Pro Wrestler Alleged Bench Presses

Off Topic
1

I was curious about this subject and did a little research on the old interweb. This is the biggest list I found:

‘Superstar’ Billy Graham - 585
BRAWK! Lesnar - 475
Eddie Guerrero - 275
Taz - 450
‘British Bulldog’ Davey Boy Smith - 550
Doug Furnas - 600
Scott ‘Flash’ Norton - 650
‘H2O’ Ron Waterman - 500+
Bruno Sammartino - 565
The Ultimate Warrior - 500
Road Warrior Animal - 550
‘Superfly’ Jimmy Snuka - 525 (in his bodybuilding days, before he became a wrestler)
Sting - 365
Chyna - 310 (she once claimed she could bench 375, but looking at other female lifters, I find that HIGHLY unlikely)
Kurt Angle - 420
‘relliK’ Johnny Stamboli - 495
Bill Kazmaier - 660
Tony ‘Ludwig Borga’ Halme - 600
‘Total Package’ Lex Luger - 530
Bulldog Brower - 500
Bryan ‘Crush’ Adams - 585
‘The Big Show’ Paul Wight - 500 (when challenged in the weights room - he did it without too much apparent effort and didn’t bother going any higher)
Dino Bravo - 570
Chris Benoit - 450
Shane Douglas - 420
The Barbarian - 550 for 3 reps (no pause)
Iron Sheik - 345
Tank Abbott - 600
Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart - 415
‘Big Bully’ Nick Busick - 605
Nikolai Volkoff - 600+
Ole Anderson - 405
Dynamite Kid - 450
Ted Arcidi - 700
Reggie Lisowski - 500
‘Polish Power’ Ivan Putski - 600
‘Ravishing’ Rick Rude - 405 for 3 reps (no pause)
Skandor Akbar - 500
The Rock - 425
Batista - 525
Ahmed Johnson - 520
Chris Candido - 400+
The Warlord - 575 for 6 reps (no pause)
Road Warrior Hawk - 515
‘Lethal Weapon’ Steve Blackman - 550 (in his weightlifting days, before wrestling)
Bill Goldberg - 495 for 5 reps (but has claimed in interviews that he only does 400)
Triple H - over 400 (no figure stated beyond that)
Scott Steiner - 525 (he claimed he could do over 600 in the dying days of WCW BUT Steiner was heavily into kayfabe back then and had stated in previous interviews that he avoided the benchpress where possible, owing to injuries)
Austin Idol - 505
Jim ‘The Anvil’ Neidhart - 550 (with ease and just fooling around)
Mark Henry - 620
Magnum TA - 350 (for 10-12 reps)
Hulk Hogan - 550
Kevin Sullivan - 350
‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair - 500 (in his days as a 280lb powerlifter before his plane crash)
Mike Graham - 440
Tony Atlas - 600
‘Cowboy’ Bill Watts - 500
Steve Keirn - 425
The Crusher - 500
Bill ‘Ax’ Eadie - 450 (estimated)
Jos LeDuc - 600
Kane - 405 (for sets - no max recorded)

Obviously, guys like Kazmaier have their maxes on record, but I wanted to see what people thought about some of the others. I immediately dismissed the numbers for Steiner, Goldberg, and Hogan, but a lot of these guys are way before my time.

2

Regardless that it’s not much above bodyweight for him, I find it hard to credit the Big Show with a 500 lb bench.

3

The Warlord @ 575 for 6 reps (no pause) and Bill Kazmaier @ 660 is what jumps out at me. That would be beast like if that is correct.

4

Most of those seem very exaggerated.

5

[quote]WestCoast7 wrote:
The Warlord @ 575 for 6 reps (no pause) and Bill Kazmaier @ 660 is what jumps out at me. That would be beast like if that is correct.[/quote]

Kaz was a multiple time WSM champion, and very accomplished powerlifter(in fact his 600lb bench might’ve been the first ever? Have to double check powerliftingwatch on that one.)

I’m sure there’s a decent amount in there that were competitive powerlifters/strongmen/bodybuilders that did the wrestling shows for cash, and have legit numbers. There are a lot of names on that list of some not so big dudes though, boasting some fairly large numbers(assuming it’s all raw, if he threw in some shirted numbers in his list that would totally fuck with the whole thing).

6

Wrestlers fake something? Unheard of.

