And, almost forgotten in wrestling history, Andre's slam match vs. Big John Studd at Wrestlemania I. The winner would be the first to bodyslam his opponent with $15,000 on the line. In those days, that was Big John Studd's gimmick...he claimed no one had or could bodyslam him. As you might guess, Andre made the slam and got the money. He began throwing it into the crowd until Bobby Heenan snatched the bag back and ran away. If you have a good picture, you'll see that it was real money going into the crowd.
One thing I always found disappointing was that Big John Studd never did get to beat Andre the Giant. Big John Studd made a comeback as a face and won the Royal Rumble in 1989. Andre was wrestling as a heel and had been beaten by Hogan and had been (or would be) beaten a number of times by Ultimate Warrior. Studd was never so lucky.
You know, it's funny...throughout all of those bits there was never any mention of Andre's son who hoped to get into professional wrestling. ;-)
