Hendersonville, North Carolina’s own Billy and Benny McCrary tipped the scales at a combined 1,500 pounds, and used that weight well in the realm of pro wrestling.
“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.
It 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 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.
The story above appears in our January/February 2021 issue. For more like it subscribe today or log in with your active BRC+ Membership. Thank you for your support!