The first time I watched a true crime documentary it scared the crap out of me. I was eight, I think, and it was about Jack the Ripper. I watched it in a small dark smokey lounge in the back of a funeral home with some other kids of similar age and then had to run out to the car alone probably around 10:30pm or so.
I would assume “on the ropes” was a reference to Andre being a wrestler. Don’t think it was meant to be about his death.