Andre the Giant apparently came dangerously close to getting stabbed after the original WrestleMania. Chuck Zito claims his friend actually pulled a knife and was ready to stab Andre in the eye before Mean Gene Okerlund helped calm everything down.
While speaking on Stephanie McMahon’s What’s Your Story? podcast, Zito remembered attending WrestleMania I in 1985 with his friend Bert and Bert’s young son. They had a great time at the show before heading backstage and waiting near the elevator where wrestlers were leaving.
“I had a great time and I brought my friend Bert with me, and he had his son. And his son was only like maybe five years old, you know, if that, and at the end of the show, we went down to the back, through the back where the, where the elevator is.”
That’s where Andre showed up alongside Mean Gene Okerlund. Zito and Bert were wearing their Hells Angels jackets, but Bert apparently wasn’t looking for any trouble. According to Zito, he simply wanted Andre to acknowledge his five-year-old son.
“So we are there waiting for the elevator. All of a sudden Andre comes walking up with Mean Gene. And Bert goes to him, he goes—and we had our patches on. You know? We had our Hells Angel jackets on, and, uh, Bert goes, ‘Hey, Andre, can you say hello to my son?’ And he goes, ‘Leave me alone.’”
Bert tried one more time, telling Andre that even if he didn’t like him personally, he could at least say hello to the kid. Andre allegedly wasn’t interested, and that’s when a pretty harmless request suddenly became something considerably more dangerous.
“He goes, ‘Look, if you don’t like me, at least say hello to my son.’ He said, ‘Leave me alone.’ Bert pulled out his knife and was gonna stab him right in the eye.”
Mean Gene immediately saw where this was heading and started yelling about the knife. Zito, meanwhile, was already thinking about what he would have to do if Andre grabbed Bert.
“And Mean Gene goes, ‘No, no knives. No knives.’ And I’m saying, ‘This guy’s gonna grab Bert. I’m gonna have to jump on his back.’ But, uh, everything was calmed down after that. But Bert was pissed.”
Nobody got stabbed and Andre didn’t throw anybody into an elevator, so the situation eventually ended without the fight Zito feared was coming. It still completely changed his opinion of Andre.
“And he was just, you know, it was no need for it. And, uh, ever since that I wasn’t an Andre fan. Before I was, when I saw him wrestle. But after that elevator thing, I mean, Gene yelling, ‘No knives. No knives.’”
Stephanie wasn’t quite ready to judge Andre entirely from one ugly encounter. She pointed out that everyone builds their perspective around their own experiences with somebody, while Zito maintained that whatever Andre thought about him and Bert shouldn’t have mattered when a five-year-old kid was standing there.
“Well, everybody has their own experience, right? You know, and you build your perspective off that. But he could have said hello to the kid. You know, and he’d not do nothing. Just say hello.”
Stephanie agreed that wrestlers will usually make an effort when children are involved and wondered whether they simply caught Andre during a particularly bad moment.
“Well, and usually—yeah—our talent are like, yeah. Especially for the kids. Right? You know, I think it must’ve been a bad moment.”
Zito had another theory. Since he and Bert were wearing Hells Angels jackets, he wondered whether Andre might actually have been somewhat intimidated by them. Considering this was Andre the Giant, Zito knew how strange that sounded, but he also remembered exactly what was going through his own head once that knife appeared.
“I, because he saw who we were. He was a, just a little—can I say intimidated? I don’t know. The guy was, yeah, maybe 600 pounds. Who knows? You know, and I’m saying to myself, ‘Boy, Bert’s gonna pull this guy. I gotta jump on his back. This guy, he’s gonna throw Bert against the elevator.’ And, uh, that was our experience with Andre, and I was never a fan after that, so.”
Stephanie offered another possible explanation, noting that Andre dealt with constant unwanted attention because of his enormous size and may simply have reached his limit at that particular moment.
“Well, that’s too bad. I, I don’t know if it was, you know, Andre just got—and I’m not making excuses—but he got, um, bothered a lot because of his size.”
Whatever was going through Andre’s head that night, Zito certainly never forgot what happened. Nearly four decades later, he can still remember Mean Gene desperately yelling “No knives” while Zito was preparing himself for the possibility that he’d somehow have to jump on Andre the Giant’s back.
What do you make of Chuck Zito’s story about the wild encounter with Andre the Giant after WrestleMania I? Let us know in the comments below.
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