I met Harley Race at WM 20 in NY. Absolute gentleman to children and fans. He picked my son up like he was nothing (despite being in a wheelchair), called him Champ, and allowed us to take pictures with him. RIP to a known tough guy who took time for a few fans!
An old Army buddy of mine told me about meeting Harley in the St.louis airport. He got real excited about meeting him and he told Harley he was his hero. Harley shook his hand, put his other hand on his shoulder and told him "You're the hero young man, you and anybody else who wears one of those uniforms." He was a great guy Harley was.
Love Vader and classic Kane. They would have fit perfectkly inside there, thinking about a part 2. So many who i should have mentioned too.@@davidmoore4797
Danny was so heavily requested in past clips, and I wasn’t familiar with him before. But the more I learned about him, the more I became fascinated. If I can gather enough material I want to cover him in a separate clip.
II think it was Jake the snake telling a story of some dumb frat boys trying to pick a bar fight with Andre. They were throwing beer cans at him. Eventually, Andre got mad. Flipped the table and chased them out. they tried t drive away, but Andre picked up the back of there car. I think I would have soiled myself being chased by an angry Andre
BRUNO SAMMARTINO. in 1959 he bench pressed 565 pounds with a 2 second pause with no wraps. he weighed only 265 pounds. he bench pressed 330 pounds for 38 reps with no pause. he was clean, no peds or steroids.
Clean??? Pro wrestling and steroid-free doesn't exactly go hand in hand you know.... And those weights lifted for that many reps should get one thinking about being clean...
@@MrMferg240 It means jack shit what other roid-heads have said. Those weights are achieved with heavy roid using. Anyone with a half brain knows that. I bet you believe Brock Lesnar or The Rock for example is roid-free because some wrassler says so?
I’m also surprised that Bruno lifting Haystacks Calhoun wasn’t mentioned in the video. Sure, a slam typically means the other guy helps you, but Haystacks weighed over 600 lbs, and no one else could get him off his feet.
Something else that warrants mentioning is the fact that Mark Henry broke a steel chain on a steel cage once. It was a spot where Mark was supposed to interfere in the match, but instead of a gimmicked chain like they would normally used, they used one that hadn’t been worn down at all. They edited the segment so you couldn’t see Mark struggling with the chain, but after a few minutes, he broke it off with his bare hands. Un-freaking real!
@@rfjohns4452Who told u about his push press off the rack no. ? I have never read anywhere about his best push press. Kindly tell where did u get this information from ?
During an interview, The Undertaker told a story of Mark Henry moving a car out of the way when it was blocking their vehicle. He apparently lifted one end and turned it sideways. He lifted and turned... a... friggin'... parked... car.
Ted should be there, Animal was a beast, but covered him on a separate video. Kane everyone mentioned is freakishly strong. Sid(who I like) never know that he was that strong.
Mark Henry did a demo at my high school bent the 45lb Olympic bar. We had 2x100lb barrels and loaded the rest with 45lb weights. He bench it and bar bent.
While making the list a realized quickly that 10 weren’t enough, might make a part two in the near future with all the great suggestions from the comments
This really should be two lists; a strongest list and a toughest list, since being high on one doesn't necessarily mean you are high on the other. Also, I think strengthwise the most underrated ever is Barry "Smash" Darsow. Barry routinely dead lifted well over 800 pounds and I've seen him effortlessly pick up and slam the Big Boss Man and the enormous One Man Gang (Akeem) a couple seconds apart without breaking a sweat. I saw an an interview with the Hart Foundation where they talk about planning a match with Demolition having Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart soar from the ring over the top rope down to the floor. Jim said that Barry was the only wrestler that would be able to catch him. It's a shame that once Vince signed The Legion of Doom (Road Warriors) he basically abandoned Demolition even though they had become far more than the Road Warriors rip-offs that he had intended. Just my opinion.
@@howstrongisYeah this could've easily been a Top 20... I would've included Dino Bravo, Iron Sheik, Scott Steiner, Barbarian, Warlord and Ron Simmons, to name a few. But good job nevertheless!
@@bink appreciate it. Already realized while making the list that there will be some controversy. Steiner I covered in the Steiner brothers video, the rest will follow soon.
Goldberg lifting the giant (big show) in the jack hammer and holding him in the air for about 2.5 seconds in my opinion is the greatest show of strength in a wrestling match. I would be very interested in knowing his best lifts back in his day. Also John Cena and Kane are 2 freakishly strong wrestlers that deserve to be on a list of legit strong men. Great video by the way. The road warriors hawk and animal and the warlord are also worthy of a mention for a future video.
