I'm writing you this letter so that you know the state of things and where we stand as of today.
If any of you (or your friends) have any influence with the bodybuilding magazines, supplement companies that run booths at the Olympia Expo, Weider Corp. or with the Olympia Expo promoters themselves please help out if you agree that it's time for the trampoline bench shirt stuff to go and for Kings of the Bench to stay in place as the legit bench contest, then please speak up and make the call/email to keep us around, thanks!
As some of you may know, the week after the Olympia Expo (Kings of the Bench 2) I checked myself into the hospital exhausted and found out that (thru weeks of no sleep and promotional stress) I'd suffered from congestive heart failure. I basically wore myself out and it took over 8 weeks in the hospital to get me back on my feet again.
Through their sponsored lifters, Inzer Advance Designs learned of my being incapacitated and Peter Thorne (their official liason) went to work to undermine our efforts to build classic, pro powerlifting (like it used to be in the 1970s when it was featured on ABC's Wide World of Sports and CBS's Sports Spectacular) without all the crazy suits and super shirts.
Inzer paid The Super Show Expo in Dallas an undisclosed sum of money to take over exclusive rights to all powerlifting that takes place at that tradeshow (I was told this by Ed Pariso himself.) Of course their first move was to ban The Clash of the Titans so we just lost that pro show venue.
Next, Peter Thorne got on the phone and has now 90% convinced Weider to replace Kings of the Bench with an Inzer ran multi-ply bench shirt event much like the shows Kieran Kidder used to run at the Arnold Classic. (I've been told this by Weider Expo execs.)
Of course, I'm doing my best to convince them to stick with The Kings of the Bench (this year our show was going to be bigger than ever!) so that we all have a platform to put on the real benchpress championships without the phony looking super shirts.
I just wanted to post up this message so that you are all aware of the kind of people Peter Thorne and John Inzer are. While the sport of professional benchpressing has been held down for decades (no prize money and hardly any publicity) Inzer's gotten rich off of it. And now, because we're not allowing benchpress super shirts at our events, he's using his wealth to block us from putting on our shows. In my opinion, he's a vindictive, controlling reactionary who uses his wealth to attack people who don't want to include his super shirts in their benchpress promotions.
For what it's worth, I'm doing my best to make Kings of the Bench III and Clash of the Titans II take place. I've invested my life savings, all of my company's money and last winter I literally worked myself into the hospital and earned a chronic heart condition for my efforts. I've given it all that I can because I had a dream that powerlifting and power benching would finally become a legit pro sport. I just wanted you all to know where we stand with this situation and who's to blame for what.
Let's hope that the Olympia Expo promoters (that division of Weider) decide to stick with Kings of the Bench for their expo's pro bench championship. The Olympia Expo should continue to host The Kings of the Bench so that the bodybuilding and gym world can cheer on the strongest men in the world (not 200 pound guys, wrapped up like mummies, claiming to "bench" 700 pounds!)
Any pros and top amateurs in the house please contact your sponsors and ask them to ask Weider to keep Kings of the Bench in the Olympia Expo event line-up, thanks!
Sean Katterle
Hardcore Powerlifting, LLC
Promoter, Kings of the Bench
(Disclaimer: All of the above is the personal opinion of Sean Katterle.)
