On the Undeniable Greatness of Ultimate Warrior vs. Andre the Giant

Andre the Giant vs. The Ultimate Warrior WWF SNME 11/25/89

This was a special match on what is a very special wrestling show for me. I watched this match as part of my 9th birthday party, my first ever sleepover party. I had 8 or 10 friends over, which is FAR too many 9/10 year olds to be staying up watching wrestling at 2 AM while adults are trying to sleep just down the hall. I assume everybody has those memories of sleepovers where dads stagger out in their underwear, eyes mostly shut, telling the kids to PLEASE keep it down. Less than half the kids at my party were wrestling fans, and a couple of them had never even seen pro wrestling before this show. We watched this show as it aired, taped it, and immediately watched it over again once it ended. I have to think that starting a show like this with a bad gums giant fighting a gassed up maniac was exactly what the kids wanted. Just imagine a room of kids, many seeing pro wrestling for the first time, hopped up on pizza and sugar, and being introduced to Andre and Bobby Heenan. It's a beautiful thing. 

This match was voted the Worst Match of 1989 in the WON, which is a completely ludicrous, indefensible result that I'm sure was decided before most of the voters had even seen the match. Because, not only is this match far from being the worst of the year, but it's not even close to being the worst match on this show. In fact, this match is easily one of Warrior's greatest performances, and one of the great Old Andre performances. In many ways I think this is the greatest late career Andre performance, using every single part of his fading skillset and maximizing his greatest skills. He takes two bumps here and they are perfect, his selling is excellent, his facials are incredible, and his teeth make him seem like a wild animal. Warrior threw himself (often literally) into every piece of offense, threw some of his best strikes, and bumped appropriately for Andre's offense. This match was perfectly crafted around each man's skills at this point in their careers. 

I love how this starts, with Andre interrupting Warrior's posing to just start choking him, with both mixing in punches until Andre throws a headbutt that knocks Warrior to the floor. Overwhelmed, Warrior responds by immediately going desperation mode and choking Andre out with his singlet strap, and Andre is awesome at flailing and rocking in the ropes, lowering his center of gravity the longer he's choked. And even though we already got two different cool choking spots, we get another as Andre grabs Warrior from the floor and chokes him with the bottom rope by forcing the rope down onto his throat. Warrior keeps trying to bring Andre down to his size with headlocks (none of which work, and Andre is awesome at resisting all of them) and I thought it was cool that Warrior approaches the match with Andre as if he delusionally thinks he is the same size as Andre, and really that's the way Warrior SHOULD approach his matches. Andre makes a bunch of great bared teeth facials as he stretches Warrior's arms and chest, then takes a nice tumbling bump to the floor off a Warrior clothesline. Warrior is obviously not a guy known for good strikes, but there's only one punch he whiffs wide here. The rest of his strikes look like he's actually trying to hit Andre as hard as he can, and it's why his clothesline looks like something that would send Andre to the floor. 

Warrior continues working as a giant by locking Andre in a bearhug, which is a bizarre and cool sight. Warrior's arms were never bigger in wrestling than they were in this match, and the visual of him trying to keep them locked around Andre as Andre's massive hands close in on Warrior's traps, before Andre breaks the bearhug with another headbutt, is strong. Andre's hands covered Warrior's entire shoulderspan, each literally looking the same size as Warrior's head. Andre locks in his own bearhug, arms wrapped around Warrior's midsection as Andre locks it in from one knee. Warrior rains down on Andre's back with some really violent windmill shots, getting great sound by smacking full arms off Andre until Andre headbutts him in the stomach to get Warrior to stop. 

My favorite part of the match is when Warrior finally escapes the bearhug, and then catches Andre with a brutal body shot as Andre approached. Warrior threw it as hard as possible and it made a loud crack, and Andre sold it majestically. Andre took the loud body shot and let out the groan of a dying wooly mammoth, holding his stomach and contorting his face the way a man who just finished eating an entire pot of chili might. Warrior throws truly excellent chops in the corner, more great echoing sound, and in the spot of the match hits a baseball bat standing lariat that drops Andre into the ropes, trapping his arms. Andre flying backwards and getting trapped in the ropes is always a great spot, and this might legitimately be the best he ever did it. He flies backwards with 100% trust in the ropes, and you have NEVER seen ropes bend this far. I have no clue how they didn't snap and send Andre on a death fall to the floor. Andre was so good at making that spot work so well every time, but this was a spectacular version of a great spot. You really buy that Andre was trapped in the ropes, the force of his full weight hitting them looked like Godzilla getting trapped in a suspension bridge. Another great spot when Warrior does a crossbody into an Andre boot while Andre is still trapped, again really putting over the size discrepancy. Heenan gets involved as the ref struggles to free Andre, with Heenan eating some potato shots before getting press slammed into a now freed Andre (with Heenan bouncing off Andre and landing on his shoulder) and earning Andre the DQ. 

I understand why people would have been close-minded to this match due to prevailing "smart" opinions of the time, but I am failing to see how Andre and Warrior could have worked a smarter, more compelling match. This was clearly an example of a group predetermining that something was going to be eye poison, and refusing to evaluate it on its own terms. It's easy to hate something if you look for reasons to hate it, but there was so much here to appreciate and love that I feel it's due for a re-evaluation. This was a tremendous later career Andre performance, and, while the scales are different, one of Warrior's best.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE