Four-time World’s Strongest Man champion (WSM) Brian Shaw will be hosting his own strongman competition — the Shaw Classic — at his home gym in Colorado on Dec. 11-12, 2020. When Shaw announced this new yearly competition, he released the athletes’ names invited to compete and the events that would take place. He recently took to his YouTube channel to give some further updates, including how to watch the event, what the prize payout might look like, and an updated roster that has had to change due to some athletes withdrawing from the event. You can check out the full video below.
There will only be one way to watch the Shaw Classic. Prospective viewers will need to sign up for at least a one-month membership ($8.99) to the Shaw Elite Club via club.shawstrength.com:
If you just want to sign up for one month, watch the contest, and then cancel, that is perfectly fine.
Shaw is on double-duty at the Shaw classic as both a competitor and the show’s promoter. He’s made it clear that his focus is on the other athletes competing. In addition to putting up $25,000 of his own money, Shaw said that the money gained from people signing up to the Shaw Elite Club will be put back into the prize money pool. Also, regardless of how he places in the competition, Shaw won’t receive any prize money so that the other athletes can earn more. More details on the prize money have yet to be released.
Rogue Fitness offered their support to Shaw for the event, which Shaw accepted in the form of two matching yokes, a pair of 250-pound circus dumbbells, and a large lot of calibrated weight plates. This is all in addition to the ton of equipment we know Shaw already has in his home gym, including ten different kinds of barbells plus the barbell he had commissioned specifically for the Hummer Tire Deadlift event. Shaw has not yet released information regarding the schedule of the competition.
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Roster Changes
Shaw went on to share an update to the Shaw Classic roster as several of the athletes originally scheduled to attend have had to drop out due to injury. Here are the following strongmen who were on the original roster that have had to withdraw:
- Rob Kearney (triceps)
- Mateusz Kieliszkowski (biceps)
- Zydrunas Savickas, injury details not yet released
- Robert Oberst, withdrew due to family emergency
Below is the current 10-man roster:
- Kevin Faires (replacing Savickas) — 2020 WSM seventh place
- Oleksii Novikov — 2020 WSM champion
- JF Caron — 2020 WSM third place
- Jerry Pritchett — 2020 WSM fourth place
- Brian Shaw — 2020 WSM fifth place
- Adam Bishop — 2020 WSM sixth place
- Luke Stoltman — 2020 WSM qualified
- Terry Hollands — 2020 WSM qualified
- Trey Mitchell (replacing Oberst) — 2020 WSM qualified
- Maxime Boudreault — 2020 WSM qualified
Note: According to Shaw’s pinned comment in the comments section of the video, Tom Stoltman and Martins Licis were invited to compete but turned down the opportunity.
Also, Shaw confirmed that the commentary team for the Shaw Classic will be sports announcer Todd Harris, a former WSM commentator, and four-time WSM champion Magnus Ver Magnusson.
Featured image:@shawstrength on Instagram / photo by World’s Strongest Man