Fantastic Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Given all the verbatim JBL was spouting about Henry's accomplishments last night, I've become somewhat curious as to other ludcrously strong wrestlers. Not tough, we all have the stories of fights, but actual wrestlers who had some kind of stint Powerlifting or Weightlifting or who are even just freakishly strong and have a reputation for it? Henry could potentially "truly" be regarded as the World's Strongest Man, as his records still stand today, and what's more, they are drug tested too - he's un-enhanced, a "natural human being". True, that title can be pretty meaningless, since passing drug tests are as much about who you know and how clever you are as how clean you are, but I honestly believe Mark Henry has been at least clean during the time period when he hit the record 953.5 Squat. Others? Big E. obviously, with an untested 2,039 lbs total - not really a whisper on Henry (2,336.9lbs - drug tested), but impressive nonetheless, given that Big E. gives up around 100lbs to Henry. Lesnar is in the top 12 of all time, NFL Combine benchers, having pushed 225lbs for 42 reps. And we can't really have this thread without mentioning Ken Patera, a former Olympian like Henry, and who still holds the record for the highest three lift Weightlifting total ever performed by an American with 1,397.5 lbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 I don't know about records, but when I see "legitimately strong" Bob Backlund is the first name that springs to mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Henry's generally considered to be 100% clean for a number of reasons. He also has more than just lifting to his credit, since he won the first Arnold Classic version of the World's Strongest Man type competition (which included a number of perennial finalists in the more famous WSM competition), was the first person to clean the Thomas Inch Dumbbell, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steenalized Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Henry's combined numbers between powerlifting lifts and Olympic lifts also give credence to him being legitimately the world's strongest man. He's done extremely well at both. Cena and Bruno Sammartino are legitimately strong. Bruno once had the bench press record, if memory serves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eduardo Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 To those that would know, where does Doug Furnas rank here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSR Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Doug Furnas was the first person I thought of. A whole slew of records for his weight class, and having done over 2,400lbs on more than one occasion. Whilst not in the same category, Candido was on an old eyada Observer show and Meltzer was saying how he was freakishly strong for his size (they did give some of his stats but I forget these). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timbo Slice Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Didn't Jerry Blackwell have a lot of strongman stuff to his credit, too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fantastic Posted September 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Henry's combined numbers between powerlifting lifts and Olympic lifts also give credence to him being legitimately the world's strongest man. He's done extremely well at both. Cena and Bruno Sammartino are legitimately strong. Bruno once had the bench press record, if memory serves. Cena's a pretty gifted lifter. He only recently (the last couple of years, having basically done the Bodybuilding thing for most of his career) started training the Snatch and C&J and he's already Snatching around 300lbs+. Yup, Bruno too. He set a raw 565 paused rep bench in 1959 which was incredible for the time, given the infancy of the lift. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steenalized Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 This isn't in the powerlifting/oly lifting/strong man way that the thread originally mentioned, but Andre and Big Show both are probably up there in their own ways. Lots of the stories with Andre hit on that, plus when you're just that damn big you're not going to be good at lifting but are still going to be strong as an ox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Believe it or not, Mike Graham. He apparently held the state record in the bench press for a long time. Also, Danny Hodge was famous for strongman feats like breaking pliers and crushing apples with his bare hands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tofu_chipmunk Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Not a prolific wrestling career, but Bill Kazmaier had a great record in the World's Strongest Man competitions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khawk20 Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Didn't Jerry Blackwell have a lot of strongman stuff to his credit, too? To a point. He seemed to be a legitimately strong person, but apparently he was signed up to the CBS World's Strongest Man competition as a rib back in the day, and if that's true then I suppose it means those in the know who perpetrated the rib knew he wasn't quite in that class. He did do a lot of "drive a spike through a 2 x 4" type of gimmicks, though. Gimmicked material or not, I don't know. He is spoken of as a very strong wrestler but the line gets blurred in his case for me. Ken Patera deserves another mention as well. Am I wrong in thinking that Furnas had to have re-shaped his body for wrestling by the time he got into tagging with Kroffat? He always looks good, but not "super strong" good, like his many acheivements previous to wrestling would indicate he probably would have looked like..if that makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blehschmidt Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 The night Cena lifted Big Show and Edge into the AA at the same time and then held them up, told me he is a strong bastard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillThompson Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Curt Hennig deserves a mention, his Fisherman Suplex of Giant, and then later Big Show, was mighty impressive strength wise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Cesaro continues to impress me by how he seems to have at least one spot in every match where it seems he has his opponent dead weight him on purpose so he can lift him anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillThompson Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Jeff Cobb is an indie wrestler who's very strong. One of the few wrestlers who can pick up a guy for a move bring them down like they are going to hit the mat then stop completely and reverse the move in one fluid motion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidebottom Posted September 23, 2014 Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 Ken Patera won medals at the Pan American Games, his name belongs in the discussion of strongest wrestlers for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fantastic Posted September 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 That's Ken Patera strict pressing 485lbs... An incredible feat of strength, one that I cannot possibly imagine anybody else replicating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSR Posted September 23, 2014 Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 I don't know about records, but when I see "legitimately strong" Bob Backlund is the first name that springs to mind. In the Observer where he is elected into the Hall of Fame, in his bio Dave says that he was a reputed 500lb bench presser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Casebolt Posted September 23, 2014 Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 There's a handful of WSM competitors who had wrestling careers of some length or another - Kazmeier, Nathan Jones, Geoff Capes, Tom Magee - but for guys who had long wrestling careers, it's pretty much Mark Henry and Ken Patera, and then everyone else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSR Posted September 23, 2014 Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 Geoff Capes wrestled? I know he had a background in Athletics, specifically the Shot Put, but never heard of any involvement at all with wrestling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted September 24, 2014 Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 Can any AWA fans provide input on Hercules Cortez? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victory Posted September 24, 2014 Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 Road Warrior Animal always came across as legit strong. He never seemed to struggle when press slamming somebody. Where as Warrior always seemed to have trouble with that move. There's an old observer from the time around the bench press angle with the POP and Meltzer claimed Animal along with the Barbarian and the Warlord were close to being legit 600lb benchers. Supposedly Lex Luger was freakishly strong at a young age. Maybe not so impressive now, but he was benching over 400lbs in high school. Tony Atlas was considered pretty strong. He was known for being able to bench 500lbs without even warming up. I've read on some body building forums he was close to being a 600lb bencher. I've never seen that confirmed anywhere but those type of forums though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Casebolt Posted September 24, 2014 Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 Geoff Capes wrestled? I know he had a background in Athletics, specifically the Shot Put, but never heard of any involvement at all with wrestling. He did at least one match with Chris Dolman that is either a worked shoot or a clumsy shoot. I don't know anything about the circumstances, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeCampbell Posted September 24, 2014 Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 Doug Furnas was who I first thought of too. Meltzer has said that his powerlifting accomplishments were significantly better than Mark Henry's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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