Andre the Giant in Spain (1970-1971)

Details of Andre the Giant's wrestling tours of Spain in 1970 and 1971.

Andre the Giant (or Jean Ferre as he was known at the time) wrestled in Spain in 1970 and 1971. I'm sure he must've had other matches there too during those tours, but here are the ones I was able to find.

In 1970 Andre was billed as 2.14m and 161kg (7'03" and 355 lbs), while in 1971 they advertised him as 2.16m and 185kg (7'1" and 407 lbs). Andre was in the headline match for all of the shows below, but he didn't always go on last on the card, because often tag team matches would close out the shows in Spain. Results for some of the shows are not available - just the advertised cards.

It's also good to point out most of these shows were held at big open-air bullrings. Running open-air shows at big bullrings during the summer months was the business model in a number of Spanish cities since the mid to late 1940s. Typically, shows in Spain started very late at night (11 p.m. in a lot of cases). The matches in Spain were usually wrestled in four 5-minute rounds.

The attendance quotes listed below are as they were reported in the local Spanish press.

The promoter for the Madrid and Zaragoza shows was Luis Bamala (one of the top Spanish pro wrestling and pro boxing promoters of the era). By the looks of it Andre's whole tour was booked by Bamala. Bamala's top stars at the time were Hercules Cortez and Jesus Chausson. The Andre vs. Cortez matches in particular are notable, because Andre had been the World Heavyweight champion in France since 1968 and Cortez had been the World Heavyweight champion in Spain since 1964 so their matches were essentially World champion (French claimant) vs. World champion (Spanish claimant). That said, for obvious reasons, in Spain Andre was advertised as the French champion, and not as the World champion.

Date: 19 August 1970
Place: Castellón de la Plana, Spain
Arena: Plaza de toros de Castellón (seating capacity: 13,000)
Attendance: "Full"
1. Nino Pizarro def. Linde Caulder (in the 4th round)
2. Willy Roy def. Roger Green (in the 4th round)
3. Jean Ferre drew Hercules Cortez (20:00)
4. Modesto Aledo & Pedro Cabrera def. Chato Pastor & Angel Parra via disqualification

Date: 20 August 1970
Place: Zaragoza, Spain
Arena: Gimnasio Polideportivo
1. Jose Catarecha vs. Roger Green
2. Juan Bengoechea vs. El Escorpion
3. Jean Ferre vs. Pedro Bengoechea
4. Jesus Chausson & Modesto Aledo vs. Los Halcones de Oro

Date: 21 August 1970
Place: Valencia, Spain
Arena: Plaza de toros de Valencia (seating capacity: 16,851)
1. Rafael Blasco vs. Paco Ramirez
2. Modesto Aledo & Pedro Cabrera vs. Roger Green & Ted Heath
3. Chato Pastor vs. Alberic d'Ericourt (Le Petit Prince)
4. Hercules Cortez vs. Billy White Wolf (Adnan Al-Kaissie)
5. Jean Ferre vs. Juan Botana

Date: 22 August 1970
Place: Madrid, Spain
Arena: Campo del Gas (an open-air stadium, not sure of the capacity)
Attendance: "full to overflow, the biggest crowd in the history of the stadium"
1. Tony Martin def. Soriano (in the 3rd round)
2. Juan Bengoechea def. Lindy Caulder (in the 4rd round)
3. Joussef Tannous def. Rafael Blasco via disqualification
4. World Heavyweight Title: Hercules Cortez (c) def. Jean Ferre via count out to retain his title (20 minutes)
5. Los Halcones de Oro def. Jesus Chausson & Pedro Bengoechea via disqualification

Andre the Giant and Hercules Cortez posing at the start of their match in Madrid

Date: 26 August 1970
Place: Cartagena, Spain
Arena: Plaza de toros de Cartagena (seating capacity: 8-10,000)
1. Hermogenes def. Chato Pastor
2. Paco Ramirez def. Bob Taylor
3. Kamikaze def. Escorpion Rojo
4. Jean Ferre def. Juan Botana (in the 3rd round)
5. Nino Pizarro & Julian Pizarro def. Bobby Barron & Dick Conlon
= A newspaper from the local press said Pedro Cabrera and Andre were good friends and while in Spain Pedro would interpret for Andre. In an interview with the same newspaper Andre mentioned he had a girlfriend at the time, her name was Veronique, and she was 1.70m tall (5'7").

