Brian Damage

Grappling with Tragedy is a series of articles that deal with unfortunate, tragic incidents that have occurred throughout the history of professional wrestling. It is unlike the ‘Wrestling with Sin’ series that deals more with the seedier side of wrestling like arrests, murders and suicides. Grappling looks more at particular tragic incidents that have in some instances altered pro wrestling in some way.

Billy McGuire

Benny and Billy McCrary were born in Hendersonville, North Carolina in 1946. They were born premature and small. Benny was born a minute and a half earlier than Billy. When the twins were young they came down with German Measles that messed up their pituitary glands.. At 10 years old the twins weighed 200 pounds and by 16 years old, they weighed 600 pounds. The McCrary twins ended up in the Guinness Book of Records, which listed them as the heaviest twins in the world, with Benny at 814 pounds and Billy at 784.

They became instant celebrities and made TV appearances on such shows as Ed Sullivan, the Tonight Show and Merv Griffin. They also appeared at celebrity functions competing in tug of wars and got an endorsement from Honda to ride their motorcycles cross country. Their celebrity, caught the eye of pro wrestling promoters who loved their enormous sizes and popularity.

The McCrary Twins were trained by Gory Guerrero and in 1971….the twins debuted in a tag team match in El Paso, Texas. The McCrary Twins became a very popular wrestling attraction across the country and around the world. They wrestled in Canada and made frequent tours of New Japan Pro Wrestling. It was in Japan where the twins decided to change their last names from McCrary to McGuire. That was due to the Japanese ring announcers have difficulty pronouncing McCrary.

In July of 1979, Billy McGuire crashed his motorcycle while the twins were in Niagara Falls, New York. Billy initially survived the wreck, but died 13 days later from a blood clot. Billy McGuire was just 32 years old at the time of his death. His brother Benny tried to wrestle as a singles competitor for a brief time, but his wife said that Benny was just too broken hearted over Billy’s death and the “magic was gone.” Benny retired from pro wrestling and opened up a pawn shop in his native North Carolina. Benny died of heart failure in 2001 at the age of 54. The twins were buried together in their hometown of Hendersonville.