well there ya go, sorry I had my years wrong...I go by memory and maybe it's getting a little shakey. I coulda sworn John Simmons won the overall in 93 when I typed the original message but your years sound right so I'm sorry for supplying faulty information.
The simple fact of the matter is that Edgar really needed to hook up with someone like Chris Aceto or even The Chad and he probably could have won a national level show...
Wasn't the 1996 North America's the show where Gerard Dente got royally screwed in the hw class? I remember reading about it in musclemag...everyone seemed to think he got screwed cause he worked for twinlab at the time..
This all started in Muscular Development-Fitness-Health about 10 years ago. John Romano, in his "Rage Page" claimed that Dente got screwed (Romano used a much stronger words). Problem is that Romano, by his own admission in that article, did NOT attend the North American. He based his take on photos taken from the show. Dente was working for Twinlab at that time, and given MDFH's beef with the IFBB and the Weider Publications, this stuff made for great gossip and rumor-mongering.
Romano crossed the line, however, when he stated that John Simmons, the heavyweight and overall champion, sought out Dente and actually told him that Dente should have won the show.
MuscleMag International was IMMEDIATELY blitzed by letters from fans, who were at the North American. They stated that Romano was lying through his teeth. Simmons did NOT apologize to Dente or even hint that Dente should have won the show. From the fans' perspective based on the letters, Simmons was the winner hands down, with virtually no one disputing the decision (no boos, no cat-calls, nothing).
John Simmons was much more polite, in his letter; but, he stated unequivocally that he DID NOT APOLOGIZE to Dente or anyone else for his win. In fact, Simmons chronicled his long road to the pros, to make the point that, if anyone were at a disadvantage, it was he.
Compared to some of his competition, Simmons was a relative unknown. Some of the heavyweights at the North American were just coming off some high placings at the USA. Furthermore, at least three of the top five heavyweights had major supplement companies backing them (Gerard Dente, with Twinlab; Frank Sepe and Edgar Fletcher with MET-Rx); Simmons had no such major backing, though he was working with Scott Abel and a fledging supplement company.
To top it all off, those men were seasoned heavyweight competitors; whereas, Simmons was making his debut as a heavyweight, after years of competing as a light-heavyweight, where he won his class at the NAC twice (1991, 1992) and the USA (1993) but couldn't quite nab that overall title.
Abel convinced Simmons that the reason he hadn't turned pro was that he had developed too much size and quality and was shaving off precious muscle, coming into shows smooth and flat, killing himself to make light-heavyweight. Simmons reluctantly took Abel's advice and worked with the famous Canadian trainer. The rest is history.
As MDFH was morphing into All-Natural Muscular Development and loathing all things related to a certain bodybuilding organization (after all, that particular pro qualifier is the
IFBB North American Championships), it's no surprise as to how such a rumor can get started.
FYI - the year Stan McCrary won the North American was 1995; Dave Fisher took it all in 1993, when another "bridesmaid", Rory Leidmeyer was virtually given the titles by certain magazines. As it turns out, Leidmeyer never showed up at the NAC. He tried the Nationals, instead, and got clobbered.
