Lee Haney The Bully?

[Equalizer]

[NarcissisticDeity]

[Royalty]

I was at the the 1996 Night of Champions right up front.


During the pose down, while trying to get to center stage, Mike Mattarazzo shoved Gunter Schlierkamp. Gunter stood his ground. Mike tried tried to shove him again but Gunter shoved back.. and Mike almost fell off the stage. I could sense that Gunter had some serious strength. You could tell that Mike was not expecting this young rookie to shove his ass off stage.

Mike was probably giving up about 50lbs of muscle to Gunter.

[Matt]

I was at the the 1996 Night of Champions right up front.


During the pose down, while trying to get to center stage, Mike Mattarazzo shoved Gunter Schlierkamp. Gunter stood his ground. Mike tried tried to shove him again but Gunter shoved back.. and Mike almost fell off the stage. I could sense that Gunter had some serious strength. You could tell that Mike was not expecting this young rookie to shove his ass off stage.

Mike was probably giving up about 50lbs of muscle to Gunter.

Great post.  I hadn't thought about that when reading the OP.

Gunter was interviewed...maybe for RX Muscle, or possibly for something else, and said something to the effect "I was a tough kid, and didn't realize it".  It's almost funny to think how unrealistic people are about their own self-image prior to gaining life experience.  How can a genetic freak like Gunter now know that he is tough as nails?

As for that incident - I didn't realize it was the 1996 NOC, but I think Mike Matarazzo had said "People love seeing muscle go at muscle", when talking about that.  I can't find the footage of it on YouTube, but that's pretty funny to hear that Gunter almost shoved Matarazzo off the stage.

A bit off-topic, but sort of related...and I thought of this when you mentioned Gunter's strength, which I think I lose sight of, due to his being so good looking with such a good smile, etc, where you know the guy wouldn't harm a fly if not in self-defense:

I have been told a couple of times by women [I think twice], and even once by a man, that strong men need to be mindful, because people are intimidated by them.

I'm sorry, but - fuck that.  I/we [most on this board] have the right to self-defense.  It doesn't matter that we are strong.  And it makes me sick to think there are people who think I won't defend myself because they are "intimidated" by me.  That's not my problem.

I could only imagine what much larger/stronger men go through in this regard.

I think the most ethical way to pass a woman's shit-test is to just ignore it.  But straight up, I will stand my ground.  Women both love and hate this.  In fact, my friend just messaged me this, while on this topic:

"They love it but they presumably hate it. They crave it but won’t tolerate it"

So strange.

Gunter is a super friendly guy, and has a smile and persona that radiates that.  But the new #MeToo rules are so confusing - everything men do is an exploitative abuse of power, yet men avoiding women due to liability and allegations is somehow also a bad thing, leading to #MentorHer.

Umm...yeah, ok.  How about women can pick a position and stick with it?  Either they want men or they don't - and if I'm going to be involved with women, it will be where our terms/boundaries intersect - NOT on her terms.  It seems like women want men to be their slaves, and are stupid enough to think we will tolerate it.  It's like women only want men with balls, but want to be in control of them.

Again - and back to Gunter and his strength, despite being such a nice guy - this entire topic is presumably amplified for strong men.

[wes]

I was at the the 1996 Night of Champions right up front.


During the pose down, while trying to get to center stage, Mike Mattarazzo shoved Gunter Schlierkamp. Gunter stood his ground. Mike tried tried to shove him again but Gunter shoved back.. and Mike almost fell off the stage. I could sense that Gunter had some serious strength. You could tell that Mike was not expecting this young rookie to shove his ass off stage.

Mike was probably giving up about 50lbs of muscle to Gunter.

I met Mike and Gunther at different venues,both guys were just cool fucking dudes.

RIP Mike

[AbrahamG]

Dorian guest posed at a contest I did back in 96.  He was back stage at the same time as my class.  It was May of 96 so about 4 months out from the O. 
Holy Fucking Shit.  When people say you have to see Dorian in person to grasp his dimensions, they aren't bullshitting.  I was at the same venue in the
crowd for other shows and saw Dillett, Levrone and Francois guest pose.  After seeing Dorian, these guys disappointed.  That's how other level Dorian was.
He was also available after the show talking to everyone. 

[Darren Avey]

I was at the the 1996 Night of Champions right up front.


During the pose down, while trying to get to center stage, Mike Mattarazzo shoved Gunter Schlierkamp. Gunter stood his ground. Mike tried tried to shove him again but Gunter shoved back.. and Mike almost fell off the stage. I could sense that Gunter had some serious strength. You could tell that Mike was not expecting this young rookie to shove his ass off stage.

