Anthony Dall’Antonia joins Canadian Armwrestling Hall of Fame with Phil Stoppert

Anthony Dall’Antonia and Phil Stoppert enter the Canadian Armwrestling Federation’s 2026 Hall of Fame on sharply different resumes, and that is exactly the point. One built his case through volume, streaks and the day-to-day work of keeping the sport organized. The other made his name in the late 1980s and early 1990s with titles that carried beyond Canada’s borders.

Dall’Antonia’s record is the modern blueprint for armwrestling influence. He started pulling in April 2002, won his first national title in 2005 and added 25 more national championships over the years. The headline number inside that run is 12 straight left-hand titles, a stretch of dominance that separated him from his field. But his Hall of Fame case is bigger than the bracket. He has run the Vancouver Armwrestling Club, served as CAWF Director of Communications since 2011, worked as a master referee and hosted the 2012 National Championships. The Vancouver club’s history says the Dall’Antonia brothers helped restart the program in early 2002 and set up the Burnaby training facility, while the club’s honors page adds a 2025 BC Armwrestling Association Lifetime Achievement Award and a 2025 BC Armwrestling Hall of Fame induction.

Stoppert’s path runs through a different era, when Canadian armwrestling’s strongest names were building reputations one weight class at a time. CAWF credits him with five national titles, multiple Gloucester Fair International titles, back-to-back Northern Ontario pro titles and the 1993 WAF world title in the men’s 176-pound, 80-kilogram class. The Armwrestling Archives lists that championship result with Andreas Rundstrom of Sweden taking second and Kazbek Zoloev of Russia placing third, a clean snapshot of the level Stoppert reached when the sport’s international circuit was still tightening around its core events. His Hall of Fame profile also points to another kind of impact: he shared what he knew and helped guide Gary Goodridge when Goodridge was first entering the sport.

That mix of competitive weight and institutional work fits the larger Canadian armwrestling story. CAWF says it has existed since 1976, has staged a national championship every year since 1977 and helped host the first WAF World Championship in 1979 in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, with Canada, the U.S.A., Brazil and India in the field. The BC Armwrestling Hall of Fame has been inducting pullers since 2008, and Dall’Antonia’s and Stoppert’s selection shows the standard has widened: titles still matter, but so do refereeing, club building and the kind of mentorship that keeps the next wave coming.