André the Giant–Hulk Hogan rivalry

Also on May 5, 1979, in Dothan, Alabama, they had an arm wrestling match that ended in a no contest when Hogan overturned the table and his manager, Billy Spears, interfered.

After a leave of absence and a stint as competing as part of The Machines tag team stable, André returned to the WWF.

André did make an appearance at a televised show at Madison Square Garden, getting into the ring after Hogan had won a match; André simply picked up the WWF World Heavyweight Championship belt, looked at it, and gave it back to a bewildered Hogan before leaving ringside.

Announcers Gorilla Monsoon and Gene Okerlund thought André's unannounced appearance was strange but didn't think anything more of it.

On the following week's Piper's Pit, André was presented a slightly smaller trophy for being "the only undefeated wrestler in wrestling history."

[15] On a “Piper’s Pit” segment aired a week later, Hogan reflected on his friendship with Andre and how he felt betrayed when he was now with Heenan.

During the March 14 (taped February 21) edition of Saturday Night's Main Event X at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, both were participants in a 20-man Battle royal.

[17] André also was billed as a corner man for several of Hogan's opponents, almost always members of the Heenan Family, at a few untelevised house shows prior to WrestleMania III.

At WrestleMania III, André's was billed at 525 lb (238 kg),[18] and the stress of such immense weight on his bones and joints resulted in constant pain,[19] causing him to wear a brace underneath his wrestling singlet.

In May 1987, on Saturday Night's Main Event XI, Heenan and Andre gave an interview with Gene Okerlund.

After Hogan won a rematch against Bundy on Saturday Night's Main Event XIV which aired January 2, 1988 (taped December 7, 1987), André snuck up to get revenge on Hogan, choking him from behind until he was virtually unconscious, not letting go even after seven face-aligned wrestlers came to the ring to try to pull Andre away; it was only after Hacksaw Jim Duggan broke a 2x4 over André's back (which Andre no-sold) that gave the faces the opening they needed to pull Hogan to safety.

[27] This, plus the Survivor Series match and Andre's attack of Hogan, were the pieces used to create interest in a Hogan-André rematch, set for The Main Event I, which aired live on February 5, 1988, on NBC.

The next evening, at a televised house show at Madison Square Garden, André was the cornerman for DiBiase and his bodyguard, Virgil, in the latter two wrestlers' tag-team match against Hogan and Bam Bam Bigelow; despite multiple times where André interfered, Hogan and Bigelow rallied for the win.

Immediately after winning, whilst still inside the ring and interviewed by Gene Okerlund, André publicly contractually surrendered the title to DiBiase, however the transaction was subsequently declared invalid by then-WWF president Jack Tunney and the title was declared vacant.

[31] In the end, Hogan's friend "Macho Man" Randy Savage won the title, defeating DiBiase in the finals.

Interest in a possible resumption of the feud came in the summer of 1988 when Savage began issuing an open challenge for the WWF World Championship, leading to a two-on-one attack by André and DiBiase.

Savage recovered and the next week declared he and Hogan would face André and DiBiase at the inaugural SummerSlam pay-per-view held at Madison Square Garden.

[33] André's next feud would be with Jake Roberts, and Hogan's would be (along with Savage) with the Big Boss Man and Akeem (The Twin Towers).