You can't swing a cat in the media these days without coming across a story about a corporate disagreement that's headed to court. It's been like this for decades. When it comes to problem solving, litigation is the name of the game, but this is not always the case. Southwest Airlines was founded in 1971 and has always been a quirky company. They used strange phrases and were less serious than their opponents. The plan worked. Southwest is now worth more than $25 billion.

The company's lighthearted slogans change every few years, like every firm must do to stay relevant. They sought to utilize the tagline "Just Plane Smart" in the 1990s. They used it for a little over a year before discovering that another company, Stevens Aviation, was also using it. Stevens' lawyers wanted to sue, but there was one snag. Kurt Herwald, the CEO of Stevens, looked up to Southwest CEO Herb Kelleher. He didn't want to sue a man he admired for an honest error. So he challenged Kelleher to a game of arm wrestling.

Herwald was approximately 30 years younger and had prepared physically for the event. Kelleher smoked and drank whisky. He arrived at the event in a cheerleader-surrounded restroom. The first two rounds of a three-round fight were manufactured as a prank. Kelleher claimed he hurt his arm helping a child that morning, so he was replaced by a professional. Herwald also had a ringer in the following round. They played for real in the final round, and Herwald won.

Date: March 1992

If you appreciate the program It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which you should, you're probably also a fan of the funny Charlie Day. His character on the show is an idiot man-child feral genius, and he's just as entertaining in real life. He starred on the popular YouTube series Hot Ones in 2017, where he answered questions about his life and profession while eating hot wings with host Sean Evans. They're about halfway through their conversation. Evans recalls a story from Day's childhood about how he met his wife.

Day claims that he and a friend saw Day's future wife, actress Mary Elizabeth Ellis (who confirms the story in the video above), at a bar. They both wanted to approach Ellis to hit on her, but they had to work out their differences. They arm wrestled, and Day came out on top. For what it's worth, Day claims that even if he had lost, he would still have approached her, so his life would not have been different.

Have you ever gone to a restaurant where the food on the menu is deconstructed? They'll transform a typical steak and potatoes into potato-encrusted beef croquettes, or a peach pie into a tuile cracker with peach chutney. It turns out that at least two Russian men accomplished this feat through arm wrestling. Normally, arm wrestling is used to settle disputes, but this was not the case in 2014. Instead of having an issue and resolving it through the match, the men decided to wager on the contest and the loser would cut off their own ear. You know, the all-too-common bar wager.

They arm wrestled, and one of them won. Because the loser wanted a rematch, everyone's ears were still ringing after a second round in which that gentleman won. So they're all entangled. They then decided to cut their ears off because they had both lost a round. The idea of settling it through, say, arm wrestling didn't occur to either of them.

Date: 2014

Though he is no longer a chart topping anywhere, Donny Osmond was a musical force to be reckoned with in his day, selling 80 million records. That is quite impressive. Despite those figures, Osmond had to work hard to get his name out there. Osmond was promoting his album Soldier of Love in 1988. DJs probably avoided it because of the name alone, but Osmond was trying to revitalize his career and needed airplay. When he discovered that one DJ in particular from Miami had told his listeners that he despised the album and Osmond, he was furious. Donny had no choice but to throw down.

The two guys arm wrestled in a best-of-three series. Donny won the first round but was defeated in the second. He came back to win, and Wheeler performed the song for him. It's worth mentioning that at least one source claims Wheeler called Donny to set up the fight, with both men fully aware it was a publicity scam. Wheeler stated that he did not dislike the song. He claimed it just had the same melody as another recently released song. And that he would have played it anyway because it was going to break into the top ten. In any case, he and Osmond remained friends after that.

Date: 1989

If you can think of something that a human can accomplish, someone has created a video game version of it. There's a game for everything, from the commonplace to the bizarre. As a result, arm wrestling should come as no surprise. However, the Japanese Arm Spirit game was unique in its execution of the concept. This was no ordinary platformer. This machine was complete with a phony arm. The issue was that it was far too good at what it did.

Three people shattered their arms while playing the game, prompting the distributor to recall all 150 units nationwide. You'd think they were admitting some sort of fault, but they weren't. According to a company spokeswoman, it isn't extremely strong and "even ladies" should be able to win a match. They reasoned that gamers must have wrenched their arms and caused the harm themselves. Given that breaking a bone requires considerable effort under normal circumstances, it appears that there was a serious flaw in the game's design. It appears that it was never reintroduced to the market following the recall.