7

[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
Regardless that it’s not much above bodyweight for him, I find it hard to credit the Big Show with a 500 lb bench. [/quote]

NICE AVATAR Bill!!

This impresses me The Warlord - 575 for 6 reps (no pause)

OP why dismiss Steiner, Hogan and Goldberg?

8

[quote]dday wrote:

[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
Regardless that it’s not much above bodyweight for him, I find it hard to credit the Big Show with a 500 lb bench. [/quote]

NICE AVATAR Bill!!

This impresses me The Warlord - 575 for 6 reps (no pause)

OP why dismiss Steiner, Hogan and Goldberg?[/quote]

Steiner has a very small chest so I seriously doubt 525, let alone 600. He was also pretty small before he started juicing so I don’t think his strength base would have been very high. Goldberg supposedly stayed away from free weights and only claimed a 400 bench…I can’t imagine why he would lie about that unless that number is from his football days, but even then I don’t see him repping 5 plates.

And Hogan just didn’t have a physique that I see supporting a 550 bench, especially considering his height. Again, these are just my opinions, and the other guys are mostly unknowns to me, which is why I don’t have much to say about them. Taz’s 450 seems like a huge stretch to me as well. But a guy who wasn’t even mentioned is Cena, and I’ve seen videos of Cena repping 405. His strength is very impressive across the board.

9

What does the chest have to do with it? If you put up in the high 500’s, you better don’t do it as a chest lift…

But yes, way too many in the high 500’s… And I call bs on most of the 600 and 600+, with very few exceptions (kaz etc).

There are excessively few people benching 600+ raw.

For comparison, many super-heavyweight bodybuilders and quite a bunch of heavyweights (IFBB) are good for about 495 for 3-12 (chest bench/crappy setup… Depends also on height/weight obviously… The 8-12 reppers are the guys with better setup and more gifted leverages ala the guy who competed against JJ in the strongest BB contest, he got 505 for 9 or 12 or something like that full ROM and is one of very few to achieve something like that… The low 500’s are the slightly lighter guys like McGrath back before his tricep tear, JJ, etc, pretty common actually among heavies and superheavies who love to lift heavy) and low to mid 500’s PL style… Some even in the high 500’s and you might find a couple of potential 600 lb benchers there but not many (Zack Khan is in the high 500’s I think, The Rhino obviously, and a few others).

You’ll find more such numbers among powerlifters obviously, but there are still not many who bench 600+ raw, and with only a mere handful exceptions (hoornstra, he’s also a bodybuilder I forgot to mention above, competes in the 242’s in PL and has done 615 in comp and 675 or so in the gym, maybe stronger now… Crazy! Probably one of the top 3 guys in terms of genetic gift for benching) they are usually very heavy.

Most pro-wrestlers don’t look like they could hold a candle to any of these guys… With very few exceptions.

Those pro-wrestlers looking like yesteryear’s pro bodybuilders are/were probably good for 405x10-12, perhaps a couple of reps at 495 for the really heavy guys, but rarely the numbers quoted in the OP unless they did their share of powerlifting/strongman etc.

10

Were these numbers expressly described as ‘raw’ presses?

11

[quote]SteelyD wrote:
Were these numbers expressly described as ‘raw’ presses?[/quote]

Good question… I assumed they were. With the high 500’s and 600(+) numbers those could of course have been shirted… But did so many of those guys compete in powerlifting?

12

Tank Abbott’s bench is legit:

13

I’ve actually seen tank claim a 650 bench.

I think most of these numbers depend on the use of whipped cream and kid spotters.

14

id like to see which were raw vs shirted and how much juice the guys were running at the time they did it.

15

[quote]red04 wrote:

[quote]WestCoast7 wrote:
The Warlord @ 575 for 6 reps (no pause) and Bill Kazmaier @ 660 is what jumps out at me. That would be beast like if that is correct.[/quote]

Kaz was a multiple time WSM champion, and very accomplished powerlifter(in fact his 600lb bench might’ve been the first ever? Have to double check powerliftingwatch on that one.)

