Greatest Promoter of Bodybuilding Opens Up - Wayne DeMilia

tonight you're gonna see something that you've never seen on a bodybuilding show before and you may never see again Dorian Nasser pastel Ben fato Ben Aziza munzo where you going with this I start yelling I need doctors I need doctors now then Aziza died in our arms I mean that's how bad it was doesn't sound like you're supportive of that everyone feels as the years went by the drugs got more were you everyone connected to them up or no I think I could take over to support you can't teach this you can't teach somebody how to do this you either got it or you don't have it why are you throwing how can I guilty I said Joe I got these ideas so bent fire you go to the elevator I push the button the elevator door opens up there's one person in there Arnold why do some people not like you should make some things they thought they were making money and we were pocketing it while two Thurs went to Weaver's don't [ __ ] I'm gonna bring Robbie Robinson to your gym then you're gonna put my posters up and you're gonna sell me tickets there's the name of the contest call me coordinator champion what are you talking about it go rocky - Night of Champions - right they're super bold it's a net oh god you just sent me the wrong camel come on Mohammed please come out please come out and talk to me Mon Ami you still have the passion for this game put me on that stage they're in a debate over I'll call Bernie the crazy go run a search it's gold in the surface you're no falling apart of the IFBB let's do it we're gonna put on a show [Music] did you ever think you would you paralyzed when we got fat AV value taemin given values contagious this world entrepreneurs we can evaluate a haters run homie look what I become [Music] so today we have another one of these bodybuilding interviews except today's slightly different I'm not sitting with a mr. Olympia contender or bodybuilder I am sitting with somebody who promoted more bodybuilding competitions than anybody else in the history of bodybuilding and someone who promoted more mr. Olympius 18 times than anybody else and he took over the committee of Pro League I think for bodybuilding in 1979 Pro division which used to be Arnold and then you took it over from 1979 to all four so we got a complete different type of a dialog to to to say the least so with that being said my guest today Wayne DeMille your Wayne thanks for coming out thank you so so when you're watching all these interviews with these bodybuilding interviews on this entrepreneurial channel called vitami what are you thinking when you're seeing some of these interviews they're living in the past they're living in the past let's get to the press guy who cares about you know what went on in 1998 you know at that Olympia when Chad came in with the plasma expanders let's see you know here we are trying to keep the guys alive to protect them from themselves from 92 Ben Aziza died in our arms basically we were in Holland at the way the last show with it tour and he was pushing it and we kept saying you know Momo you know pull back a little bit pull back a little bit no no no I got to win them all because they were all vying for wheter contracts at that time the show ends and I'm told by one of the other competitors he was throwing up in the back well extreme vomiting diuretic overdose Momo you've been taking diuretics let's go to the hospital contest is over you won let's go to the hospital just check it out let's be safe no I'm good I'm good I'm good we get on the bus we did the contest in The Hague and we were all staying in middle harness middle harness is a little sailing town where Juliet Bergman former Miss Olympia lived with her husband Jim Lynn's felled and they were Co promoters of the event so they put us in a hotel down there and they had a restaurant there and we're gonna have a party at the restaurant I knew the area well because my girlfriend at the time was a Dutch girl French Indonesian Dutch girl and when she got pregnant with my son she had met Juliet it wanted a contest when she was with me and Juliet said why stay where your mother lives because you know America was another my medical insurance and she said I'll have the baby in Holland the won't cost you a dime as we're about Bernie talking about all that at every mm-hmm every night so I new middle Hornets I knew the hotel and everything this Annette so we go back after the contest they had a party I'm almost having trouble standing walking his legs or like cement we call the doctor doctor comes and he checks Momo vital signs heart pulse blood pressure normal we call just something wrong look he can't even walk we think it's diuretic overdosed isn't it he goes he's over the age of 21 and his vital signs are normal I cannot force him to come in okay two hours later again he's getting worse we call the doctor again again Momo don't want to go not food poisoning he's telling us okay won't go in about three o'clock we all go to bed you know so I go down the street they were in a hotel I go down the street and about 5:00 a.m. there's knocking on the door I get out of bed I'm there with Tracey you know and Morse Ellis was like three months old and it was a bodybuilder lq girlie he goes you better come almost bad so I just throw on clothes if we run down the street we get there he's on the ground he had vomited already