Hulk Hogan body-slammed André the Giant and pinned him at WrestleMania III on March 29, 1987, at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan. The WWF announced a crowd of 93,173 for the match. André was listed at 525 pounds and promoted as undefeated for 15 years, which made the slam the moment of the decade.
Updated November 1, 2026.
Watch enough old WWF tape and most “classic” matches from this era look sloppy up close. Missed cues, off timing, crowds that only popped because the announcers told them to. This one is different. Hogan and André built the whole match around one moment, and when it landed, the crowd exploded. Anyone who’s ever watched wrestling with friends knows that moment when the whole room jumps off the couch at once. That’s rarer than wrestling nostalgia likes to admit.
André the Giant Before WrestleMania III
André René Roussimoff was born on May 19, 1946, in Coulommiers, France. He was called “The Eighth Wonder of the World,” and he was known for his gentle manner as much as his size. Acromegaly, a hormone disorder, kept him growing all his life, and he stood 6 feet 3 inches at 12. He left school at 14 and went to work. He debuted in 1966 as “Géant Ferré,” wrestled in Japan as “Monster Roussimoff,” and moved to Montreal in 1971, where he regularly sold out the Forum. He debuted in the WWWF on March 24, 1973, and Vincent J. McMahon renamed him André the Giant, per Wikipedia.
Outside the ring he played Fezzik in The Princess Bride (1987), one of the great cult classic films. That role made him a pop culture favorite far beyond wrestling fans. He died in Paris on January 28, 1993, at 46, of congestive heart failure. Later that year he became the first person inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame.
Hulk Hogan Before WrestleMania III
Terry Gene Bollea was born on August 11, 1953, in Augusta, Georgia, and made his pro debut in Florida in August 1977. With his big build, long blond hair and loud Hulkamania act, he won over millions of fans. He beat The Iron Sheik at Madison Square Garden on January 23, 1984, for his first WWF Championship, and Hulkamania took off from there. He became a huge part of 1980s pop culture, right up there with the best 1980s sitcoms. He also acted in Rocky III (1982) and No Holds Barred (1989), and later starred in the reality show Hogan Knows Best. Wrestling’s showmanship has always had more in common with the karate action movie stars of the era than with sport. Hogan died on July 24, 2025, in Clearwater, Florida, at 71.
The WrestleMania III Main Event
Hogan defended the WWF World Heavyweight Championship against André in a match that lasted 12 minutes and 1 second. He scoop-slammed André, hit the ropes and dropped his leg for the pin. It wasn’t a technical showcase. Both men were built for one big moment, and they got it. The match lived up to the hype, and that is why it is still talked about as one of the most important matches in wrestling history.
The slam wasn’t actually a first. Hogan had slammed André in both of their 1980 matches, at Showdown at Shea and at Madison Square Garden, and André won both of those, per Wikipedia. In 1987, it landed with the title on the line.
How Many People Were Really at WrestleMania III
The WWF announced 93,173 and claimed the largest live indoor crowd in North American history, a record that stood until January 27, 1999. The figure is disputed. Zane Bresloff, the local promoter, put the real number closer to 78,000, as relayed by Dave Meltzer. Anyone who’s been in a packed stadium knows it’s hard to tell 78,000 from 93,000 by looking around. It all just feels like a wall of noise. Either way the building was packed. Almost a million more fans watched on closed-circuit TV at 160 locations, and pay-per-view brought in an estimated $10.3 million, a record at the time.
What WrestleMania III Changed
For André, losing made him bigger. The “undefeated for 15 years” line was an exaggeration, but fans believed it, so the slam felt impossible. For Hogan, the win was the peak of Hulkamania and made him the face of the WWF’s national expansion. It also made WrestleMania the event of the wrestling year, and it still is. Plenty of fans can still picture that slam in their heads, even if they only saw it years later on an old tape. It became the image people link to the 1980s wrestling boom.
The Friendship Behind the Rivalry
The on-screen story was betrayal. Off screen, the two went back years. They first met in Alabama’s Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling territory, where they had two matches and a televised arm-wrestling contest, and they feuded in the WWWF in 1980. Hogan has long spoken about André with real respect. The “betrayal” angle was pure theater between two men who knew each other well, and that’s part of why it worked on the people watching. Anyone who’s watched two actors play enemies in a movie and then laugh together on a talk show knows how that works. It was good storytelling, even if it was a bit of a put-on.
WrestleMania III Questions
How much did André the Giant weigh at WrestleMania III?
He was listed at 525 pounds for the match against Hulk Hogan on March 29, 1987. André had acromegaly, a hormone disorder that kept him growing all his life; he was already 6 feet 3 inches tall at age 12. The listed weight was part of the promotion, which also sold him as undefeated for 15 years.
What was the real attendance at WrestleMania III?
The WWF announced 93,173 at the Pontiac Silverdome and claimed a North American indoor record that stood until 1999. The local promoter, Zane Bresloff, put the real figure closer to 78,000, as relayed by wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer. Almost a million more watched on closed-circuit TV at 160 locations.
Was WrestleMania III the first time Hogan slammed André?
No. Hogan body-slammed André in both of their 1980 WWWF matches, at Showdown at Shea on August 9 and at Madison Square Garden on August 30, and André won both. WrestleMania III was the first time the slam came with the championship on the line.
How long was the Hogan vs. André match?
It lasted 12 minutes and 1 second. Hogan kept the WWF World Heavyweight Championship by scoop-slamming André, running the ropes and hitting his leg drop for the pin. It was a short main event built around one moment, and that moment is the one people still remember from the whole show.