I really think his freaky, disgusting chest veins hurt his placings.
Its unfortunate but true 
That and (i) his lack of back development against Yates, Shawn, Levrone, Ray and Wheeler, (ii) his inability to hold his poses and (iii) his problems getting shredded for the shows.
The first one I don't think he could do much about. I often read people saying "his back wasn't THAT bad" but it actually was. I don't know what his problem with the posing was, I think he just didn't know how to do it. What's the point of dieting 12 weeks for a show and then going as fast as you can through your whole posing routine without hitting the poses right? To combat the last, he had his bad experiences with diuretics, which ruined a few of his competitions.
Maybe a little bit of exaggeration on the above, but not much.
