Ten Matches - John Brzenk

[David Owens]

Ive never seen it before so forgive me if a thread like this has already been done. I was watching Johns highlight reel or one of many and it got me thinking...

What 10 matches most define Johns career?

No right or wrong answer just looking to see what everyones opinion is.

[John Milne]

Awesome thread idea. This has great potential.
Hopefully some of the older guys will chime in.

[Jacob Hale]

I'll take a shot at this even though I cannot give In depth specifics or 10 for that matter. I would say the most career defining matches would be (in not particular order of significance):

1) his over the top tourney win, because well, it was in a Stallone movie!!

2) His first win over Johny Walker who at the time was THE MAN.

3)His first win over Cleve Dean as this defines him as the best PFP puller on the planet

4) his 2006 win over Ferit in Vegas because that version of John was perhaps the greatest arm wrestler in history

5) His super match loss to Devon Larratt at Arm wars because this signaled his clear loss as the #1 puller in the world for the first time in 20 years

6) his 2 wins over Michael Todd to win the last UAL because he regained what he lost 7 years earlier to Devon

7) His win over that Russian Tsar guy because it showed how far behind the rest of the world was to him back in the 90's

All these matches were very significant to his career for different reasons. I am sure there are others that I do not know about. Great topic though.

[Eric Roussin]

I agree: this is a great idea for a thread.

All of the matches Jacob has listed are worthy candidates. Here are a few others that I think should be considered. Some are event performances, rather than single matches.

• When he beat Harley Maynard to win his first world title at the age of 18 in 1982.
• When he won his first Petaluma World Wristwrestling Championship title in 1984.
• When he beat Richard Lupkes at the 1988 World Wristwrestling Championships in a marathon match, thus redeeming his losses to Richard earlier that year. John also wins a war with Robert Webb in the same event (see ArmTV footage).
• When he won the first Harley Pull in 2000.
• When he won the John Brzenk Challenge in 2003 by going undefeated pulling 102 people in a row (including Travis Bagent, Don Underwood, Tom Nelson, and Michael Todd).
• When he beat Denis Cyplenkov decisevely in a PAL supermatch in 2009.

[Ryan Mackinnon]

Hey Eric. Is there any info online about the 2003 Brzenk challenge where he pulled that many people? I haven't seen any videos or information on that and am interested if there is anything online. It sounds like quite a feat. Any info you can provide would be appreciated!

[Mike Cocchi]

Great thread Dave and some really good post.

[Kyle Darby]

I believe there is a DVD extra on pulling John from the Brzenk challenge.

[Eric Roussin]

ArmTV has footage from the 2003 John Brzenk Challenge.

Here's a little write-up I did about the event a few months ago:

***

This Day in Armwrestling History...

April 12th, 2003

The first “John Brzenk Challenge” is held in conjunction with the California State Pro-Am Armwrestling Championship. $1,500 is up for grabs for the first person to defeat John Brzenk with the right arm. Competitors participated in a silent auction for 102 individual spots in the pulling order. This added an element of strategy, as the $1,500 would only be paid to the first person to beat John. In the end though, it doesn’t really matter, because John successfully goes through the entire field without losing. An impressive feat, made all the more impressive when one considers some of the pullers he faced (in many cases more than once): Tom Nelson, Don Underwood, Michael Todd, Travis Bagent, Jon Land, Britton Matthews, Allen Fisher, Kenny Hughes, Scott Fleming, Don McClary, and Bob Shaffer!

[Eric Roussin]

My friend Tomasz Wisniowski pointed out another match for consideration: when John beat Denis Cyplenkov to win the 2008 Nemiroff World Cup. This happened only about a month after John's supermatch loss to Devon. John beat Denis is convincing fashion.

[Zach Creel]

Sept 13, 2014 23:01:46 GMT -5 Eric Roussin said:

I agree: this is a great idea for a thread.

All of the matches Jacob has listed are worthy candidates. Here are a few others that I think should be considered. Some are event performances, rather than single matches.

• When he beat Harley Maynard to win his first world title at the age of 18 in 1982.
• When he won his first Petaluma World Wristwrestling Championship title in 1984.
• When he beat Richard Lupkes at the 1988 World Wristwrestling Championships in a marathon match, thus redeeming his losses to Richard earlier that year. John also wins a war with Robert Webb in the same event (see ArmTV footage).
• When he won the first Harley Pull in 2000.
• When he won the John Brzenk Challenge in 2003 by going undefeated pulling 102 people in a row (including Travis Bagent, Don Underwood, Tom Nelson, and Michael Todd).
• When he beat Denis Cyplenkov decisevely in a PAL supermatch in 2009.

Arm Wrestling Historian Level: Expert

[David Owens]

I agree, Jacob and Eric pretty much nailed most of what I was thinking.

[Denise Wattles]

You forgot about John beating the "Georgian Giant" Zaur at the 1991 Gold Bear in Moscow for his 1st Gold Bear title.

[Eric Roussin]

^I think is the match Jacob was referring to in his 7th bullet.

John is known for having challenged himself when it wasn't necessary. By this I mean he has occasionally intentionally let his opponent get to their "sweet spot" to see if he could beat them where they're strongest. Two such examples come to my mind:

1) His final match with Devon at the 2004 Chehalis SuperStar Showdown: In a preliminary match, John easily toprolled Devon. In the final, John decided to see just how strong Devon's hook was. John managed to win, but it gave the fans an incredible match.

2) His final matches with Farid at Ultimate Armwrestling III in Las Vegas in 2006: Similar to his match with Devon two years earlier, John toprolled Farid with little apparent effort in their first match. When they met up in the finals, John decided to go into the hook (Farid's strength). John lost the first finals match, and though he could have reverted to a toproll attack, he chose to go into the hook once again. This time he won, and the crowd went crazy!