The Iron Sheik Challenged Toronto’s Mayor ranks 6th in the list of top 10 History’s Strangest Arm Wrestling Incidents. Few wrestlers have a longer career than Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, also known as the Iron Sheik. The man, who was born in 1942, is now in his late 70s and regularly rips it up on Twitter, doling out foul-mouthed remarks on whatever the news of the day is in classic Sheik manner.

Toronto mayor Rob Ford's crack usage made headlines in Ontario, Canada in 2013. The Sheik arrived in Toronto to challenge the mayor to an arm wrestle. What's the reason? He wanted to see if the mayor was a genuine gentleman. The Sheik then threatened to put the Camel Clutch on Ford, while City Hall guards implored him to keep his voice down, as if anybody could silence the Iron Sheik. Unfortunately, security asked him to leave because there was no arm wrestling contest going on.

Date: 2013

"NZ Companies Settle Their Radio Dispute" is one of history’s strangest arm wrestling incidents. Taking a page out of Southwest Airlines’ book, two New Zealand companies had an issue that needed a resolution, but neither company really wanted to litigate. Consider that any lawsuit is going to cost everyone time and money and it’s really not appealing for a smaller company to even bother. Not if you can both agree on a better solution out of court.

Teamtalk Ltd and MCS Digital were at odds over a mobile radio network that both wanted access to. A $NZ200,000 dispute between two New Zealand companies has been resolved in an an unusual out-of-court settlement. Rather than waste any more time, the heads of each company settled into a best of three arm wrestling match. Teamtalk ended up on the losing end. "Sure, losing hurts but not nearly as much as paying lawyers' bills," defeated TeamTalk chief executive David Ware said.

Date: 2003

Do you remember Jared Kushner? For a few years, he was involved in some way with the White House. He was tasked with bringing peace to the Middle East as part of his official role, and who better than a man who took over his father's real estate firm after his father was imprisoned for fraud? Making peace was no easy chore, so Kushner enlisted the assistance of an equally competent partner, WeWork founder Adam Neumann, who was accused of sexual harassment, drug use, and other offenses at his own company and was forced to resign.

Kushner and Neumann turn out to have a lot in common and would hang out together on a daily basis. They even settled a real estate disagreement between them with an arm wrestling battle, as all businessmen who drink too much tequila before making choices do. Kushner lost that match, and as it turns out, he also failed to bring peace to the Middle East.

Oliver Reed has a lengthy history in film, having played legendary roles such as Bill Sikes in Oliver! back in 1968, and it's even been reported that he was in the running to replace Sean Connery as James Bond back then. Modern audiences would most likely recognize him from his final appearance as gladiator trainer Proximo in the film Gladiator. Reed died while filming Gladiator, and, like many of the characters he played, he went out with a bang. Reed was an alcoholic in real life, which was well recognized and even applauded. He enjoyed drinking and didn't try to disguise it.

During a break in Gladiator filming, Reed decided to decompress in the only way he knew how: by going way too far. He engaged in a drinking contest with some sailors, consuming 8 pints of beer, 12 shots of rum, cognac, and a half bottle of whisky. He was 61 years old at the time. He also chose to arm wrestle five of the sailors as part of his intoxicated feats of strength. He defeated them all, but then had a massive heart attack. He passed away on the way to the hospital.

Date: 1999

Dana Rohrabacher's career as a Republican congressman from California was repeatedly plagued by negative headlines. Even after he retired, he received negative headlines for his involvement in the January 6 riots. During his tenure, he earned headlines for campaign finance infractions, but none were more devastating than being dubbed "Putin's favorite lawmaker." That has to be a severe rebuke for any politician in the United States, right? Perhaps not for Rohrabacher.

It turns out that the congressman and Russian President Vladimir Putin get along just fine. In reality, they socialize, get drunk, and play games together. And they resolved to end the Cold War with an arm wrestling match during one of their meetings. Rohrabacher told a story about meeting Putin in the 1990s. Putin was not in charge of the country at the time, and when the congressman saw him in Washington, they hit it up right away. After the official work was done, they went to an Irish pub and argued about who won the Cold War. They threw back a few pints and arm wrestled to determine the true winner, as elected officials and future tyrants are wont to do. Putin was victorious.

Date: 1990