I remember that. Goldberg deserves his spot too. I covered John Cena and the road warriors in a video before, if not they would have made the list for sure. Speaking of the jackhammer, I remember the British bulldog holding up Kevin Nash in the air with a suplex.
Honestly the image of Mark Henry easily lifting 400+lb vader overhead is insane. Also the Big show is definitely one of the strongest wrestlers of all time. also Braun Strauman's legit strongman past make him part of the list too.
@user-ud4sd5md5z He was a strong guy for sure. Legit powerlifter and dedicated, driven strongman. Both he and Dr D David Shultz had the worst hair though, lol. They went for the Ric Flair, Buddy Rose etc bleach look, but both had really big, curly looking "white-man-fro's". I obviously wouldn't have said that to them (if alive, or around them then.. Or even now for that matter). Almost.. dare I say it.. Ronald McDonald-like 😄
In terms of Power, I'd rate Mark Henry and Andre at the top. Andre with his Gigantism just had freakish power. Big Show as well has that kind of power. Big Show goes on to Say MArk Henry is the most powerful man he knows. Others on this list could include John Cena and Kane. As for Toughness. Barbarian, Haku and Race were the top 3, and that comes from ALL of their peers.
Interestingly enough Mark Henry said the only wrestler he feared was Ron Simmons. I guess Ron rarely went to the gym but when he did Ron would do things like bench press 500lbs with ease. Mark was impressed with Ron Simmon's raw strength.
Tony Atlas was a bodybuilder, true, but he was also very strong. He used to commonly press large wrestlers over his head. One time he bench pressed I think it was 500 plus pounds on a bench set up inside a wrestling ring with Dusty Rhodes bouncing around the ring cheering him on. Imagine pressing 500 pounds on a bench that's rocking up and down like that. The Big Show also has to be in that group. You also have to remember Superstar Billy Graham who benched over 600 pounds and competed in the world's strongest man competition.
He was one hell of an athlete and performer. Think the bench press you mentioned (as well as Billy Grahams), I covered in a separate Video about the strongest Bench Pressers. Not sure if it was the same event.
@@howstrongis - Not the same event. Not sure if Tony ever really even crossed paths with Superstar. Atlas was in Georgia around '77 or '78 but ended the '70s in the WWF after Graham had left. Not sure if Tony was still in NY when Graham came back as the "kung fu guy". I don't know of them competing in weightlifting contests together. I think the bench story I shared about Tony occurred in Georgia or Mid-Atlantic while Graham's bench max was in a gym somewhere.
I think this is a pretty good accurate list. With wrestling a list like this is always going to leave some guys off just because there are so many to pick from. Not to mention if you go too far back or use some of the more obscure guys then it won't be as interesting because people at least want to know who you are talking about at least a little bit.
Putski will be in a separate list on Tuesday. Billy Graham I just got recently into it, want to dedicate a whole video to him, super interesting guy. Thanks for the feedback
@howstrongis not him. I met his nephew and the man's sons. One is a Oklahoma high school heavyweight wrestling champion. Goodness gracious. I thought I gave a handshake. But these Hodges are no joke.
Exactly !!!! Look where he went to college and who his head coach was in football . Bobby Bowden the GOAT 🐐 of all college football head coaches . He said that Simmons was his favorite player of all time .
According to the Big Show, the strongest guys he ran into (based on who could lift him and easily hold him) are Mark Henry (no surprise), Kane (who is a massive workout fiend), and John Cena (who supposedly deadlifted 600 pounds). Henry added that The Great Kahli was the absolute toughest guy to get off his feet.
You might want two different categories, one for toughest and one for strength.. you can be very formidable in a fight...without being excessively strong....I did find this site informative , and thank you.
Hodge's most iconic feat of strength may have been crushing an apple with one hand but his most impressive feat was crashing his car into a body of water, breaking his neck in the process, punching out the side window of his car to escape and swimming to safety...all the while using one arm to hold his head up since his neck was broken.
Wasn’t aware of any of that. Thank you for sharing Bill. I just noticed Hodge was it’s so many people mentioned him in the comments, since then I have been in a rabbit hole finding more information. Think he also wrote a book, that’s on my reading list.
