Arm wrestling has produced genuine icons — athletes whose names carry weight far beyond the table, and promoters who built the stages they competed on. Because the sport has no single records authority, exact title counts vary between sources, so the profiles below focus on what each figure is genuinely known for rather than disputed numbers.
The men
John Brzenk (USA) — "The Greatest"
The American is the name most often invoked in any "greatest of all time" conversation, with a competitive career that began in the early 1980s and stretched across decades. He is famously connected to the 1986 event that inspired the film Over the Top — winning the heavyweight division and, with it, a truck — and even appears briefly in the movie. His enduring dominance was captured in the documentary Pulling John.
Devon Larratt (Canada) — "No Limits"
A former member of the Canadian Armed Forces, including its special forces, Larratt became one of the world's top pullers around 2010 and has remained among the most active and recognizable competitors ever since. A multiple-time champion who pulls competitively with both arms, he has done as much as anyone to popularize the sport through YouTube and social media.
Levan Saginashvili (Georgia) — "The Georgian Hulk"
A multiple-time World and European champion, Saginashvili is among the most dominant super-heavyweights the sport has seen and a marquee draw in the East vs West promotion, where he has held the super-heavyweight title. His high-profile matchups — including a much-anticipated win over Devon Larratt — have been among modern arm wrestling's biggest events.
Denis Cyplenkov — "The Russian Hulk"
Ukrainian-born and later associated with Russia, Cyplenkov is legendary for his sheer natural strength and famously large hands, which became part of his mystique. He racked up major super-heavyweight victories at events like the Nemiroff World Cup and Złoty Tur and is regarded as one of the finest big-man pullers of his era, particularly with the left arm.
Travis Bagent (USA) — "The Beast"
One of the most accomplished left-handed arm wrestlers and a charismatic showman, Bagent helped raise the sport's public profile with his on-table trash talk and television appearances. He holds numerous world and national titles and has been a fixture of American arm wrestling since the early 2000s.
Michael Todd (USA)
A World Armwrestling League champion, Todd is best known for an unorthodox defensive outside-survival technique often called the "King's Move," which he developed after serious arm injuries. Divisive among fans and competitors, it became his signature and helped make him one of the more memorable figures of the WAL era.
Andriy Pushkar (Ukraine)
One of the most decorated heavyweight and super-heavyweight competitors of his time, Pushkar (1985–2018) is widely counted among the greatest ever, credited by reference sources with a record number of WAF world titles across both arms. He died in a traffic collision in 2018 — a loss felt across the sport.
The women
Sarah Bäckman (Sweden)
One of the most decorated women in the sport's history, Bäckman dominated the World and European championships from the late 2000s into the 2010s after taking up the sport as a teenager. Her later crossover into professional wrestling (signing with WWE) further raised her profile.
Heidi Andersson (Sweden)
A fellow Swede and one of the most successful women ever to compete, Andersson is an eleven-time World Armwrestling Champion across a career running from the late 1990s through 2014 — one of the most sustained runs of dominance in the sport.
The builders
Bill Soberanes (USA)
A Petaluma newspaper columnist and tireless promoter, Soberanes is the figure behind the World's Wristwrestling Championship in Petaluma, California — a foundational event in the sport's popular history. He is memorialized with a statue in his hometown. (Note that Petaluma's championship was wristwrestling, the historic forerunner of the modern table sport.)
Engin Terzi (Turkey)
A highly accomplished competitor in his own right, the Turkish promoter founded East vs West and is the figure behind King of the Table — two of the most influential modern professional promotions, known for bringing the world's elite together in high-production, mainstream-facing events. (Ownership of these promotions has since changed hands.)
Putting it in context
These figures span the sport's eras — from the wristwrestling pioneers, through Over the Top's mainstream moment, to today's pay-per-view stars. Their rise tracks the history of the sport and the growth of the leagues and promotions that gave them a stage.