I’m sure there’s a decent amount in there that were competitive powerlifters/strongmen/bodybuilders that did the wrestling shows for cash, and have legit numbers. There are a lot of names on that list of some not so big dudes though, boasting some fairly large numbers(assuming it’s all raw, if he threw in some shirted numbers in his list that would totally fuck with the whole thing).[/quote]

Not only was bill kaz the first person ever to bench 661 and he held that record for quite awhile. a lot of people dont realise how great of a powerlifter he was because they just know him as the strongman, but he set the world record bench 661, world record squat 925, world record deadlift 887, and world record total 2425 at one point in time

16

[quote]roybot wrote:
Tank Abbott’s bench is legit:

[/quote]

That’s the first I thought that was not

17

Mark Henry did not bench 620. His best bench press was around 500. He was more renowned for his leg/hip strength. His top raw squat and deadlift were in the low 900lb range. His best snatch was 396 and best clean & jerk was 484.

18

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
What does the chest have to do with it? If you put up in the high 500’s, you better don’t do it as a chest lift…

But yes, way too many in the high 500’s… And I call bs on most of the 600 and 600+, with very few exceptions (kaz etc).

There are excessively few people benching 600+ raw.

For comparison, many super-heavyweight bodybuilders and quite a bunch of heavyweights (IFBB) are good for about 495 for 3-12 (chest bench/crappy setup… Depends also on height/weight obviously… The 8-12 reppers are the guys with better setup and more gifted leverages ala the guy who competed against JJ in the strongest BB contest, he got 505 for 9 or 12 or something like that full ROM and is one of very few to achieve something like that… The low 500’s are the slightly lighter guys like McGrath back before his tricep tear, JJ, etc, pretty common actually among heavies and superheavies who love to lift heavy) and low to mid 500’s PL style… Some even in the high 500’s and you might find a couple of potential 600 lb benchers there but not many (Zack Khan is in the high 500’s I think, The Rhino obviously, and a few others).

You’ll find more such numbers among powerlifters obviously, but there are still not many who bench 600+ raw, and with only a mere handful exceptions (hoornstra, he’s also a bodybuilder I forgot to mention above, competes in the 242’s in PL and has done 615 in comp and 675 or so in the gym, maybe stronger now… Crazy! Probably one of the top 3 guys in terms of genetic gift for benching) they are usually very heavy.

Most pro-wrestlers don’t look like they could hold a candle to any of these guys… With very few exceptions.

Those pro-wrestlers looking like yesteryear’s pro bodybuilders are/were probably good for 405x10-12, perhaps a couple of reps at 495 for the really heavy guys, but rarely the numbers quoted in the OP unless they did their share of powerlifting/strongman etc.

[/quote]

Hey man, I hear you on the chest argument. But show me a guy who benches 600 raw and I will show you a guy who has better chest development than Steiner. Plus, as I alluded to before, the guy was pretty small before steroids, so I just don’t see 600 as even a remote possibility.

As for whether or not these lifts are geared, I think some of them are. There was a thread below this list and it seemed that some of the powerlifters’ numbers were geared. That could explain Henry’s 620 if he never did more than 500 raw.

I’m not saying I believe these numbers past the guys I mentioned. I would say at least 75% of that list is greatly exaggerated. But I’m too young to know who a lot of them are, so I thought maybe some people who were older than me could give some insight.

19

Think it’s pretty safe to assume that 95%+ of those claims are complete bullshit.

20

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Think it’s pretty safe to assume that 95%+ of those claims are complete bullshit.[/quote]

Yes. Surprised no one has mentioned Arcidi- he only held the WORLD BENCH RECORD! Guys who seriously competed, whose numbers are reasonable and can prob be checked:

Kaz, Mark Henry, Arcidi- obviously

Bruno Sammartino - IronMind named him one of the 50 strongest men of the 20th century. Drug free. Legit 500, dka 565 though.

Doug Furnas-up until a few years ago still in the Top 10 for his BW in the squat, per the back pages of Powerlifting USA. Google a picture, look at his huge quads, you’ll believe it. At about 260, he moved like a gymnast in the ring.

Norton - Probably legit. Won arm-wrestling world championships. Played for Oilers

Waterman- Probably legit. Still puts on strongman shows and, as of a few years ago, competes in powerlifting and MMA.

Putski- . probably legit. Compteted in WSM.

Other than those, keep in mind a lot of guys were seriously into powerlifting or bodybuilding before being famous. Also, a lot of guys started lifting in the 60s and 70s, where bodybuilding and strength training were not considered separate (GASP!). So they were big guys who juiced and trained with heavy weights.