things that i have been wondering about

[enginterzi]

in 1995 AAA nationals Bill Brzenk has won 1. place in 198s class with right arm.same year he went to the worlds in Brazil and also won 1.place in the same class.next year he again won the AAA nationals,and pulled Erekle Gurchiani in the same year's world championships in 198s.he lost to Erekle once but beat him twice and won his second WAF title(i was there).

only a few months later some results came from las vegas,1.Ron Bath 2.John Brzenk 3.Bill Brzenk,it was february 97.a month later i went to Pocatello Idaho for the main event tournament.Ron was there and won 220s,Bill won 198s,and John won 187s.i was suprised to see John competing 187s.it was a tough class,Jason Vale,Robert Redden,Rett Houdek,Slywan Perron was in the same class with him.i guess John 1. beat Perron.in the semi finals Redden beat Houdek,who took 4.place.then Jason and John pulled at the a side,they were in the strap match.everyone knows how good Jason is in the strap.ref fouled Jason out before the match started,which wasnt fair to many.then Jason beat Redden who took 3.place.in the final John didnt let Jason to slip apart and pinned him and took 1.place.

2 months after that i went to the Tahoe,John was there to compete 198s,242s and the supers.Ron was competing 242s and supers,and i guess Bill was competing 3 classes as his brother did.the first match of these 3 was between Bill and Ron i believe in the supers),Ron won the match after about 20 seconds.then John pulled Ron and beat him after about 15 seconds.in the semi final match 242s John beat Bill and sent him to the semi final match with Ron again.Ron beat Bill after a tough match again.i clearly remember that Ron said a few things to Bill right after he beat Bill and left the table.and Bill stared Ron for a while with an unhappy face,he seemed very upset.i also have this moments on the video tape.at the end,John won three 1.places,Ron took two 2.places,and Bill won a 2.place in 198s,and a 3.place in 242s.

a few months after this tournament the AAA nationals was in Washington(i dont know if DC or state but it was in 97).i believe that i was right about this tension between Ron and Bill,because Bill was competing in 220s which was 22 pound heavier class of his general weight class,that he won his world and national titles.im sure that he could have competed 198s if he wanted to,but that staring to Ron in tahoe was the answer of this desicion.


the match finally was up,Ron vs Bill,the ref was Stanaway.he gave the go while Bill wasnt ready at all,and Bill left his hand to cause a strap match,which he wouldnt realy want.becauseits sometimes harder to use hand control in the strap,and Bill surely was better without strap.he seemed very upset because of the sudden ready go.in the strap Ron easily beat Bill.Bill now needed to beat Mitch Cady to meet Ron again.in the earlier rounds Bill easily beat Mitch,but as far as i have seen the match from the video,his mind was still with the match that he lost to Ron.and he wasnt concentrated at all for this semi final match,and he lost.Mitch was screaming and running after he won.Bill seemed so lost because of that happened.after this championship Bill never pulled AAA nationals again.

John(as being Bill's brother)and Ron,both are the members of the board.can you guys tell me that if im right or wrong about this guesses?

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Guy,i read on ArmBender that you took 4.place in the 87AAA nationals.Walker was 1.,Bathwas 2.,Moe Motel was 3.place.once you wrote that you lost to Walker 3 times.one was in the over the top final match,you lost to him once in there because you wrote that your other lost was from Tony Senger by fouling out.

the article about 87 nationals;........for 4. place Ron Bath and Guy Lasorsa fought two battles.the first ended when Guy lifted his elbow and was fouled.the restart match was a tough one.several times it looked as though Guy would pin Ron.15 seconds into the match,Guy again lifted his elbow just when he was about to pin Ron.Guy doubled fouled and went home with 4.place trophy.

ok i wonder about a few things.first;it sounds like you were the second strongest to Walker in that event according to what i read,because Ron beat Motel even after he had a tough match with you.so it gives me that your first lost was from Walker.its not written there so i just guess.second;you werent in the trophy picture,were you upset because of elbow foul desicions and protested by not being in the picture?and third;if two of the loses that you had against Walker were in vegas 86 and AAAnationals 87,where was the 3. one?

thanks a lot:)

[Brian Bylbie]

Bill is still the man, for one or two pulls!! ;D I just wish we could get him to come out of retirement to practice and teach! Trust me if he got motivated he would be in the mix of thingts quickly!!!

[Kevin Schneider]

Brian - what is keeping Bill out of retirment? As we get older our interests change , but being that good for so long , I can't imagine him not having the fire in his belly still. Did't Bill relocate ? Was that one of the reasons?

[Brian Bylbie]

Bill did relocate! I think his new interest is watching American Idol!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D. We have tryed to motivate him. I hope we can get him out! Heck half of my motivation of this post is to call him out and get him to come woop up on me! John call him and tell him I said he's getting fat! LOL

[brzenk]

Your memory is much better than mine Engin.
But everything you say seems to be correct.
I was planning on pulling the 198’s in Idaho, but when I arrived there the scale was so far off that I couldn’t resist pulling the 187….no way did I weight that.

Losing in Vegas was my own fault, and I deserved what I got. This situation was the result of some bad feelings from a tournament that Bill and I were not allowed to pull in years earlier.
And Ron was energized from my attempted manipulation of the outcome.

Tahoe is correct….and I don’t remember what Ron said but I think it was something like “if you ever beat me I will retire, or never armwrestle again.”
That got Bill riled up.

And your right about the Nationals …Bill at the time could have made 198 without much of a challenge. I can’t remember where the worlds were that year but he wasn’t planning on going. So he decided to challenge himself and go after Ron at the 220 lb class.

[Ron Bath]

Engin, you do have a great memory and also watch a lot of past tournaments. I can't remember what I said yesterday, much less Tahoe. I just know there was just some annoying desire to not let Bill ever beat me. Not a hatred towards him, just a rivalry type of motivation.
So John are you going to the Arnold?

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thanks a lot Ron and John.now another thing that i wonder about is in my knowledge.

"if you ever beat me I will retire, or never armwrestle again.”

i only know for sure that Ron has a great level and he doesnt wanna get beat by armwrestlers that are not as great as himself.and i respect this.what he told to Bill was nothing but an exciting challenge.this is the beauty of competetion.challenges are great as long as there is no humiliating with it.Bill is a great armwrestler too,but he is not at Ron's weight class.if John doesnt compete in 198's,then Bill is the best 198's in north America,and one of the best in the world for sure.so sad that we dont see him competing anymore.

thanks a lot again.you guys are heroes of my beginning years.

[Jim Wagner]

Engin,
I enjoyed this whole topic, great story. Great for guys like myself to see this by you, John, Ron. Thank You.

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Ron,i havent been watching those tapes for 7 years.these were the questions that came to my mind at the same second that i saw these incidents.by the way,i and some of my friends have been calling you "the Lion"for 8 years,because of the way you place yourself at the table.