If you’ve been following wrestling for any length of time at all, you probably cringe every time you hear someone saunter out to the ring with the moniker of the “World’s Strongest Man.” Whether it be older guys like Dino Bravo or new comers like Mark Henry, “World’s Strongest Man” usually equates to “World’s Most Boring Wrestler”.
So it should come as no surprise that when the WWF introduced a power lifter by the name of Ted Arcidi to Federation fans in the mid 80’s, no one seemed to care.
Oh sure, Arcidi was an awesome physical specimen to look at. His upper body was almost at Scott Steiner level, and his back was absolutely huge (and had lots of zits…what could have caused that?). His only other distinction was being the only wrestler to ever wear Pony tennis shoes to the ring. Pony’s…now that’s just plain cool. Well, actually, it isn’t at all, but then again, neither was Arcidi.
The problem with Arcidi was that the big lug moved around like he was made of cement. He lumbered slowly about the ring, punching and kicking with all the mobility of the Lincoln monument. After boring crowds to tears, he would lock his opponent in the world’s simplest maneuverer: a bear hug.
To his credit, one time he put his opponent upside down in the bear hug. I’d like to think that was on purpose, but with the skill level big Ted exhibited, that was probably an accident.
Of course, Arcidi didn’t make it more than a couple of months before he moved – probably verrrrry slowly – into the “Where are they now” file.