I was at Mr. Olympia 1988 in LA and I saw the show.
Thrust me show was over the same second Lee stepped on the stage and turned towards the judges. As good as Rich was he could only get second place, again.
Well, that is only my opinion.
Than 1991 I made the Olympia debut and I remember the hype. Shawn was saying before the show that he wants Haneys title, house, car and couple of other things. Labrada was very vocal as well. Great Brit was making some splash and Haney just signed contract with Twinlab. Everybody was expecting that this time Lee would not pull it off.
I remember back stage everyone was pumping up and Haney was just relaxed talking to some people. Probably closing some business deal.
Than when officials warned as that we have 10 minutes to be on stage, Lee casually approached the mirror and slowly took off his jacket.
What happened next you could see nowadays in the movies when director freezes the scene, there is absolute silence and you can almost hear your heart beating!
Everybody was shocked!
Shawn immediately lost 5 pounds, Lee started retaining water and Dorian lost his breath.
I know, I was there!
Was Lee THAT impressive that even dorian was scared ?
IMO it was pretty close between dorian and lee and I have a hard time imagining this scene
I mean, Haney was big but he was not "colemanesque"