said call paramedics called the ambulance dissin end portal katrell was there bodybuilder on the tour Porter was a fireman I supported with CPR so I'm on one side I'm holding his left hand looking for pulse Bart bed way one of the judges is holding his head after we cleared it's his throat Porter's doing CPR when I felt the pulse disappeared I looked at art and I go he was gone they came they put the electric things on him boom boom boom flatline boom boom boom flatline they tried a three-four times strapped them up took them we're all sitting there in a daze we knew something like this would happen because they kept pushing it pushing it but now it's it's real and then the phone call comes and the photo person says who's in charge there were points of me so I get the phone and they go please come down your friend has passed away you got to do body identification and sign the documents in this scenario so we go everybody comes with me we're all in shock we all go to the hospital just like five minutes away in the next town and I go in to see the doctor that came twice that night and the head of the hospital didn't have people dying in that little town and the doctor was crying it was a young fellow he was crying and goes I don't know how this happened on this happened and I said to the time how did it happen he goes obviously whatever they were taking your vital signs stayed normal till the moment of cardiac arrest that the body compensated so as he had no circulation or whatever in his legs and then his arms it was compensating until the heart went so okay you know it is what it is but then all the things I never thought I'd have to do you know yeah we had to go down they said you have to go down he's in the morgue everybody wanted to come down here I got male bodybuilders I got Juliet I got all the female athletes that were there two came to see the show and you go down into the morgue it's cold that thing opens up and there's a slab and there he is laying on the slab no shirt on which is perfect upper body no shoes on and just the tag on his toe you know somebody athletes couldn't handle it they started crying his training partner from France went grabbing the body Momo come back come back you know we had a my friend dart was there we had appealed him out of there get him out of there Ida signed the documents and there were other complications Momo you know bodybuilders old ladies men okay well mo was married he was engaged to another girl but he was there with a 16 year old and she was there his poor little girl was devastated cute girl cute little blonde French girl holding on to his flip-flops crying her eyes out I mean imagine what it's like for 16 she was 16 17 in there she was young and you know so we get her out of there I'm saying you know I feel bad I'm going after this poor girl's go to the home and then they go where you're going what you know I signed the papers you're gonna make arrangements to get the body out of here we don't do that you got to buy a casket and then you you know you don't think about these things I'm a bodybuilding promoter so here it was Sunday morning it's now by 7:00 a.m. they helped me out whether they understood the situation how to buy a casket how to read the hearse how to put get space on the plane cargo just ship him back on the same flight as hard to Lyon but now I had to have our hearse pick him up there I had to have and set up for the body to be kept before they buried him and I had to call a family you know you leave that it's like what am i involved in this for what am i doing what year is this 1992 what are the body builders were there in the room when they candidate cried Holmes or any major names are know who was on that tour ninety-two Steve bris blah was his training partner there and he then Brisbane opened up to me and said you know I had big problems Thursday night but we kept it quiet sunny schmidt was on that tour how cute girly on that tour Terry pastel was on that tour just off the top of my head so you know we get rid of all of that I come home it was the last show with a tour and I said to Ben wieder I said you know we got to do diuretic test and we got to get back into testing you know this is not my job to go to hospitals with people well you know this and that they didn't really want to get into testing we get to the owner classic the next big show in 1993 and at the competitors meeting I said look we all know what happened to Momo I all we all know that you guys are gonna push the envelope but if somebody pushes it tell me I mean don't look at me as daddy that I'm gonna yell at you we want to save lives we can't have this again everybody yeses me yeses me yes a little contest dissonant and contest is over and I go to the banquet at the Arnold that they had back then they used to hold it in the basement of vets auditorium and it was very loud and everything and my son by now was eight nine months old something like that and there's a mellow kid but you know it was too noisy let's go back you know in Columbus at the Doubletree you come in on the ground floor you go up six levels because they're all parking levels and then there's the lobby and then there's another Bank elevator so we just come off welcome to off the elevator is Juliette in dreamland felt and Julie echoes you'd better go to my keys room like matarazzo I said why it looks like the same thing as Momo I look at art art looks at me saying oh my goodness no no don't say that I said Tracey you know can you take care of it she goes don't worry I'll go to the room do what you got to do so we go up there knock on the door it's Mikey's mother I knew my mom and dad when I'm so glad you're here you listen now every room was a suite so you come into the living room and he goes mom okay mama I sit on the bed and I put my hand on his thigh and it was cement and so go Mikey you're okay you're okay you think it okay come on Mikey get out of bed knock me off the bed huh I said make a multi mineral solution and I said call an ambulance no I'm not going to the hospital mighty you went too far we got a savior so paramedics come and they do the same thing high pulse blood pressure they go to normal yeah well we went through this six months ago we did in October here it is March 5 months ago Mike he goes no I don't want to go to the hospital the guy goes the paramedics go we can't take him in he's over 21 I said look a guy died and with dealing with seconds here take him in this is his mother wants him to go this is his girlfriend wants him to go he was dating at the time sandy Rydell who was a female body go we can't legally do it and I look at art and I go take the keys and the guy goes why now our bed way with big burly guy pins the guy against the wall he rips the keys off I said either you work with us or get out of the way we're commandeering the ambulance and he goes I'll do this I'll do it it's good they were afraid because or it was big and I was gonna get violent I wasn't gonna let Mikey die we take him down we get him to the hospital in there I put his mom and his girlfriend in the ambulance me and ran the four blocks to the hospital once we got there we got there at they're pulling in and they're taking him out I said we got he needs doctor right away we're dealing goodbye now he couldn't raise his arms you just lived through this we get into the emergency room and I go I start yelling I need doctors I need doctors now right now right now I need dr. bull security comes luckily he was Columbus and they were all retired guys and they weren't armed and they say all right and art goes you're coming aerosol at you you know and five doctors come I said you got her over dose of diuretics he's doing this I said we need IVs put in them we need slow drip moulting no solution we need slow drip of things just muscle relaxers to relax them dis Annette so they put IVs in his legs in his hands and in arms okay slow drip everything they got his pulse going it starts going down 60 59 58 we're watching it with the gun we're gonna lose him and it gets down to about 28 it's in the 20s and then it started coming back he was out his eyes are closed started coming back and then it got to 60 again and we just looked at all each other me and five doctors and we just take a sigh of relief and I sit down and they go to me Wow good thing you knew what to do doctor where do you practice I go I'm not a doctor I'm a bodybuilding promoter and we just went through this and I said we're not out of the woods yet I said when he comes to we got to find out how much growth hormone he spent on because if he doesn't have food the growth hormones are these in stores eating muscle and your heart is a muscle and you could still go with the cardiac arrest so one doctor said God got wise with me goes oh you're not a doctor with it what do you know then I said know what take a blood test check his metabolic rate go ahead check his metabolic rate so they take a sample of blood and then the guy sheepishly comes back about five minutes later can't measure it it's off the chart I said by now Mikey woke up and I said we saved you from one thing Mikey tell me how much GH you talk you could whisper it in my ear if you want I for at least 8 or 10 I use but they won't need see they don't need so it burns all the fat and so I said get all the candy bars and cupcakes from the nurse's station get that Mike ended up staying in the hospital another four or five days before he could go home before he normalized we had incidents would flex twice on a tour with diuretics and one time when it happened happened in Spain we took him to the hospital they gave him some saline solution and everything normalized them they were going to send him home I said I don't feel secure he's putting them on a plane from Madrid to lay 1012 hours what if something happens over the ocean no he'll stay with us so we go to Germany and we're giving him fluids and then he starts passing out I was there with Kevin Love Roni and he starts passing out we get him back to the hotel and I call an ambulance again said flex we got taken and of course you don't want to go but we he's got to go we take him in there I get the guys to the theater you know we're gonna start judging but you know we'll put it back a half an hour everybody's worried he was in bad shape and I go back and the doctor said to me what is this man doing chemically I know bodybuilders take drugs but he's goes his left kidney is basically shut down his right kidney is weak I said flex you gotta give me your bag of goodies we got to know what you're on so we can do all this so we found out Justin that he was in the hospital close to a week you know I remember how to called Madeline came over Mary - Madeline time he had another incident at a time on