I had a friend like Harley race I guess you could call him a friend he was like 3 years older than I was in school, we knew each other I hung out with him and his friends some, but let me tell you nobody messed with that guy nobody, cops, nobody. He was super strong and felt no pain. he really was a very nice guy though, I guess.
Decent list, but it's comical to think anyone at all is ever going to be as strong as strong as Andre. Giant + gym time. Look at peak Brian Shaw (aruguably stronger than Mark Henry), then add half a foot + 100lbs. Braun Strowman, Kane, and Cena should be on this list as well.
I believe the car that Andre flipped was a full-sized car too, I think the reports cited that it was something along the lines of a Grand Marquie, or something of similar size.
I heard it was tipped onto its side. It helps that he was tall; helps more that he was pissed and likely fairly/very tipsy Though there were still 4 adults in the car at the time, so until the two on the driver side shifted towards the passenger side, that’s quite a bit of ~extra~ weight… still it’s a car though; not bad
There's absolutely NO debate or question who the toughest was. When you have over 20 wrestlers agree and tell stories that are objectively compare with each other, it's set in stone. Haku is WELL KNOWN as the toughest wrestler in history. Anyone who doesn't know this is a poser and not a knowledgeable wrestling fan.
John "Earthquake" Tenta was also immensely strong. At one match he catches the Big Boss Man on the air as if he was a child. That would be like catching a fridge!
a lot of the wrestlers were legitimately afraid of Meng, and if Andre was afraid of him, that should be fair enough warning to give him a whole lot of ‘Leave Alone’
Funny thing about the clip on Mark Henry bending the frying pan: It was supposed to be prop pan but Vince was thinking it would be fun prank to give him a real one, and so Mark bended a real frying pan. Genetic Freak.
Nothing will ever compare to Scott Steiner "injuring his back" and being out for an extended period of time, only to return as The Genetic Freak/Big Poppa Pump, with not only way bigger arms, but an entirely new bicep on top of each one😂😂😂
I worked the early morning shift at Gold’s Gym in the 90s. The wrestlers would show up in a hotel shuttle together to work out. I watched Steiner behind-the-neck shoulder press with 365 lbs on a straight bar. He did sets of 15 reps and didn’t break a sweat. As a former competitive power lifter, I was impressed. The guy was a bada$$
@@joecool2125 love those anecdotes. Same here, my former mentor here in Tokyo used to train some of the wcw guys 25 years ago. I will try to get them for a interview
@@howstrongisyeah maybe because he set 28 world records and did 2100 lb in the three powerlifting categories it was the first one to ever do it twice in competition
The Great Kali was in a match with Carlito, Carlito had a signature move where he would spring off the bottom rope into a backward elbow his whole body in the air and Kali with 1 opem hand slapped that dude to the mat!
There have been so many legit tough/strong guys in wrestling over the decades, it’s hard to do a top 10 without feeling like a lot of people were left off. Ric Flair has gone on record to say Wahoo McDaniels was his toughest opponent of all time, which covers a lot of ground. Ted Arcidi wasn’t much of a wrestler, but he was billed as having the bench press record. Even RVD held a weightlifting record for quite a while. Plenty of tough women too.
I agree, I could have easily made a top 50, so the list is nowhere near complete. McDaniels and Ted Arcidi (I included him in the strongest bench list) are great additions
All awesome choices. I actually covered Cenas, Cesaro and Dr Deaths training routine in 3 separate videos. Ron probably soon. As for Kane I still couldn’t gather enough material
I have one that isn't mentioned much but he certainly should be. Toughest. My pal, Bad News Allen. I owned a wrestling promotion here in Calgary, HWC, which the late Rick Bognar falsely tried to claim as his own, but anyone who knows, knows the truth. Allen was my pal, partner and co booker. Allen was legendary in the business for being a legit badass/shooter who you did not cross. Famously, when Andre called Allen a n***r on a WWF bus trip in Japan, Allen called him off the bus to fight and Andre froze then apologized extremely politely. Why? Cause Andre knew who Allen was and knew if he stepped off the bus he was a dead man. Allen was a bronze medalist in Judo in the 76 Olympics and still the only American heavyweight to every medal in Judo and 2X gold medalist in the Pan Am games. Plus he started as a streetfighter. He even worked as a bodyguard for Aretha Franklin, and I believe, Roberta Flack , if i recall Allen's stories correctly. If Allen sincerely wanted to fuck you up, you were done for. Plus Allen squatted 700l bs regularly, before he destroyed his knees, and he was cardio monster doing dozens of reps. This is pretty well known. But, Allen was easygoing and didn't need to flex. People knew it.
