Writing

Wrist Wrestling: From the Kitchen Table to the World
Recent Blaire-Taylor graduate Adam 'Bubba' Bush wins a pair of World Wrist Wrestling Championship.

By: Kelly Steuck - Published in the La Crosse Tribune on Sunday, December 30, 2001

Who would've thought that wrist wrestling at the kitchen table would lead into a trophy-winning event? Not one or two trophies, mind you, but 35 of them.

Nineteen-year-old Adam "Bubba" Bush never did.

The 380-pound, 2001 Blair-Taylor graduate has accumulated nearly three dozen trophies in a sport that developed out of a sibling rivalry.

"When I won the first four, I called my dad from my cell phone and told him he'd have to build a bigger shelf," Bush said.

At a wrirst wrestling copetition, two oponents face off at a table. Each person has an elbow pad or cup for stability and a pin line on their side of the table. The pin line is suspended from pin posts that extrude about 3 inches above the table.

A referee determines the winner when someone's hand drops below the pin line. The referee makes sure that the competitors have at least one foot on the ground at all times.

Bush's latest competition was at the World Wrist Wrestling Competition in Edgerton, Wis. There he earned first in the Left Hand Super-Heavy Class and the Right Hand Monster Class, and second in the Right Hand Super Class and the Power Grip.

The Power Grip is an individual competition. The athlete sits at a machine that electronically measures their grip. Bush squeezed 210 pounds in this event.

"It's a rush," Bush said.

Bush's first wrist wrestling competition was at the Blair Cheese Fest in 1998. Even then he started strong, earning first-place efforts in the Power Grip and Left Hand Class and second in the Right Hand Class.

Since then, Bush has traveled to state fairs in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota to compete. Most of the events he simply finds out about through word of mouth.

Because of his sheer size and his appetite for wrist wrestling, some people might think of Bush as having an aggressive personality. But Bush says wrist wrestling is just a sport, and he's not a rough-and-tumble type of person.

"I'm a lover, not a fighter," Bush said.