the tour you know we lost ondrea's Muenster combination of things right after the san francisco grand prix one another time at the owner class that you can find this on youtube all delet overdid diuretics goes into the rear double bicep any lock thread then we took him off like a board but by that time we had portable IV units back stage along with doctors to start the IV before the ambulance got there I mean that's how bad it was there was one Olympia where we had portable IV units I had four guys on IVs between rounds 1 & 2 so I said to the weeders look we got a diuretic testes we got to protect them from themselves these guys like any athlete is going to do anything they can to win we all got to do whatever our profession is we want to win we're gonna take that edge ok so he gives in so we're gonna diuretic test and we get to that meeting in New York and 98 and that's when she woke up and said you know what about these plasma expanders I don't even know what plasma expanders whirring and it's all coming out and yeah I mean did I call Chad and probably threaten him score what are you doing though I mean we're all in this together we're all like a family when we were on a tour if anybody said anything to anybody foreigner we'd all go after that person you know they may fight like brothers but anybody go after your brother you know the whole family goes there that's the way it was yeah we all want the guys yeah I wanted all the guys to look as good as they can but healthy and now you're doing something you know I think I threatened or I'm gonna test all your guys for plasma threat there was no test for that I was just shooting my mouth doctor I was so upset and it's like what are we doing you know bodybuilding supposed to be you know the ultimate male the extreme you know the look like this you know we all we look at the pictures when with teenage boys or I want to be built like this all the girls are going to love me in this a net a lot of times these guys are the most unhealthy on stage they and and their life is in the balance and it shouldn't be that it wasn't like that before even though they did things I wrestled in college and when you how to make weight you know they would tell you saw that then yeah stop drinking water for a day and a half or something some stupid thing like that okay yeah and the water would come out and you'd make weight and then you drink water and you're heavier what do they do with boxing or what do you think that the way in the day before you could put on 10 pounds 20 pounds of you know how to do whatever you're doing back in the old days what did they eat I mean when I started running Night of Champions and all those shows when the guys would come to New York they'd stay at my house this is before I had children they dive their tuner and water and they cut down their water and they just haven't protein and they're cutting back in this and they looked good you're gonna tell me that the guys today look better than Robbie Robinson and Danny padilha in the 78 79 Night of Champions or Albert Beckles and Chris Dickerson in the early 80s most people would prefer those physiques because the smaller waist and everything and they were healthy let me ask you this what's your point with starting with these stories because oh you know you're saying Shawn yeah I mean I said let's not live in the past and listen let's talk about what's going on today and you went right into it you sounded like a politician like from yesterday's the baby when you started with that but what does your point with starting with these stories what what is your outcome because it's a drug test okay so your outcome is they should addition drug this so are you going back to the time where you drug tested Sean Ray and he came out positive and he didn't dianna class is that kind of where you're going with this well what we do in IFBB physique America when Rafael's and toka called me up after Jimmy split and the IFBB the parent IFBB had no American affiliate when he asked me to come back I said the only way I'm coming back there has to be drug testing and he said we drug testing the water I said well every one of my contests will go under a random water drug test and will drug test could be a number of athletes according to how many is in there so nobody knows if they're gonna be tested so if there's you know say 24 athletes in the contest because we're building we're small well test to male to female baseball what are they tests you've got 26 guys on the team and they test one or two guys out of the 26 that's all they test you know of course there's 162 games and we have maybe 20 contests but at least we're drug testing and people know we're drug testing and if you get caught according to the IFBB rules just suspended for four years who chooses who gets drug tested it's done by random how do you do that what's the approach we may take an independent person and put all the numbers down and say these are gonna be the male numbers these are gonna be the female numbers pick two of each is it done privately or publicly in front of the athletes oh okay you do this in front of yes oh that's very firm okay so that's not it's not like because you know sometimes politically because you picked on young I want to pick on this guy okay I get it so that's first to do that it's when you do that way that's very fair yeah okay and and you know we