20 WWE Royal Rumble Undercard Nightmares

4. Dino Bravo’s World Record Bench Press Attempt (1988)

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WWE.com

In an era where TV shows were usually an hour long and full of squashes, there was absolutely nothing wrong in an experimental segment that would now be seen as Raw filler being placed on the inaugural TV-only Rumble event.

The concept was as follows; Dino Bravo is quite strong, but because he's a lying heel, is not as strong as he thinks he is and needs to use another lying heel mate to cheat at a weightlifting feat in order to back up his lofty claims.

Maybe forty-two words used to describe that is a little too succinct, but that's probably preferable to the TWENTY MINUTES WWE gave this back in 1988.

The challenge for Bravo was to break the world record bench press of 715lbs, but rather than just going straight to this weight and getting spotter Jesse Ventura to help him there and then, the two laboriously worked their way up the scale measure by measure, as the crowd lost interest and Mean Gene ran out of superlatives nattering on with Frenchy Martin.

A torturously long slog, there's no payoff at the end, such as some babyfaces coming out to quibble the shadiness, nor ever rivalry with a fellow musclebound foe wanting to break the record fairly.

Twenty minutes.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett