Blue Ridge Country January/February 2021 - 26

MOUNTAIN CURiOS

HENDERSONVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA'S OWN

HEAVIEST Wrestlers Went at it Hard

Billy and Benny McCrary tipped the scales at a combined 1,500 pounds,
and used that weight well in the realm of pro wrestling.
By MARLA HARDEE MILLING

t must have been quite a sight
to witness Billy and Benny McCrary riding their Honda minibikes
around their hometown of Hendersonville, North Carolina. The
pair, billed as the " World's Heaviest
Twins " topped the scales at almost
1,500 pounds collectively-numbers that
gave them prominence in " The Guinness
Book of World Records. "
They worked for three years as minibike stars at the Circus Circus Casino in
Las Vegas before becoming pro wrestlers.
The transition happened innocently
enough. They were traveling through El
Paso, Texas when a promoter asked them
if they were wrestlers. He convinced them
to give it a try and lined them up to take
on 12 other wresters in a bull ring in Jaurez. The last one in the ring would be declared the winner.
The promoter was so successful at
marketing the event that 3,000 fans
packed the arena with another 4,000

people outside trying to get in.
In a 1973 interview with the Hendersonville Times-News, Benny tells what
happened: " We worked as a team in that
match and we were the last ones standing
after 35 minutes. We hurled and pitched
the other wrestlers as they came at us. "
During their career, the brothers developed a signature move called the " Tupelo
Splash. " Billy described it this way: " I run
and jump and throw myself onto my opponent with my stomach. It's hard for the
opponent to get up and normally the referee just counts them out. "
They also used a move called " The
Steamroller, " where one of them would
roll over an opponent like a rolling pin
over dough.
In 1972, they faced challengers that
many thought might outlast them in
the ring. Haystack Calhoun weighed 620
pounds and Man Mountain Mike tipped
the scales at 610. More than 22,000 fans
arrived to see the match, which lasted

" The World's
Heaviest
Twins, " Billy
and Benny
McCrary, in
their wrestling
days used a
move called
the Steamroller.
They are buried
in their native
Hendersonville,
North Carolina.

BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

only three minutes. The twins emerged
victorious.
Benny told the Times-News, " Mike
went down and Billy just laid on him and
it was all over. " Meanwhile Benny had
thrown Haystack into the ropes and finished off with the Tupelo Splash.
Since the twins were so hard to beat,
other wrestlers, at times, played dirty in
attempts to win. The brothers had salt
thrown in their eyes along with some
wrestlers coming at them with knives,
brass knuckles and chains. Someone hit
Benny with a chain once and he ended up
with 18 stitches in his head.
Their bloodiest match took place in
Nova Scotia when they faced four Germans who wore knee boots with foreign
objects in the heels. It became so bloody,
the referee tried to call it off, but they all
kept fighting.
Benny said, " Everyone was literally on
their hands and knees. Billy and I stacked
the four on top of each other and jumped
on them and that ended the match. "
All six were taken to the hospital where
Benny received four stitches in his hand
and Billy got four stiches in his brow.
While competing in Montreal, Canada,
they began using a stage name of the " McGuire " twins. McGuire is French for McCrary.
Tragedy struck in July 1979 when Billy
died as a result of a motorcycle accident in
Niagara Falls. He was on his way to Ripley's Believe It or Not. Benny outlived him
by 22 years. He died in March 2001 at the
age of 54 as a result of heart failure.
The twins are buried in massive graves
at Crab Creek Baptist Church Cemetery
in Hendersonville. A 13-foot-wide granite
headstone, said to be the world's largest,
adorns their gravesites.

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Blue Ridge Country January/February 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country January/February 2021