Date: 27 August 1970
Place: Zaragoza, Spain
Arena: Gimnasio Polideportivo
1. Matias Mor vs. Pamplona
2. Julian Pizarro vs. Jose Catarecha
3. Jean Ferre vs. Hercules Cortez
4. No Time Limit: Jesus Chausson & Modesto Aledo vs. Los Halcones de Oro

Date: 1 September 1970
Place: Alicante, Spain
Arena: Plaza de toros de Alicante (seating capacity: 15,235)
1. Angel Parra vs. Nino Pizarro
2. Pedro Cabrera vs. Chato Pastor
3. Bob Taylor vs. Paco Ramirez
4. Walter Bordes vs. Anton Tejero
5. World Heavyweight Title: Hercules Cortez (c) vs. Jean Ferre

Date: 2 September 1970
Place: Castellón de la Plana, Spain
Arena: Plaza de toros de Castellón (seating capacity: 13,000)
Attendance: "Great"
1. Willy Roy def. Alvaro (in the 4th round)
2. Julian Pizarro def. Bob Taylor
3. Modesto Aledo def. Gass Doukhan (in the 3rd round)
4. Walter Bordes def. Anton Tejero
5. Hercules Cortez def. Jean Ferre via disqualification

Date: 3 September 1970
Place: Murcia, Spain
Arena: Plaza de toros de Murcia (seating capacity: 15,000)
1. Modesto Aledo & Nino Pizarro vs. Anton Tejero & Paco Ramirez
2. Pedro Cabrera vs. Medina
3. Walter Bordes vs. Chato Pastor
4. Jean Ferre vs. Hercules Cortez
= Originally Andre was supposed to face Billy White Wolf (Adnan Al-Kaissie), but a day before the show was to take place Cortez replaced him as the advertised opponent. In an interview with a local newspaper Andre said he's thinking about going into pro boxing and mentioned he had been doing boxing training for the past six months.

Date: 19 August 1971
Place: Zaragoza, Spain
Arena: Plaza de Toros de Zaragoza (seating capacity: 10,072)
1. Pedro Catarecha vs. Bob Taylor
2. Stan Kovalic vs. Bruno Ledez
3. Jesus Chausson & Franz van Buyten vs. Los Halcones de Oro
4. Jean Ferre vs. Juan Botana

Date: 21 August 1971
Place: Madrid, Spain
Arena: Campo del Gas
1. Benito Murcia vs. Francisco Medina
2. Walter Bordes vs. Manuel Polman
3. Franz van Buyten vs. Paco Ramirez
4. Jesus Chausson & Jacky Wiecz vs. Los Halcones de Oro
5. Jean Ferre vs. Carlos Rocha

Date: 25 August 1971
Place: Madrid, Spain
Arena: Campo del Gas
Attendance: “Full of people”
1. Pedro Catarecha def. Inca Peruano (in the 4th round)
2. Modesto Aledo def. Lord Barley (in the 3rd round)
3. Jesus Chausson vs. Franz van Buyten
4. Jean Ferre & Pedro Cabrera def. Rafael Blasco & Juan Botana (16 minutes)

Date: 26 August 1971
Place: Zaragoza, Spain
Arena: Plaza de Toros de Zaragoza (seating capacity: 10,072)
1. Pamplona vs. Fernando
2. Spanish Lightweight Title: Pedro Cabrera (c) vs. Jose Antonio Feo
3. Jean Ferre drew Felix Lamban
4. Jesus Chausson & Franz van Buyten vs. Los Halcones de Oro

Date: 28 August 1971
Place: Madrid, Spain
Arena: Campo del Gas
1. Torneo Relampago semi-final: L'Ange Blanc vs. Oscar Lago
2. Torneo Relampago semi-final: Jesus Chausson vs. Franz van Buyten
3. Paco Ramirez vs. Bob Taylor
4. Torneo Relampago final: winner of match 1 vs. winner of match 2
5. Jean Ferre & Francisco Merino vs. Los Halcones de Oro
= The show got cancelled. The reason given for the cancellation was that Andre and van Buyten had been in a car accident.

Date: 12 September 1971
Place: Murcia, Spain
Arena: Plaza de toros de Murcia (seating capacity: 15,000)
1. European Middleweight Title: Nino Pizarro def. Bernard Caclard (c) to become the new champion
2. Battle royal with Jean Ferre, Modesto Aledo, Franz van Buyten, Rafael Blasco, Antonio Montoro, Willy Roy, Julian Pizarro & Matias Mor
3. Jean Ferre & Modesto Aledo def. Franz van Buyten & Rafael Blasco
= Matches 2 and 3 were part of what was known in Spain as "Boom de Ocho". First there was a battle royal. The order of elimination in the battle royal determined who would face who in a tag team match. The tag match ended up being Andre & Aledo vs. van Buyten & Blasco. The winning team was to receive 25,000 Spanish pesetas.

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