Andre The Giant Liked Undertaker, Despite Disdain For Other Big Men

Even 30 years after his death, the legendary Andre the Giant continues to loom large over professional wrestling. No wrestler has ever been quite like the former WWE Champion, a man who fought the likes of Antonio Inoki, Hulk Hogan, and El Canek, and someone who could make life easy or difficult depending on how much he respected a fellow worker. In that regard, Andre has many similarities to The Undertaker, a fellow wrestling legend who some may have seen as a successor to Andre in terms of being a locker room leader.

Though the two would never wrestle each other, Andre and Undertaker did both find themselves as co-workers briefly in 1990 and 1991 following Taker's debuting at Survivor Series 1990. Answering a fan question on the latest "Something To Wrestle With," WWE's Bruce Prichard revealed that the two knew each other well enough for Andre to see Undertaker in a flattering light, a regard he didn't usually hold for bigger wrestlers.

"Undertaker came in when Andre was kind of on his way out," Prichard said. "But Andre liked Taker. He didn't like big guys, but I think he saw that Undertaker didn't carry himself in that way, and didn't carry himself as a threat to the giant. He was always very respectful to Andre. [From] everything I know, Andre was really cool with Taker."

Aside from their similarities as far as locker room presence went, Undertaker would also go on to emulate, and even surpass, Andre in longevity, ultimately wrestling for 33 years before he would officially retire in 2020 at the WWE Survivor Series PLE. The retirement was a full-circle moment for Taker, effectively ending his WWE run 30 years after his initial debut.

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