Arnold by the media coverage and Zane by general body-type.
Sad those 2 guys are 30 years behind us.
The more bodybuilding 'develops' the more it will fall off the map.
Eventually the sport will be held in very isolated basements and venues (like cage fightingis), off the map and only for the fetish crowd.
Thus it will go back where it also started. Like a life circle. Start small, grow to your maximum and shrink and dissapear.
Nothing new.
How do you figure that?
Back when Zane and Arnold competed, there was only one pro show (The Olympia) and only the winner got paid ($1,000, and one year that dropped to $750).
Now, Mr. O gets $150,000+; the Arnold Classic winner gets almost as much. The New York Pro gets over $15,000 and a ring. That's a far cry from back in the day, when all Larry Scott got was a dorky-looking crown.
Heck, nowadays bodybuilders are professionals before they get IFBB pro cards. Didn't Brandon Curry ink his deal with BSN, BEFORE he won the USA title to turn pro? Back in the 90s, Frank Sepe worked for MET-Rx for years and NEVER turned pro. And many get signed shortly after they do turn pro. At least three class winners of the 2009 Nationals work for MuscleTech (LHW champ, Seth Feroce; HW Champ Fred Smalls, and SHW and overall champ, Cedric McMillan).
Go to a newsstand and you'll see a number of bodybuilding publications: Muscle & Fitness, FLEX, MD, MuscleMag International, IronMan, Planet Muscle, etc.
Now, there are supplement companies out the wazoo, with scores of bodybuilders endorsing their products. And, in the age of the Internet, the fans don't have to wait MONTHS to find out the results of bodybuilding contests. Nor, do they have to watch the severely-edited coverage of such long after they occured at 3:00 AM on ESPN.
Add YouTube to the mix and fans can keep up and follow bodybuilding, which has helped the endeavor quite nicely. Therefore, I don't see it going back to any basements, any time soon.
