I do. Everyone said that at the time about beating Arcidi's record, always had some sort of excuse, yet no one did except for trained PL's many years later.
Arcidi still holds 2 Raw Records for heaviest bench done in full meets, 37 years later, so.
I don't.
You have to think about the fact that Animal was wrestling almost 350 days a year at that time and did that for DECADES. They were the biggest thing in the world in the eighties and he's still putting up that much weight? Considering also all the partying, bad food, flights, and traveling he was doing? No matter what you say, we weren't able to see his best. Animal said to me he didn't get a full night's sleep for over two decades and suffered multiple injuries and he was still benching over 600 regularly. A strict year of dedication to benching with all the proper protocols and I'm sure he would've done it.
Jesse Ventura said the same thing. Animal, Hawk, Rick Rude, Smash, Warlord, Nikita Koloff, and Ken Norton (who was a world arm wrestling champion and competed in a few World Strongest man competitions and benched 600 regularly) were regulars in his gym since they were kids and Animal was always the most impressive when it came to pure strength. That's some good endorsements right there.
