Bruce Prichard Details Andre The Giant’s Health Struggles In Final WWE Run

On the latest episode of Something To Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard discussed long-standing rumors about Andre the Giant and the 1991 Royal Rumble, noting that there were plans for him to win the bout.

At the time, it was reported that Andre was removed from the 1991 battle royal due to a leg injury suffered in Japan, but Prichard denied this ever being the case. You can check out some highlights below:

On the Rumor

“No. Never. Yeah no, I’ve never even heard that rumor.”

On Andre Wanting To Wrestle:

“Well look, Andre did want to wrestle. And Andre — man you know, it’s hard to talk about. I think Andre knew he was dying, one. He felt, you know, ‘I know I’m a giant. I know that I don’t have a long life expectancy.’ So his mortality, I believe, was a big part of him wanting to do what he loved to do. And what Andre loved to do was to be in the dressing room with the boys, to go out and perform.

“But Andre wasn’t able to perform at that time. He wasn’t the same Andre. He wasn’t even the same Andre the Giant from 87 you know, when he came back after back surgery. So Andre was not in great shape, and Andre was doing things that he probably shouldn’t have been doing. Like, he shouldn’t have gone to Japan. A for the flight time, and B for the match and just the physical terror, you know, that that put on him.”

On the Relationship Between Vince and Andre:

“Vince and Andre were very close. And the thought of Andre — first of all, the thought of Andre going doing the stuff that he did in Mexico and the stuff that he did in Japan, was against advice for him to go do that. And it was also a Vince to — ‘Andre, if that’s what you want to do, go do it, alright?’ So for Andre, that’s what he wanted to do, man. That’s what he loved. So Andre I think, just wanted to be around the business, in the business, performing, doing whatever he could do, and I think it took its toll on him.

“So it was WrestleMania seven. We did a series of vignettes of managers. Managers that were wooing Andre to be his manager. And I left before the vignettes even played all the way out and it materialized into nothing, really. But I think that that was more from a place of — I remember sitting in the bar at the Los Angeles Arena where we did WrestleMania that year. That’s where we shot the vignette where he’s sitting at the bar, he’s having a drink with Arnie and all this stuff. And boss man, he was having so much trouble getting around. There was the one where I think he put Slick in the trunk of a car and different things. But we shot all of those in a night, just one right after another in different locations and what have you. And just — you saw it.

“And I remember Vince going, ‘I promised I would do this, but I don’t know if he can do this.’ Along those lines. And it was a time that we started to see, ‘Wow, man.’ You want to see the best. You look at someone and they’re not what they used to be, but you still look at them with goggles from the ’70s and early ’80s. That’s what you want to see. And you look at s**t blind sometimes, or you got blinders on and that’s all you see. And I think that that’s what Vince did with Andre. I think that he loved him so much, didn’t want to say no to him. And then finally when Boss left, he — ‘Alright. You don’t want to use me? I’ll go somewhere where I can be used.’ But he was in no condition to do anything. And I think the last thing he did was an appearance on WCW for one of their specials. And that really hurt Vince. He just was like, ‘Why would you do that? We would have. We would have done something with you, but you just wanted to wrestle.’ And then he just slowly passed.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something To Wrestle With an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.