Special Ed actually met Kevin Levrone at the 2000 Olympia and Kevin challenged him to a pose down! 
yeah Ed was lucky
E
You won't believe how lucky, Earl!
Schmoe's Penthouse Forum
I never thought something like this could happen to a guy like me. It's the 2000 Olympia and my flight has landed me in Vegas at midnight. I gamble some, drink some, talk to some prostitutes, and wind up passing out by the pool around 6:30am. I wake up at 10am and it's blazing and I'm drenched in sweat. They won't check me in early so I go to the Expo to kill some time and get some free stuff back when they actually gave out actual protein bars and not 1cm slivers. Finally, around 3:00, they call me and tell me my room is ready. I'm exhausted and I go to my room and rub one out so I can get a good sleep in. I fall right asleep and ten minutes later my hotel room phone BLASTS me awake. It's Kevin. He invites me down to his room (Friday afternoon). I knock on his door and he answers in nothing but a towel. I walk in and he asks me what I think of his conditioning. I say he looks sick as in great but not sounding quite so homo. I sit on the corner of the bed for easy escape if the anaconda attacks. He stands before me and drops his towel and flexes his quad. His penis is violating my personal space. It's about 12 inches from my face. I think of running for the door, but any sudden movements by Kevin could cause his penis to flop and slap me across the face so I stay put. I think that if someone were to walk in at this moment, they would see Kevin standing in front of me naked while I sit on the bed and just assume I am giving him a pre-Olympia blowjob to help him relax before the prejudging.
Kevin then asks me what kind of shape I am in. He demands that I remove my shirt and "pose down" with him in front of his bathroom mirror. I think of how utterly gay this seems but then I concentrate really hard and tell myself that I don't WANT it to be gay, and suddenly, it's not gay at all. It's just two dudes hitting a few muscle shots in the mirror just like they do at Gold's Venice all the time. I pull off my shirt and naked Kevin and I run through the entire mandatories, as I call out the poses in my best Wayne DeMilia voice as Kevin cracks up. Still naked. And totally not gay. Not gay at all.
Then naked Kevin asks me to help him apply his Pro Tan to areas he can't reach. Thankfully, I think, he can reach his penis. But he needs help with his back and underarms. I tell naked Levrone that I am woefully unqualified to paint the #1 Mr. Olympia contender. He tells me to do my best because he's already sent his buttboy who flew in with him packing. They say your sense of smell stays with you the longest and that's true, because 10 years later, I can still smell the chemical compounds in the Pro Tan I sponged on naked Kevin that afternoon with the "applicator".
Anyway, the rest is history. Kevin went on to own a bloated Ronnie on stage that year with his best coloring ever. And I like to think I played a small part in making that history. Kevin took a controversial second and wouldn't talk to me afterwards but he eventually came around and even invited me to spend the weekend at his house a few times. No Homo.