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Post by Eric Roussin on Oct 5, 2014 12:00:43 GMT -5
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Post by Eric Roussin on Sept 24, 2014 23:38:18 GMT -5
Ron also was lucky to have a few of his best performances air on national television. For example, his matches from the 2004 Unified Nationals and the 2007 Mohegan Sun PAC World Championships. There was very limited television coverage of armwrestling during the first decade of the 2000s, but the shows based on these two tournaments were aired many times.
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Post by Eric Roussin on Sept 24, 2014 20:02:13 GMT -5
I think he's a legend because he's been competing at the top level of the sport for such a long period of time. He's won over 50 national, world, and major titles over the course of his near 34 year career. He's had a number of rivals over the years: John Brzenk is certainly one of the people he's pulled the most.
The following is a listing of MOST of his major titles and one-on-one wins:
AAA Sit-Down National Titles:
1989 – R220 lbs 1991 – R220 lbs
AAA Stand-Up National Titles:
1988 – 200 lbs 1989 – 220 lbs 1994 – 220 lbs 1995 – R220 lbs, L199+ lbs 1997 – R220 lbs 1998 – R220 lbs, L199+ lbs 1999 – R220 lbs, L242 lbs 2001 – R220 lbs, L242 lbs 2002 – R220 lbs, MR220 lbs 2003 – R209 lbs, L209 lbs, MR209 lbs 2004 – R231 lbs, L231 lbs, MR210+ lbs 2005 – R231 lbs
Arnold Classic Titles:
1999 – R199+ lbs 2009 – R199+ lbs
Atlantic Coast Titles:
1988 – R200 lbs
Forsa Tropical International Titles:
1998 – R242 lbs, L242 lbs
GNC Show of Strength Title:
2003 – R209 lbs
Harley Pull Title:
2002 – R242 lbs
Mohegan Sun PAC World Title:
2007 – R199+ lbs
UAL Titles:
2011 (King of the Hill) – R205+ lbs, L205+ lbs
USAA National Pro-Am Title:
1997 – L242 lbs
USAF Unified National Titles:
1998 – R220 lbs, L199+ lbs 1999 – R220 lbs, L199+ lbs 2004 – R220 lbs 2006 – R220 lbs, MR220 lbs 2008 – R242 lbs
WAF World Titles:
2006 – L100 kg, MR100 kg, ML100 kg
One-on-One Wins (Supermatches, Armfights, etc.):
2006 – NAL/Vyotech – 3-1 over Michael Todd (R) 2009 - Toproll - 3-0 over Richard Lupkes (R) 2010 - NEAC VIII - 3-1 over Don Underwood (R) 2010 - Arm Wars "Triple ExXxcel" - 3-3 tie with Yoshinobu Kanai (R) 2010 - Arm Wars "Triple ExXxcel" - 4-2 over Yoshinobu Kanai (L) 2010 - Arm Wars "Triple ExXxcel" - 4-2 over Darius Muszczak (L) 2014 – UAL 6 – 2-1 over Chris Chandler (R)
Quite an impressive resume!
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Post by Eric Roussin on Sept 19, 2014 6:15:04 GMT -5
^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!
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Post by Eric Roussin on Sept 15, 2014 11:03:36 GMT -5
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.
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Post by Eric Roussin on Sept 14, 2014 15:37:17 GMT -5
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!
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Post by Eric Roussin on Sept 13, 2014 23:01:46 GMT -5
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.
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Post by Eric Roussin on Sept 8, 2014 19:21:57 GMT -5
Would the suggestion be to rank these classes (165, 185, 220) in addition to the currently ranked classes, or to replace them? I think the ranked classes (154, 176, 198, 242, Unlimited) are probably still the classes most commonly offered in the US. Adding classes would create additional work as well as more headaches due to many pullers adjusting their weight depending on what class is offered at a particular event. So far, pullers have only been ranked in one class, and ranking more classes will lead to more confusion, arguments, etc. If the ranked classes were to change, a case could be made to include the 165 class. It's offered at WAL events, UAL events, Nationals, Worlds, etc. But why 185 (UAL) as opposed to 195 (WAL). Nationals and Worlds have 187 and 198. 220 is offered at Nationals and Worlds, but the UAL uses 235 and the WAL uses 225.
I vote status quo until a different set of classes becomes more popular than 154, 176, 198, 242, 243+.
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Post by Eric Roussin on Aug 1, 2014 11:10:24 GMT -5
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Post by Eric Roussin on Jul 20, 2014 21:23:10 GMT -5
Bill - I'm not sure your post was directed at me, but I no longer manage the IntheHook rankings. Josh Handeland has been taking care of them for the past three years. He and Jeff Slater (who does the Canadian rankings) deserve all the credit.
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Post by Eric Roussin on Jul 15, 2014 22:48:31 GMT -5
Congratulations, and thanks for doing these shows every week!
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Post by Eric Roussin on Jul 3, 2014 19:48:24 GMT -5
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Post by Eric Roussin on Jun 27, 2014 14:09:38 GMT -5
I'm not a fan of of the "fake" teams. It would be a lot more exciting to watch actual teams compete. Although perhaps a bit difficult to police, there should be at least some sort eligibility requirement. Geographical limitations could be a possible option (e.g. competitors must be from the same state/area).
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Post by Eric Roussin on Jun 20, 2014 15:00:14 GMT -5
Very sad news. Greg was a five-time WAF World Champion (in 1981, 1997, 1998, and in 1999 with both arms).
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Post by Eric Roussin on Jun 19, 2014 7:46:59 GMT -5
Christian's first loss was to Devon, earlier in the tournament.
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