Preist does not compete in the IFBB currrently because of disagreements he has had with the way they run things and because of comments he has made in the press.
In any event, I’d love to be involved in the convos going on to choose the winner sometime. Its very interesting to see that basically no one though Jay had it, and yet he still is champ.
[quote]pat36 wrote:
Well. I think Victor looks better myself, particularly in the abs.
What happened to Lee Preist? Did he retire or just not place well?[/quote]
priest competes in the pdf not ifbb
It’s PBI I believe, but not big deal it isn’t important enough to actually know.
Cutler has looked better.Bodybuilding isnt as good as it used to be.
it used to be about the music
What has happened to ronnies calves ,particularly the right one.in the 98 olympia theyre bloody impressive,now theyre very ordinary.is it due to using eisclene shots previously? wolf has way better calves than dexter,he and melvin are both very weak in the calves in proportion to the rest of their physiques,and johnni jackson should be walking on his hands!!
[quote]Malevolence wrote:
What was up with Ruhl being booed? was the crowd booing? it was kind of hard to tell with the poor audio quality, but even if they weren’t booing, when he came out it seemed like the energy died considerably. Is he not well liked or involved in some controversy or something? [/quote]
I was there at the O. They were not booing him. They were chanting “ruhl”. Sounded like boos - but the crowd was way into him and his freakishly huge shoulders. I think he knows that the judges will never give him any love.
The TV/video does not do justice to how good Wolf looked. He should have won. He was the class of every posing group they put him in.
I can’t stand Martinez. He should have been in jail instead of at the O.
Ruhl was hosed by the judges.
Cutler looked like shit Friday night, and could barely make his compulsory poses without passing out. But he is one big SOB.
The Russian was spectacular, as well as the Spaniard.
I like Mark Dugdale - and he was well received by the thousands of fans on Friday night. The judges want size, and it is going to be hard for Mark to get past his 5’6"-ish frame. He reminds me of Columbo back in the 70’s - 80’s.
One guy you need to pay some attention to that should be on stage next year is Omar Deckard.
Shelestov is someone to watch out for. Holy shit he was big. If he can be consistent with his conditioning and not fail drug tests (yeah…failing tests in the IFBB…thats saying something), then he will be a force to be reckoned with. I dont think Dugdale is big enough for the Olympia stage. Hes a good bodybuilder and a hard ass worker, but hes just not big enough to be imposing up next to a lot of those guys. Im interested to see how Phil Heath looks next year.
As much as I am opposed to the continued dominance of the “mass monsters”, I think Ruhl should continue competing as he is a freak amongst freaks and definitely a crowd favorite. As long as hes not placing first.
Thanks rainjack I was hoping someone who was actually there would chime in on this thread. I look forward to see Wolfe grow and work on his weak points over the next year, he should be amazing next year.
[quote]scottiscool wrote:
Thanks rainjack I was hoping someone who was actually there would chime in on this thread. I look forward to see Wolfe grow and work on his weak points over the next year, he should be amazing next year. [/quote]
I think that if the IFBB is truly interested in bringing aesthetics back as part of the judging criteria, Wolfe is closer than the rest to the perfect body. It has been years since the Olympia stage has seen the “X” as dramatically as Wolfe displayed this year. And he has the highest insertion points on his back and legs that I have ever seen.
But I have a soft spot for Ruhl. Remember the days of Tom Platz, Columbo, Zane, among others? They all had their own “look” that they brought to the stage. Platz had the wheels, Columbo had the back, Zane had the sick vacuum pose. Now they all look alike, and have to fit in a cookie cutter mold of subjectivity.
Ruhl must piss the judges off with his shoulders. They can’t seem to notice how big he is all over because of the damn basketballs he sports as delts.
Its hard to weigh more than 300 lbs in contest condition and not have big ass shoulders, but Ruhl takes it to a new level.
http://www.mr-olympia.eu/callouts/
This should get some more discussion going.
I Have never been so dissapointed in a physique show as i was when I saw this.A line up of generic looking freaks who obviously spent so much time getting loaded that they didnt bother to practice posing.If anyone is in doubt check out some past winners, labrada,yates,zane(the best) they had presence,and charisma.This was nothing more than a freak show of totally disproportionate cartoon figures.
Unless they bring in testing for EVERYTHING that incluse synthol,et al,body building will remain where it is.I wonder how these guys feel when we ALL KNOW that its al due to genes and drugs,NOTHING more.
Jay really didnt look that much better than Ronnie in that comparison…
I haven’t followed bodybuilding that much is it this much contraversy every year? People complain in all sports but from reading this thread I would think bodybuilding is going down the tubes.
Honestly is this just a typical bitchin? or was it that bad this year?
