If you are basing what you have said on the matches Andre had in the WWF in the mid 80's then bear in mind that his body was almost finished when WWF hit the Wrestlemania era, he was a slow lumbering shell of the man he used to be. Even at Mania 3, most of the match is played out at the ropes to allow him leverage to get up, such was the effort required in him standing at the end of his life. To wrestle on when in that much pain, rather than lay down and die, he deserves a bit of respect.
He was truly dominant in the late 60s and 70s, in an era when there was no all-powerful national promotions, Andre was truly one of the biggest crowd pullers in American Wrestling.