Customer Reviews

Andre the Giant: A Legendary Life (Wwe)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Being a longtime WWF/WWE fan I own almost every official biography they have released to date. I just finished the Andre The Giant biography and I have to honestly say this is by far the WORST WWE biography I have ever read. The author obviously did not have even of a biography to fit in a decent sized book so he described many of Andre's matches in great detail, too much detail in my view. The author would spend multiple pages on each match with details of just about every move used in the match (with Andre there was not many he used). What was really unnecessary was including match details of matches Andre was not even wrestling in, way too many for my taste. As most people know Andre was not very active in his later years in the ring so many of the matches Andre was just observing and doing very little actual wrestling, the author spent way too much time talking about matches that Andre was not even in. In my opinion this book was a complete waste of time and money. I strongly recommend fans avoid this book...

As Gorilla Monsoon would have said, "this is a travesty of justice." This is not a biography of Andre the Giant, it is a biography of his wrestling career (largely the WWF/E part of it). Anybody, and I mean anybody that has access to a video library of Andre's matches and interview segments could have "written" this book. It is nothing but more than someone transcribing the visual events and commentary of the high spot feuds of Andre during his WWE tenure, covering the likes of Big John Studd, Hulk Hogan, Jake 'the Snake' Roberts, Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, and his tag team events with Ted DiBiase and Haku. To top that off, any interview segment regarding these feuds were also added pretty much verbatum. Truly this was a huge disappointment. If you took out all the videotape transcribing and only included the parts regarding Andre the person and not his career, the book would be a mere 25 pages long maybe. About the only redeeming quality of this book were the personal quotes from the likes of Ted DiBiase, Bobby Heenan, Stan Hansen, and referee/travelling companion Tim White and tof course Vince, Shane, and Stephanie McMahon.

If this had been a dvd biography, it would be great but in book form it is just simply terrible and does not truly pay tribute to Andre the Giant whereas very little of his personal life is covered except his declining health. As a dvd, it would get 5 stars, as a book, it's generous to give it 1 star. Skip it and wait for the sure to come dvd compilation.

I agree with the prior reviews. This is not a biography, but a transcript of what would have been a hell of a DVD. All this guy does is describe (in way too much detail) all of Andre's matches and interviews from 1985 up. I'd rather see these, instead of having this dork tell me about them. Obviously Andre had very little of interest happen to him his first 15 years in the sport as he sums them up (poorly) in about 40 pages. All his territory days are summed up in a sentence or two. Must not have been very interesting... or the author was very lazy.
I dislike "WWE press" biographies because it seems like you get half the story. Wrestling history becomes very edited, and almost re-written so "Fact" is whatever Vince's view of a person or situation is. This book isn't even half, as there is very little actual content. A few paragraphs here and there of interviews of other legends.
If you've never seen or heard of Andre the Giant, this is a decent introduction. But if you're aware of Andre, post-Wrestlemania, there's absolutely nothing here you need to know.
Sadly this book is a big waste.

I had such high hopes for this book about my childhood hero, Andre the Giant. But unfortunately they were not met with this Michael Krugman book. The story of Andre's life was not fully articulated in this 344 page book. Andre started his wrestling career in 1967 and from the beginning of his life till 1979 it is summed up in 50 pages. These are the years that Andre was originally discovered, gained fame comparable to Muhammad Ali and put together his technique but it was put together poorly. As a fan of Mr. Rouismoff's I began to notice him when WWE went national, in the 80's and therefore witnessed all of his matches from this era on the USA network and from PPV events. This was all relived in the book--word from word. I felt like I was reading the captioning from the TV. Mr. Krugman found all of the big matches from the 80's and simply put on the captioning and typed away...why? If this is what you were going to do, just put out a 3-disc dvd, which I would really, really enjoy. Again I had hopes of his childhood from family that had known Andre's family, I had hopes of his introduction to mass drinking, more of the stories of partying with Andre, the women, his daughter in Seattle, his days when he left to go to Japan, his final match and more on the personal side. Instead closed captioning of all of his big 80's matches...disappointed. Why 2 stars then, well if you never witnessed Andre, this is the best way to get to know him and the fact that WWE put something out about my hero well I will give you credit on that. The only hope I have is that WWE puts out a supplement 3 disc dvd capturing the video of these matches, to witness the matches that would truly be legendary.

