he may have been promoted in some magazines, which is no surprise. they have to try and sell tickets. see the Guntermania fiasco LOL..
but in the judges eyes, he was not in the running at first. which is what counts.
the fact that he was not in the initial call out says it all. Flex mag made a big deal out of this at the time. the last time an eventual winner was NOT called out in the first call out was 1984 if I recall.
just when you idiots think you have me, I am always one step ahead of you.
remember that next time.
you will have to get used to this.
i have the 98 O on tape and the 1st callout was nasser, ronnie, flex unless they edited it...
I actually went to both the san fran and the night of champions in 98 and ronnie was night and day better in new york than san fran - although he was HUGE in san fran.
funny story -
I was backstage before prejudging in san fran for a few minutes and got a look at ronnie and kevin briefly.
I came out to my seat and my friend asked what I thought was gonna happen and I said loudly ronnie is smooth, kevin will win...
problem was vickie gates and a bunch of ronnie's relatives who live on the west coast were sitting right next to us - they had sat there when I was backstage... oops