Long before he became the World’s Strongest Man, Eddie Hall was earning a living on the doors of pubs and nightclubs in Stoke-on-Trent.
The 2017 World’s Strongest Man opened up about his time working in security during an appearance on The Terry Stone Collection Podcast, revealing it led to one of the most dangerous moments of his life.
Hall explained that he started working as a doorman at just 16 years old before eventually launching his own security company, overseeing the door staff at several venues across his hometown.
It was a role that regularly put him in volatile situations, but one incident in particular still stands out.
Reflecting on his years in security, Hall said: “There’s been situations where afterwards you’re like, ‘I was lucky to be alive.’ I guess, especially back then, most doormen have got some stories of near misses and near life experiences.” he said.
The former Strongman revealed that an ongoing dispute with a group of men escalated over several weeks before erupting into a violent confrontation.
“There was one scenario where I fell out with a group of people and it escalated and escalated. It went on for weeks and I ended up getting into a kerfuffle with a gang of guys,” he said.
Hall then described just how serious the attack became.
“I ended up getting slashed with a knife, baseball bats all over me, got pretty beat up pretty bad, but I was the better one off at the end,” he said.
Asked how many people were involved, Hall estimated there were more than ten attackers.
“Probably 10-plus. That wasn’t a fair fight. If I’d have hit the floor, I don’t think I’d be here now. They’d have finished me off. The fact that I stayed standing and knocked a few out and managed to get away was a bonus,” he said.
Despite surviving the attack, Hall admitted experiences like that taught him an important lesson about knowing when to walk away.
“You have to have your wits about you. You could see it escalating and sometimes you just had to be the bigger man and just bow out and let them be,” he said.
Hall’s years on the doors came before his rise through the ranks of professional strongman, where he progressed from local competitions to England’s Strongest Man, Britain’s Strongest Man and eventually the World’s Strongest Man title in 2017.
Although he is now best known for lifting a record-breaking 500kg deadlift, starring in films and building one of the biggest YouTube channels in strength sports, Hall’s latest interview offered a reminder that some of his toughest battles happened long before he stepped onto the World’s Strongest Man stage.
The 38-year-old has frequently spoken about the hardships he faced before reaching the top of his sport, and his latest recollection serves as another example of the dangerous situations he encountered during his younger years while working security in Stoke-on-Trent.
Featured image credit: Terry Stone Collection / Eddie Hall / YouTube