Mike was probably giving up about 50lbs of muscle to Gunter.

Battle of the titans

[a_pupil]

Great post.  I hadn't thought about that when reading the OP.

Gunter was interviewed...maybe for RX Muscle, or possibly for something else, and said something to the effect "I was a tough kid, and didn't realize it".  It's almost funny to think how unrealistic people are about their own self-image prior to gaining life experience.  How can a genetic freak like Gunter now know that he is tough as nails?

As for that incident - I didn't realize it was the 1996 NOC, but I think Mike Matarazzo had said "People love seeing muscle go at muscle", when talking about that.  I can't find the footage of it on YouTube, but that's pretty funny to hear that Gunter almost shoved Matarazzo off the stage.

A bit off-topic, but sort of related...and I thought of this when you mentioned Gunter's strength, which I think I lose sight of, due to his being so good looking with such a good smile, etc, where you know the guy wouldn't harm a fly if not in self-defense:

I have been told a couple of times by women [I think twice], and even once by a man, that strong men need to be mindful, because people are intimidated by them.

I'm sorry, but - fuck that.  I/we [most on this board] have the right to self-defense.  It doesn't matter that we are strong.  And it makes me sick to think there are people who think I won't defend myself because they are "intimidated" by me.  That's not my problem.

I could only imagine what much larger/stronger men go through in this regard.

I think the most ethical way to pass a woman's shit-test is to just ignore it.  But straight up, I will stand my ground.  Women both love and hate this.  In fact, my friend just messaged me this, while on this topic:

"They love it but they presumably hate it. They crave it but won’t tolerate it"

So strange.

Gunter is a super friendly guy, and has a smile and persona that radiates that.  But the new #MeToo rules are so confusing - everything men do is an exploitative abuse of power, yet men avoiding women due to liability and allegations is somehow also a bad thing, leading to #MentorHer.

Umm...yeah, ok.  How about women can pick a position and stick with it?  Either they want men or they don't - and if I'm going to be involved with women, it will be where our terms/boundaries intersect - NOT on her terms.  It seems like women want men to be their slaves, and are stupid enough to think we will tolerate it.  It's like women only want men with balls, but want to be in control of them.

Again - and back to Gunter and his strength, despite being such a nice guy - this entire topic is presumably amplified for strong men.

 

[Matt]

I met Mike and Gunther at different venues,both guys were just cool fucking dudes.

RIP Mike

Both did seem incredibly friendly, and fan favourites.  I only met Gunter...because the first expo I went to was the Mr. Olympia in 2007, and that was when Mike Matarazzo told Peter McGough not to call him again, as Mike, at that point, was becoming increasingly aware of his loss of identity from bodybuilder to normal-sized man, and even his mortality.  Sad.  So, I would not have been able to meet Mike, as he cut ties with the bodybuilding world as soon as I began my close involvement with it [which has since ended for me, also].

I wonder how big friendly alphas even get by in the #MeToo era.  Presumably, everything would be blamed on them by default.  This is true of all men, but I imagine even worse with very large/strong men.  Which is sad when you consider what you just said about Mike and Gunter, that they were/are just cool dudes.

I found that quote I referenced, about the Gunter/Mike NOC shoving incident that Royalty brought up.  Off-topic [again/as usual], but I'm pleased with my memory overall...considering I only read this article once back when it came out in 2014, I'm pretty happy I remembered this so accurately.  I bolded the part that I slightly misremembered, that I mentioned above:

https://www.musculardevelopment.com/news/bodybuilding-news/13502-mike-matarazzo-1965-2014-the-fans-favorite-passes-muscular-development.html#.XZiBk5bqXIU

It was at the 1996 Night of Champions staged in New York, when by placing fifth Mike clinched a Mr. Olympia berth, and where in both the afternoon and night segments he proved to be the star of the show. As the afternoon prejudging ended there was an impromptu posedown during which the 245 pound Mike indulged in a boisterous shoving match with 285 pound Gunter Schlierkamp, which at one point presented the threat of somebody doing a double salko into the press pit.

 Afterward Mike said, “I try to have fun up there. Gunter’s a big boy but I wasn’t gonna give him any ground. Backstage we shook hands and laughed about it. My thing is you can push and shove all you like, get as physical as you want as long as nobody starts throwing punches. People like to see muscle go at muscle.”