I always felt Mike Mentzer was overrated.
I know he was pretty popular with the fans and had a catchy training gimmick, but for me he always seemed incomplete. When he is standing alone in a B&W photo, he looks good. Put him in a tough lineup with big guys and he would fade away. Like Danny Padilla to some degree. Alone in a B&W photo Danny looked unbeatable. In a lineup among mass monsters Danny just disappeared. Right or wrong, that was the truth.
Mentzer had below average calves, soft hammies, terrible glutes, weak inner back thickness, subpar traps, thin chest, and a wide blocky waist compared to the best of his peer group. That's not to say Mentzer was terrible, just the opposite, but it gave the Weiders what they needed to make sure Mike would never beat their Golden Boys. When Mike started writing anti-establishment articles (with Arthur Jones from Nautilus fame?) the Weiders phased him out and the downward spiral began.