Arm and Dangerous

When vigorous men with robust mustaches and the yen to perform amazing feats of strength realized that regular wrestling was kind of wimpy, they did the sporting equivalent of turning a hug into a handshake. Today, arm wrestling remains the best way to prove one’s stoutheartedness in a bar. So...

By Jef Otte

March 17, 2011

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When vigorous men with robust mustaches and the yen to perform amazing feats of strength realized that regular wrestling was kind of wimpy, they did the sporting equivalent of turning a hug into a handshake. Today, arm wrestling remains the best way to prove one’s stoutheartedness in a bar. So it’s hard to think of a manlier competition – hands down -- than the Denver Nationals Championship Arm Wrestling at the Bannock Street Garage.

“Yeah, it’s a garage,” observes Eddie Morrisey, the bar’s owner. “It’s kind of a testosterone-friendly place. With the type of crowd we get down here, we thought, ‘Man, we should do an arm-wrestling competition.'” But there will be a women’s competition as well, and both contests will be “up to Arm Wrestling Association specs,” he promises, because apparently there is an Arm Wrestling Association, and it has specs.

The finals start at 8 p.m. tonight at the Garage, 1015 Bannock Street, in a championship round that will definitively prove who’s the manliest man (and woman) in Denver. Spectating is free; depending on attendance, Morrisey assures us that the winners, whoever they may be, will get “at least a couple hundred bucks.”

Give them a hand.
Sat., March 19, 8 p.m.; Sat., March 26, 8 p.m.; Sat., April 2, 8 p.m., 2011

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