Strongest wrestler of all time?

[Guest Nick the Pick]

Whaddya reckon? And what are the most impressive feats of strength you've seen from a wrestler?

[Guest Drury37]

Well,I have to give to the Orange Goblin but Hogan bodyslamming Andre the Giant was unbelievable!!!Also Lex Luger bodyslamming Yokozuna.Actually Kurt Angle giving the Olympic/Angle Slam to the Big Show was pretty good too.

Thanks.

[Guest dreamer420]

Kane picking up and holding the Big Show on his shoulder like he was going to powerslam him.

[Guest DEEP THOUGHT]

Ahmed Johnson bodyslammed Yokozuna several times shortly after his WWF debut in late 1995. I didn't like the guy, but I will admit that that was quite impressive. Keep in mind that Yokozuna had gained a lot of weight since Luger slammed him in 1993.

 

Also Dino Bravo's benchpress record attempt at Royal Rumble 1988. I may not have set the "record" on his own, but he did lift a great deal of weight prior to the record setting attempt.

[Guest Some Guy]

Thw Warlord was a fucking huge, roided up monster who I'm sure ranks up there with teh strongest.

[Guest Sassquatch]

Meltzer talked about this 2 years ago.

 

The strongest men that have ever been in wrestling were:

 

Bill Kazmaier

Scott Norton

Ice Train

Mark Henry

Ken Patera

Paul Wight

Glen Jacobs

 

All of these men have "lifted" 800 lbs. or more in their lives.  I'm going to assume that Meltzer was talking about bench pressing.

 

I would also add Ahmed Johnson to that list.  When he lifted Yoko up for a bodyslam, he did it rather easily which is pretty impressive.

[Guest Drury37]

Bill Kazmaier is a huge man!!!

Thanks.

[Guest Nick the Pick]

Meltzer was probably referring to the squat. I don't know if 800lbs has been benched more than once - I think the world record is around 803lbs.

 

I'd agree that all the guys on Meltzer's list are powerhouses but he missed two biggies, two guys who, at various times, have been considered the strongest guys in the business: Doug Furnas (former powerlifter) and Steve Williams (pressed the 290lb Terry Gordy overhead for TEN REPS!!!)

 

For anyone who cares, here are the max bench-presses for several wrestlers:

 

Dino Bravo (around 550lbs), Mark Henry (520 lbs but his better at squats!), Ahmed Johnson (525lbs), Road Warrior Hawk (505lbs), Ultimate Warrior (500lbs), Lex Luger (500lbs), Davey Boy Smith (550lbs), Brian 'Crush' Adams (590lbs), Scott Steiner (525lbs), Kurt Angle (420lbs), Tank Abbott (600lbs), Chyna (310lbs), Nick 'Big Bully' Busick (605lbs), Scott Norton (650lbs), Ted Arcidi (700lbs), Tazz (450lbs), Shane Douglas (430lbs), Eddie Guerrero (275lbs), Ron 'Farooq' Simmons (around 520lbs)

 

Obviously, some wrestlers possess unbelievable natural strength but aren't exactly gym-rats eg. Paul Wight; I do believe that Wight is far stronger than Andre ever was. I'd estimate Kane can bench about 520lbs or more, Goldberg around the same, Triple H about 460lbs, and Bill Kaz could probably bench near 700lbs at his peak. Hogan could probably lift about the same as Luger and the Warrior, and the Rock was benching 400lbs+ at the age of 16 and can most likely do a lot more now.

 

Also, some reports are unreliable eg. WCW claimed Meng could bench 600lbs, which I find unlikely during his WCW run, although at his peak, it's possible - I'm sure Barbarian could. Warlord could allegedly bench 500lbs for 20 reps; looking at him, that's not hard to believe, whilst Jim Neidhart could do 440lbs for 15 reps.

 

In my opinion, the strongest man in the WWF right now is Albert, especially considering he pressed the 330lb Kane with ease.

 

Finally, the most impressive show of strength in relation to size that I've heard of would be Johnny the Bull overhead pressing Sean O'Haire and the Wall.

[Guest dreamer420]

I was also pretty impressed wtih Sting bodyslamming the Giant in WCW.

[Guest Sassquatch]

Kane is 280 in real life my friend.

 

Where did you get all those bench lifting records?

 

If Meltzer posted thsoe in the newsletter, I'd like to know which one.

 

And Paul Wight was stronger than Andre.  Meltzer and Keller have talked abut this in the past.

[Guest Nick the Pick]

Are you sure Kane's 280? Was that in The Observer? I'm aware better than most that wrestlers exaggerate their heights and weights but Kane looks way bigger than Sid to me, and Powerslam magazine, a good source for this stuff, reported that Sid is at least 290. And he's no taller than Kane either (they're both 6'7''). Also, bear in mind that Undertaker's weighed as much as 335, and was about 285 during his 90s WWF heyday. And he didn't look anywhere near as big as Kane then.

 

As for the bench records, they've all come from relatively reliable sources. I drew the line at WCW Magazine, which claimed that Steiner, back injury and all, can bench 630lbs; that's not consistent with what he's shown in the ring. Brian Adams has claimed in the past that he can bench 600lbs but I heard that his best lift was around 590, done during his stint in the Army. Dino Bravo's best friend posted his 550lbs lift on a tribute thread on SLAM! wrestling. Hawk quoted his 505lbs lift in a Torch interview, and I've never seen anywhere claim that PWI's pick for the strongest man in wrestling Lex Luger could bench any more than 500lbs; given wrestling's propensity for exaggeration, it's possible he can't even bench that much. Warrior, another guy not exactly known for his humility, cited a 500lbs bench in an interview but followed up that uncharacteristic display of humbleness by saying that he was better at the behind-the-neck press anyway (300lbs).

[Guest Silvpak]

It's always nice to know that I can bench more than Eddy Guerrero.