@@howstrongisYes Rich Williams was the second person to lift it overhead with one arm after Henry. Till now there r plenty of guys that have done that. Brian Shaw , a great strongman did it in his first try casually back in 2007-08. He is a huge guy , 6'8 and 450 lbs during his peak. Before Mark Henry, Bill Kazmaier already lifted that db with one arm overhead in 1990 but the style to do that was different. As far as i remember, Kaz continental cleaned and then pressed it.
Tonga aka Haku is a fucking animal. His strength has him able to literally rip a man's jaw from his face. Yeah wrestling is entertainment granted, but I would rather take a punch to the face then be choke slammed by someone like Kane or Taker
Cool vid but where's Goldberg? He threw 250lb+ men around like they were 150lbs and no wrestler to this day could do what he did. He also had impressive lifts in the gym like bench and incline.
I would add Ted Arcidi,who like Bill Kazmier was a former worlds strongest man.Doug Furnas should be in the list for string men.For tough guys you have to put on Steve "Dr.Death" Williams,,Bam Bam Bigelow,Vader,Bruiser Brody,the Barbarian and Bad News Allen
All great choices. I added Furnas and Arcidi in another list of the strongest Bench Pressers. Dr Death and Broody got a seperate video dedicated to the. Bad News is especially a great mention since he was a legit Judoka.
Verne Gagne used to say about Ken Patera that "Ken could have won the Olympic Gold except he was too busy chasing the German girls st night instead of resting up." I love listening to Ken's interviews on RU-vid. He says exactly what he thinks with no filter.
@@howstrongis yes, he’s one that I believe was truly naturally strong. Mark Henry claimed to be all natural as well. I believe he was, he was just simply huge. Goldberg is one I also believe was natural.
Actually so many people mentioned those two, so I made a separate episode about Graham and a Bench Press episode with Ted. But I agree, both super legit guys
Glad to see Danny Hodge here. Apparently he made a rookie Bruiser Brody cry uncle in a match as Hodge stretched him, due to Brody's not wanting to sell for Hodge because he was much smaller. Even Lou Thesz said that Hodge was a different animal. A shame that footage of him is very rare.
Heared he did a 500 pound Bench when challanged, but didnt really put any effort in it. Makes me wonder how strong he actually could have been if his main focus would have gone towards strength sports...
Good point about Andre the Giant. It's difficult to compare him with others because he didn't constantly lift weights, so there's no numbers. Plenty of photos and stories. He threw wrestlers around and nobody could really hurt him. Haku is similar. Not known for heavy lifts in the gym, but when he was drinking he was dangerous and practically invulnerable.
Kane should’ve absolutely been on this list The vice-grip apple guy could’ve been bumped to make room for Kane. In his prime he was an absolute monster of a man
@howstrongis Ahmed Johnson picked up and slammed Yokozuna. He said he and Rodney(Yokozuna) talked about it before the match. Rodney told him he wasn't going to assist him with the slam. Ahmed would have to do it all by himself and he was able to get it done.
Haku's feats may be anecdotal, but I feel like if everyone including close friends, family, and colleagues of his are saying the same thing, there's a good chance a lot of it's true. Plus them Samoan badass mfs are built different than most
I had a 1961 picture that was in a 1975 Wrestling Magazine when they did a story of Bruno Sammartino's life. In 1961 a 21 year old Bruno did what looked like a jack hammer power slam. The picture had Bruno holding up 600 pound Haystack Calhoun up in the air.
@@howstrongis I looked for it on Google search and I found a picture of Bruno lifting Haystack Calhoun. It was not in the Jack Hammer position but it is still impressive. You can then share it on your FB account or Whats APP, X or your own E Mail. I was glad I at least found this picture. I know I have the one he did the Jack Hammer move somewhere in my house. I might be hidden away some where in my house. As a wrestling fan since 1963 Bruno is too me The Living Legend.
@@MrMferg240 The editor mentioned he was 21. Since he was born in 1935 it means that picture was taken in 1956 and the editor of the magazine that had that picture got his dated wrong.
Obviously there’s a lot of room for disagreement here, but since you included “toughest” to the header I’m going to say that there’s no way there were 10 tougher wrestlers than Wahoo McDaniel.
Yeah, there were too many to include, so no matter what, the list wouldn’t be complete. Wahoo would have actually been a great choice, completely forgot about him