I think it was pretty bad this year since almost no one picked Jay as the winner. Controversy is good and having different opinions is great, but if everyone in the arena besides the judges have someone else winning, be it Victor Dexter Dennis etc, then something went terribly wrong.
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Ronnie’s left trap and tri lost it for him I tought, He is just too beat up from all the years of competing… I thought he was the leanest in the upper body last night though. His Bi’s were breaking out of his skin. His legs were pretty cut up to… I’m a Coleman fanboy though, so what do I know 
Cutler was holding water like a 5 gallon bucket, no way he deserved it on this night. If he had a few more days to lose the water he would have been great(er). I dont know what it is about Cutler, but I just have no interest in the guy.
Vic got robbed I thought, When it came down to him an Jay on the stage, I was for sure Vic was gonna take it down. I guess it really is hard to dethrone the champ.
Dex - Awesome as usual, he’s just not big enough to hang with these guys though, nor do I think he should try to get any bigger.
Big Bad Wolf - Great, great physique. Hopefully he gets recognized here in the next few years and doesnt feel the need to throw on 50 pounds to win and ruin it.
Long live the King baby, I gotta buy a “Light Weight Baby” T-shirt now in honor of the big man. No one did it better.[/quote]
Lonnie123, Good words! I’m also a Coleman fanboy. He was still enormous and super ripped even though he has some symmetry issues due to injury (like you said).
Ronnie still has the most cartoonish proportions, not to mention the most personality!
[quote]coomo wrote:
I Have never been so dissapointed in a physique show as i was when I saw this.A line up of generic looking freaks who obviously spent so much time getting loaded that they didnt bother to practice posing.If anyone is in doubt check out some past winners, labrada,yates,zane(the best) they had presence,and charisma.This was nothing more than a freak show of totally disproportionate cartoon figures.
Unless they bring in testing for EVERYTHING that incluse synthol,et al,body building will remain where it is.I wonder how these guys feel when we ALL KNOW that its al due to genes and drugs,NOTHING more.[/quote]
It has always been due to “genes and drugs”, certainly since the 60’s. I don’t think anyone in the top 10 is using synthol either. Synthol is ugly and the smart competitors stay away from it. I remember when people were accusing Yates of being a sideshow freak too. It hasn’t changed that much. The level of competition has simply risen.
What I loved about Yates and Coleman is that they represented the “old world” work ethic. Especially Coleman for being a police officer all those years.
I think the sport had lost some interest for the simple reason that so many more compete in it. It’s hard to stand out when so many competitors are on the same level.
As far as posing, there are still some very good posers out there.
[quote]fightingtiger wrote:
You do realize that that was fucking Flex Wheeler, right? He was one of the big boys. When Coleman won his first O, Flex was #2. Telling him to “shut up and step up and stop the whining” is retarded. He has tried, he was one of the best for the greater part of the 90’s and competed in 6 Olympias-placing in the top 5 5 times during his career. He never placed lower than 8th in an IFBB sanctioned event between 1993 and 2000. If anyone can talk about it, I think Flex Wheeler can.
Cutler looked like shit. For all of the yelling the IFBB has been doing about moving towards a more asthetic ideal, they did not demonstrate this, as Cutler had virtually no taper, a thick waist, hazy abs, and smooth arms and delts. There has been a lot of hype over the “x-frame” but the winner of the Mr. O this year had about as much x shape as a block of cheese.
I would have put Ronnie farther back than 4th, and 4th is where Cutler would have been at best IMO. Vic needs to work on his posing some, but he really fought for it in the final round…holding a hard pose until the moment the final decision was announced. Cutler ran away from Wolf every time they stood next to each other during the posedown, and the one time they got next to each other, it was easy to tell which one had a long future in bodybuilding and who’s days were numbered.
Dennis Wolf, Victor Martinez, David Henry, Dexter Jackson, and Melvin Anthony are where this sport should be headed, but the IFBB failed to live up to their well hyped change of direction with this year’s Olympia.[/quote]
well then he hasn’t won huh?i guess when you are a fan you pull for your guy!whatever the judges are the judges just for that they have an opinion higher than you and me,but as far as all the b.s. about they should have they said they were and all that whining,it’s just that whining,nobody in the ifbb gives a crap about any of our thoughts.
if it were mr.olympia per fans opinions it would be called peoples choice or something like that.get over it.who won is who won if it were a fluke let victor or wolf or anybody else take the title from him…just like cutler did to coleman.
all of those guys have respect for each other but when the fan favorite doesn’t win everybody whines just like they did when coleman won his 8th title everybody said cutler was robbed,no he wasn’t he just didn’t show up better than ronnie did!I don’t pull for one or the other i just love the sport.
and also who care about flex’s opinion it is held as an opinion and just that nothing more than you or me.it doesn’t matter about the past it matters about the future!if victor or dexter were better than they will prove it at the next mr.o