but the sequined belt stays. 

This is billed at 2/3 falls just like the Ernie Ladd matches a decade prior. That's a big slice of cake for Howie to bite into. Typhoon throws a punch that decks him and you can't blame the handsome rookie for leaning out of Typhoon's big boot after. Typhoon misses a kneedrop, but when Howard locks in a front chancery - on instinct rather than on smarts - he gets lifted vertically into the air, soles of his feet aimed at the lights, thrown down to his feet and pulled back up in a Steamboat double choke. Howard actually goes for a full nelson on Andre, as the smallest man to fight Andre all year. Andre was facing Hulk Hogan and Killer Khan in Japan and Larry Blackwell all over the AWA circuit in 1982. Howie might have been larger than Perro Aguayo, but Perro had more life experience in his jagged forehead grooves than Munson had in his entire body. 

Howard flies back six feet when Andre responds to his full nelson attempt with a thrust of his ass, like an elephant shaking off a trainer and making him fly across the big top. Andre gives a press slam to Howard, not Howard's stunt man, but he falls like a man placed gently to the mat by a giant, not as a man getting thrown to the mat by a monster. Typhoon's atomic drop pitches Howard forward, but Typhoon misses the follow up splash and Howard forces his way through a Thesz Press. It doesn't much matter. Typhoon grabs this man's large actor-size head and swarms it entirely in hands. He lands three great headbutts, with the camera giving us a POV shot of a wide eyed and grinning Typhoon as his head headbutts towards the camera on his 2nd. Howard gets thrown into the front row with a press slam, Colt Seavers launched after him, Killer Typhoon bouncing on the bottom rope like a crazed chimpanzee. We'll see what kind of working boots he has on next year on his Greatest American Hero appearance. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE THE GIANT