I cannot believe how many people are calling this rigged online tons of people. He has lost the two previous events so to think that he was setting this up to win each one is BS. He has consistently been in the top 5 at each of his events.
Damn can't let the big guy have a moment, whatever Shaw does more for the sport that any online troll , the Shaw Classic is is going to bea stop competition alongside , the Arnold's , Rogue Invitational and Giants live , and as long as WSM still has poor live coverage the other big events will be much welcome, the fan experience for WSM in Myrtle Beach was absolute dog shit.
I completely agree but people will look at these issues an I think this is the reason Brian bought the Strongest man on earth naming rights. Eventually dropping his name or call it Shaws Strongest Man On Earth.
The rigged shit has been around since the inception of the Shaw Classic. That's why Evan was joking with Brian during the contest about him rigging it. It's an obvious joke and an obvious conspiracy theory. But anyone who knows the sport can watch it for themselves and can see that it wasn't. And even if for some bizarre reason it was - and I'm not saying it was - Brian's policy has been if he wins then he takes "his" prize money and divvies it up amongst the competitors. It'd just be stupid in so many ways.
Combining the facts that (a) Brian is a genuine competitor and would hate an unearned win as much as a loss and (b) everything that he's been doing with this competition is for the athletes and for the sport, it's just silly to get bogged down in debates over rigging. Brian gets to organize the comp, so it's obviously going to be shit that he favors and so is favored to win or at least do well at, but beyond that, it's every man fairly for himself, and Brian won.
That being said I believe that Hooper and Tray held off at the end especially when he was lifting the 600 lb weigh up the stairs. I think Hooper was more then happy to let Brian win the event.
Here's the man himself (timestamped) on that event:
Not sure if
he's equivocating or if
I'm not understanding him. From one perspective, it sounds like his body was fatigued (he tore his hamstring on day 1), like he was mentally checked out, and like his grip was fried (plus his fingers were burned from pre-comp rope climbing), and so he didn't want to push his body any more than he'd already pushed it. (There's also the psychological hurdle of competing through an injury, which he said he'd never experienced before. Much like a fighter perhaps not fighting to their highest potential the first time they get cut in a fight and see their own blood spilling out, perhaps he was just thrown off a bit.) From another perspective, it sounds like his body was fatigued and his grip was fried but he
could've pushed himself and
could've won the event, except he just chose not to because he wanted to let Brian win. Not sure how to take that explanation in that vid, but based on the video as a whole and the way that he talks about the "What Ifs?" it sounds like he genuinely lost and genuinely doesn't like the feeling but is consoling himself with the fact that Brian was the man who beat him and that genuinely makes him happy.
