[Mikey]

A dream match in any sense of the word. The iconic and legendary Andre the Giant squaring off with the “conscience of the WWE,” the Phenom, the Undertaker. No more hype needed.

[salmonjunkie]

Even Andre's posse can't beat the Undertaker, IMO

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Andre had the mystique but Taker had the character (original Taker, Corporate Taker, Biker Tiker, etc), not to mention some decent in-ring talent. His WMX-7 match against HHH is still one of my favorites.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

Taker is one of my all time favorites.

[Moosehead Jack]

Andre would crush him. Most of us only saw the decrepit old broken down Andre. Andre in his heyday was THE man in wrestling, period. The man was huge (both in size and popularity) and he could throw a dropkick! A DROP KICK!

That and Taker has always kind of bored me, except when he was Bikertaker, then he was ok

[Lucky]

So can Big Show and yet Show manages to be capable of (a) talking and (b) wrestling.

He's also capable of losing some weight from time to time.

[Moosehead Jack]

Andre could wrestle just fine, and he was French, what did you expect from him?

[Lucky]

I would be very happy for you to point me to an Andre match that was at all good. I'm not saying there isn't one. I'm saying I've never seen it.

[Moosehead Jack]

you would probably have to look back to the 70's, before he shot up over 450-500lbs

[salmonjunkie]

BTW, Mike, did you just look for the worst possible picture of Taker you could find?

[creepy]

Could be wrong, but I think Andre did more for the biz during his run than UT did during his. There was no Rock, Austin, HBK, HHH, etc........ No Owners angle. No gay spooky to sell the persona. Not as many teenagers going batshit for the Deadman gimmick. No gay burned Brother. Of course, people don't count anything before they started watching. ;(

UT was lucky he got a sellable gimmick and has been a yes man the past 17 years. Only things he ever cheated on were his wives.




Then again, Andre was basically just big. And soooooo over just being Bigger Than Big in everything he did.


Push, leaning Andre.



E:
Voted Andre.
Lucky, rip into it or just tell me I'm wrong.

[Riot Act]

Taker, just for the sake of better workrate, a gimmick that worked incredibly well despite looking like shit on paper and being part of someof the most memorable wrestling moments of my lifetime.

[Lucky]

creepyjackalopeeye said:

E:
Voted Andre.
Lucky, rip into it or just tell me I'm wrong.

You kind of already acknowledged the biggest problem with your argument. As much as one might be able to argue that Taker owes much of success to size, gimmick, and being a good soldier Andre owes his entire career to birth defect. As best as I can tell he's a horrible wrestle in compared to Big Show. And as much as people talk about Andre being bigger than life and wrestling I have never seen that as anything more than his pure size. And I've ALWAYS been willing to acknowledge my ignorance in that regard, but noone has EVER been able to provide with a counter argument.

Being a good company man and having a gimmick that has connected with fans for almost 2 decades aren't marks against him. Taker's also a very good worker who has adapted his style and continues to improve in his 40s. He has redefined his iconic gimmick numerous times to make it work. And WWE managed to base two pretty big characters in Kane and Mankind off of him.

But whatever. Its ANDRE. And noone has ever been able to explain to me why that's such a big deal.

[salmonjunkie]

Undertaker can still do a flying plancha over the top rope. He's a 40+ year old guy probably about 260-270 lbs, is 6'7" or so, and the man can do a freaking flying plancha over the top rope.

Dude. It's THE UNDERTAKER. I don't think anyone could pull of the gimmick the way he could (Brian Lee sure couldn't). Shit, he made that gimmick a full-blown character that evolved over the last 15 years from mute zombie to dark hero to demonic manipulator to no-nonsense biker and BACK to zombie but now with traits that encompassed all of those past gimmicks. It wasn't just swapping gimmicks with this guy, Calloway really did give Taker character evolution.

Andre was always just big. Love the guy, but he was always just a big guy. First a lovable big guy, then a mean big guy.

[creepy]

I concede this argument. It's Andre is the best I can come up with why people liked him so much. He was just a freak. And people liked that. Different times.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

Some of the Taker matches were really great and techinal as well. Remember some of the matches with Angle. I still fondly remember the one where he busted out the triangle choke.

[Mikey]

Andre got 10 votes in this thing? Who booked this shit?

Put this sucker to bed and VOTE TAKER!!

[Lucky]

This is a silly nostalgic board that votes for stuff they liked when they were kids instead of what was objectively better.

I mean ITS ANDRE!

[Mikey]

Is that anything like being BROCK?

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Seriously... the "it's Andre" comment can't be enough for 10 votes, can it?

[Lucky]

I think so. "ANDRE" would be defined as "being cursed at birth by a genetic defect that makes you a freak of nature and having no discernible skills but being lucky enough to be discovered by a sideshow circus and freak show that is experiencing a market boom."

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Giant Gonzalez is in the showdown too?

[Lucky]

Nope. He wasn't ANDRE. He came along between booms. Loser.

Plus, he wasn't fat. Go over there with Gheorge Muresan and Khali, you loser!

EDIT: It should be noted, Big Show is not ANDRE either as he has... you know... skill.

Giant Silva of the Oddities, though? Completely ANDRE.

[Moosehead Jack]

luckylopez said:

This is a silly nostalgic board that votes for stuff they liked when they were kids instead of what I think is better.

Fixed that for ya

[Lucky]

As I've said, Moose. If ONE person would be happy to present ONE argument for Andre that is anything other than "God hated him and cursed him to a short life as a freak" then I would be happy to concede my opinion of him to be wrong. Or at the very least ignorant.

But in the decade plus of me being a wrestling fan not ONE wrestling fan has EVER presented an argument for Andre. NOT ONE. Seems to me that you're all plainly acknowledging that he sucked ass but you just like him because he was a giant when you were a small child.

EDIT: Jake the Snake, the Von Erichs, the Free Birds, Dusty Rhodes, The Rock, Hulk Hogan. All people I don't get the appeal of but whose fans can craft clear arguments for why they are great.