25 YEARS AGO TODAY...The GOP's nominee hosted THE best bodybuilding show EVER!

[Never1AShow]

Strydom DID have a nickname and it was AWFUL.  He was "The Toast of the Town."  Came out in tuxedo tails with a cane.  Kind of a "putting on the ritz" thing.  Stupid.

[MCWAY]

Strydom DID have a nickname and it was AWFUL.  He was "The Toast of the Town."  Came out in tuxedo tails with a cane.  Kind of a "putting on the ritz" thing.  Stupid.

That wasn't his tagged nickname (didn't have it in 1992). Plus, since he won, his nickname was really "The WBF Champion".

[MCWAY]

What a success story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bodybuilding_Federation

If it was so fucking amazing, why only two shows?

Ummm.....could it be the feds were breathing down McMahon's neck about steroid distribution for the WWF? There was no way the WWF wrestlers were going to be drug-tested out the wazoo without the bodybuilders being put under the gun as well (I heard that LOD and Bret Hart were among the loudest voices insisting that the WBF guys get tested). I don't need Wikipedia to tell me about the WBF. I lived through it and saw it firsthand. I bought the WBF/Bodybuilding Lifestyles magazines; I even saw the 1992 show on pay-per-view live ($15).

McMahon went from letting the bodybuilders use anything they wanted to testing them for everything but the kitchen sink (via Dr. Mauro Dipasquale). 1992 was terrible. Ferrigno left shortly after the testing started; the ticket sales dropped, so the 1992 championship had to be moved to a 3500-seat theater instead of the 10,000-seat arena (hyped by a Strydom-Ferrigno showdown).

Then, they tried getting Lex Luger to replace Ferrigno (albeit, as a "guest-poser"); but, he got jacked up in a motorcycle accident less than a week out. If that weren't enough, "The Phoenix" Vince Comeford went down with pneumonia, leaving just 12 guys to compete at the '92 show.

The Weiders were FREAKING OUT big time about the threat of the WBF. How do you think guys like Yates, Levrone, Wheeler, et. al. got those nice (and much larger) contracts to stay with Weider/IFBB. It wasn't Weider that did in McMahon; it was the feds.

And, if the Olympia guys got put through the ringer the way the WBF guys did, Lord only knows how awful they would have looked.

[MCWAY]

If Trump had mentioned his involvement in the bodybuilding industry I would have voted for him. We need a strong leader with a respectable upright row and who does preworkout before meeting other world leaders.

Trump and McMahon are friends (or at least, good business acquaintances). He hosted WrestleManias 4 and 5 and had a front-row seat at WrestleMania 7.

If I had a clip of Berry DeMey's full routine, you'd see Trump and his then-wife Marla applauding from the front row.

[MCWAY]

LOL @"Eating more than 10000 kcals close to the show"
The stage, lightning, smoke machines & creepy enthusiastic comments.... there's no business like schmoe business

As opposed to a bland stage, terrible lighting, commentators that could put an over-caffeinated Kali Muscle to sleep, and half the competitors posing to the same (barely audible) music that the IFBB had.

[Never1AShow]

1991 was Terminator 2 with theme song by Guns and Roses.  By 1992 the WBF was dying, LA was rioting and Bill Clinton was elected President.  What a difference a year makes.