I made it through 83 pages of Andre the Giant: A Legendary Life, a 343-page bibliographic embarrassment in which author/embarrassee Michael Krugman manages to reduce a monumental athlete to a monumental bore.

The vast majority of Krugman's book (okay, I skimmed the rest) consists of play-by-play accounts of Andre the Giant's wrestling matches, which bleed together into one deeply uninteresting match (e.g., "Andre kicks back in the far corner, and then gets into an exchange with Tony Atlas. Bob Boyer runs at Andre, who gets a boot up and puts him down. Andre lies down on Boyer.")

I suspect that Vince McMahon locked Krugman in a room containing a TV, a VCR and a 10-foot-high pile of Andre the Giant VHS tapes and told him, "I'll unlock the door once you turn these tapes into an Andre the Giant biography."

"A biography?" Krugman replied. "But I don't know anything about Andre's life--just what I've read on Wikipedia and Andrethegiant.com."
"You've got until Saturday," McMahon said. "Now get started or I'll have Big Show come in here and choke-slam you."

How little does Krugman know about Andre's life? Let me give you an example: Here's all that Krugman had to say about Andre's education: "Andre loved going to school, especially the social aspect of being around people." Really--that's the only sentence on the topic; by the next paragraph, Andre has already grown and become a professional wrestler. (And come on ... are we really supposed to believe the other children in Andre's school didn't mock him for his gigantism?)

Part of me wanted to finish A Legendary Life to see how many times the phrase "larger than life--both literally and figuratively" came up (twice by Page 83). But I'd rather endure a Big Show choke-slam than the rest of this book.

I just finished reading Andre The Giant. I was expecting behind the scenes reading not a blow by blow description of Andre's wrestling matches. The few times behind the scenes was discussed by friends of Andre and fellow WWE wrestlers was few and far between which is a shame because they were indeed the only interesting parts of the book. Anybody considering purchasing this book, think again. Wait until it is available in your local library and then leave it on the shelf!

This was a total waste of money. All he did was interview a dozen people or so which comprised 10% of the book and give a blow by blow account of all of Andre's significant matches which account for the other 90%. There is nothing in this book that you can"t get off Wikipedia. I have literally read every autobiography and biography ever written on a wrestler. This is without a doubt the worst. Krugman, if you are reading this I will never, ever waste a dime on one of your books.

This book was not what I expected. I would have preferred an actual biography about the Giant's life, instead I got play by play of all his matches. There is some background to his feuds and quotes from other wrestlers but you have to read through his matches to get to them.

I am not a huge wrestling fan but enjoyed it when I was younger. If your looking for behind the scenes information then this book is not for you.

Simply put, this book is not a biography. It is almost a transcript of what a blow-by-blow announcer would say if he were watching Andre's matches. Is it really interesting to hear what happened in each of his matches? Maybe that would be interesting for a Dynamite Kid or a Rob Van Dam, but not Andre. Andre was one of the greatest characters ever, but he was by no means a great technical wrestler, so to pretend that his great draw and interest is based on his in-ring play-by-play work is just bizarre.

Andre's charm and struggles were incredible and could have made an incredible book, but it reads like the author heard a few stories about Andre before he joined the WWF, watched every WWF match, and decided to write a book about it.

So if you really want to know what happened in every "Superstar-Era" match in the WWF that involved Andre, by all means, buy the book. But if you're looking for a good biography, consider Bret Hart's or Mick Foley's books.

Pass.

I agree with all other reviewers; this book was a waste of money and time. I feel it was just a way for the author to make a little money for those curious (like me) about learning about a wrestling great without having to put much effort in the obviously minimal research that was conducted in writing this book. Please wrestling fans, don't buy this book, as you will be disappointed!