This little piggy went to war.
A UK railway worker displayed incredible “feet of strength” after getting crowned the world champion of the little-known sport of toe wrestling.
“Being the toe-wrestling world champion feels like being an Olympian…I can now say that I’ve won a gold medal,” Ben Woodroffe, 34 — known as “Toe-tall destruction” — gushed while describing his accomplishment to SWNS. “Now I’m the one to beat.”
A 20-year veteran of the unusual sport, the Walsall native recently went toe-to-toe with the reigning World Toe Wrestling champion Alan “Nasty” Nash — who had held the title for 17 years — and emerged vic-toe-rious.
Invented in the Derbyshire village of Wetton in 1974, this ferocious game of footsie sees competitors interlock their toes and try to pin the competitor’s foot during the sometimes two-hour matches.
“It’s exactly like arm wrestling however you compete on the toe-dium and you’ve got two upright planks,” the project supply chain leader for train manufacturers described. “The referee says ‘toes away’ and you start your battle. You want to push your opponent’s foot onto the plank.”
He added, “It’s a lot harder but you’re using similar sorts of muscles.”
Along with obvious phalangeal fortitude, toe wrestlers have strong legs, a powerful core, and an even stronger will, according to the new champ.
Woodroffe’s first taste of podiatric pugilism came when he was just a wee lad who lived down the street from the peculiar past time’s birthplace.
“I used to go and watch toe-wrestling with my parents when it was on, my family introduced me to it really,” the toe-wrestler described. “I’m not the most athletic person around so I thought what can I do sitting down. I wanted to do something unusual.”
Woodroffe had his first wrestling match at 14 in the junior leagues before joining the men’s competition when he was 18.
Since then, he’s wrestled every year barring injury — of which there are reportedly many despite the sport’s seemingly frivolous nature.
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“I wasn’t able to compete for four years, I had badly broke my ankles and had a meniscus repair in my knees,” lamented the railway employee. “Alan broken quite a few of his toes too. He had a couple of operations. He’s broke nine toes in wrestling.”
Other possible side effects of tootsie rolling include fungal infections and warts.
In order to mitigate health problems and keep himself on his toes, Woodroffe exercises with a toe stretcher, which limbers the ligaments between the piggies. He also removed his body hair to increase the amount of friction on the stage.
He said that he even surgically removed both of his big toe nails because they were causing “me problems and pushing into my skin.” “I’m competitive, you have to be as a world champion,” said Woodroffe.
Contestants must strive to get every edge when competing in the World Toe Wrestling Championships, which sees 10-20 competitors go toe-to-toe every August in the Haig Bar in Derbyshire.
Interestingly, Woodroffe was initially hesitant about competing in last year’s toe-rnament. “It was a very strange one last year as I wasn’t actually going to compete, I wasn’t going to bother,” Toe-tall destruction recounted. “The night before my father-in-law was going to do it.”
The tootsie tussler continued, “I showed him how to do it but I beat him with ease. It was my partner who actually said to me why don’t you just give it a go.”
Woodroffe is glad his missus held his toes to the fire. “It’s not very often you can say to someone that you’re a world champion of something,” said the proud digital jiujitsu practitioner, who plans to compete again this year.
Ultimately, the Brit believes that the most important thing is to keep the arthritis-inducing pastime alive.
He and rival/colleague Alan Nash recently purchased the rights to the World Toe Wrestling Federation from Ben & Jerry in 2016 (the US ice cream purveyors had bought them in 2006) to bring the sport back to the motherland, the Guardian reported.
“We have invested very heavily every year for the world championships,” Woodroffe declared. “We’re bringing it back from the ashes. People think it’s weird but I get that.”
