Turned Pro: 1968 (Nov. 8, to be exact.)
Trained By: Spike Jones
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Height: 5'7"
Wrestling Weight: 195 pounds
Territories Worked In: Arizona, throughout Canada, Mexico and most of the western United States.
Toughest Opponent: John Ringer and The Mongol.
Best Match: There were too many great matches to pick out one as the very best.
Favorite Move: I tried to use a variety of holds to keep my opponent guessing. I never settled in to one or two favorites.
Titles Held: Southwest Jr. Heavyweight Champion, Arizona Jr. Heavyweight Champion, AWF Lightheavyweight Champion.
If you look up the phrase "low key" in the dictionary, there is no doubt that you're likely to see Benny Mendibles listed as a prime example. This soft-spoken man found no reason to brag and boast about how good he was in the ring. He let his matches speak for themselves.
In a business where being flashy and calling attention to yourself are the norm, Benny was often overlooked by opponents because of his easy-going manner. Most opponents learned to regret that oversight. As surely as "low key" describes him, so does the phrase "as smooth as silk." Just as soon as an opponent would underestimate Benny's abilities, they would fall victim to his skill. Soon, they found themselves overwhelmed by a chain of wrestling moves that left them dazed, confused and twisted up like a state fair pretzel.
One long-time Arizona fan put it this way, "Often the bigger guys would laugh when they found out they were wrestling Benny. By the time the match was over, they weren't laughing anymore. They were laying on the mat watching Benny get his arm raised and thinking 'What the heck just happened?'" We couldn't put it better ourselves. Arizona wrestling fans loved Benny Mendibles and you can tell, just by talking to him, that the feeling is mutual.
These days, you can find Benny working for his local school system as well as the radio industry. We'll bet that he brings the same grace and dignity to those professions that he brought to the wrestling ring.
