Know Your Classic Rassler: The McGuire Twins

Billy Leon McCrary, December 7, 1946 - July 14, 1979

Benny Loyd McCrary, December 7, 1946 - March 26, 2001

Born: Hendersonville, North Carolina

Trained by: Gory Guerrero

Fun Fact: Guinness Book of World Record holders as the "World's Heaviest Twins (720 lb and 750 lb)

How it began: "We worked out a deal with Honda Motorcycle Company and rode mini-bikes from New York to L.A. Three thousand miles. We rode a hundred miles a day and it took us thirty days. I also had a deal worked out with Holiday Inn where we'd stay at night, and we'd ride into town and give autographs at a dealership for a couple hours."

While on a stop-over in El Paso, TX during the cross-country Honda tour, the twins were approached by Gory Guerrero, father of the late Eddie Guerrero. "Gory Guerrero came up to me and Billy and thought we were gonna wrestle. We said, 'No. We sure love rasslin', and we've done a lot of rasslin' between each other, but we'd be interested in gettin' into it.' He said, 'Go ahead and finish your engagement for Honda. When you come back through El Paso, stop by and see me.' We did ... and he trained us."

The twins trained with Guerrero for two months in Mexico. The twins didn’t take regular bumps, but rather used the simple strategy Guerrero thought up: wrestlers would run at them and fall down.

Benny: "Gory wanted to make it strictly rasslin'. We didn't wave our butts and wave them at people, like the other heavy guys did. We had some high spots, though. I'd get 'em in the corner and Billy would run in against me. The steamroller ... we'd get 'em down and just roll up and down 'em. That was one of our finishing moves. And the big splash ... that's what blew my knees out. I did the move most of the time, then Billy would come sit on top of me. I've had wrestlers poo-poo in their pants from the weight. (laughs)"

After their training, the twins continued to wrestle in Mexico, usually in bullrings. Dory Funk, Sr. then took them on in Amarillo, TX. Rounding out their early time in the US were promotions with Leroy McGuirk in Oklahoma City and Nashville.

A name change for the McCrarys came shortly afterwards in Japan. "The announcers would have trouble with it. They would pronounce it Queary and we'd say, 'We ain't no queers.' We changed it to the McGuires. Nick Gulas come up with the idea, by the way. He said, 'The McGuire Sisters done good. Let's see how the McGuire Twins do.' That stuck with us."

Benny continued to wrestle after Billy’s death in 1979, teaming up with different wrestlers including Andre the Giant, before his retirement from the sport.