send it to a lab or what a lab or they do the water test or whatever the heck the thing is I mean there's a lot of things on our honor tests that we don't need to do we haven't had any problems of diuretic overdose anybody cramping on stage that they had to come off we also had these guys we never you know oxygen thing for them on the side when they needed oxygen so you didn't like that era it doesn't sound like you're supportive of that era because as the years went by the drugs got more and I kept saying you gotta remember my relationship with the weeders and this is another thing Shawn didn't understand I know he made the comment because people call me and said Wieters will pay a new money I said no I was paying them I was what would what if after I was appointed to the position then eventually I started a company IFBB Pro division Inc my company I pay taxes wasn't a federation the IFBB recognized me to run pro bodybuilding it was my company so yeah if I acted like a dictator at times like she once said yes I did because it was my company and you cannot do what you want you're an independent contractor you can join my company of your own free will or you could join any other probe bodybuilding organization out there it was your choice because I was given away more prize money than anybody else I was taking care of the athletes better than everybody else by flying them in and taking care of their hotels food allowance but you had to adhere to the rules you had to do press conferences like anything boxing okay we just saw a championship fight those guys had to do press conferences they had to do all sorts of publicity because the promoters are putting up the money and you are the stores and you got to help generate the money nobody cares about Bob Arum always paying money to see Bob Arum no one else yeah but they're paying to see the boxers and you got to create that hike where you watching them and they're bad-mouthing each other and they get you excited that I Mouse put down that what do I need on sounder bucks yeah would you consider yourself a promoter would you say you're promoting a nation you're promoting okay so but by the way you sound like you you had a you know you know you sound like some of my other guests that I'm happier like mob affiliation did you have any mob connections back in the days or no because to be able to do that you gotta have a strong personality to handle other little things like Dana White give you an example they know why it's a promoter Dana's not scared of a lot of people because Dana Gant Dana's coming from the streets where he's a tough guy to handle the guys that are UFC guys you got to be a tough guy to be a Don King you can't be scared of people I know people that we're people what I'm saying to you is you kind of come across as that kind of a DNA how did you become who you are who you were when you start a promoter like who was Wayne before he became the guy that's you know fitness I've always been when I play baseball team softball teams I was always the captain a coach that is sit at the player coach we all push some buttons or no I was always in in a leadership position I'm a typical Leo born in August okay God um well you have everyone connected to them up or no no but they used to come to the shows Oh shows us guess almost every show any big names or know who I on say okay anybody that's been a guest on my show no he didn't okay got it no but his his father's son yes yeah he was big into bodybuilding a lot of them yeah and a lot of my friends of mine just passed away by the way who jr. no no oh no no I'm not talking about that guy that was 103 oh you're not about him no no God he junior oh okay I got it okay but a lot of the guys you know in Brooklyn back then in the late 70s early it was to it yeah they were into training they'd come to the shows in this and act I don't have no problem yeah would you consider yourself a tough guy or no no I reason above guy but I have to be tough I have to be tough one I have to be tough no I get again going back to it I said you know what you get my face I'll be right back in yours so what I'm saying is how did you become that who would you or who who pushed you around where you had to be tough like how did you become the way you are I always was you grew up in the streets of New York are you a reward reward you grow up huh I grew up in New York you grew up in New York yeah and in high school you were the leader in high school were you the guy that sports the cool guy the ladies guy who were you I went to an all-boys school I went to Brooklyn Tech for smart guy stuff to be a ladies guy yeah a lady's guy okay so what do you do after high school the high school I went to college what are you trying to be at this point or each I was got a degree in engineering okay and then I got a job at a college with AT&T but I had taken an elective in college in political science in constitutional law and it fascinated me so I decided to go back to college because AT&T would pay for it and I was saying ah maybe I'll become a lawyer I went to take political science and I took communications but communications meaning debating Asian volumen tation to be an attorney or a politician I got those degrees but I went to a bodybuilding show what here 1973 I wanted to go there was two shows held it was bodybuilding world they always do stupid things dan Laurie used to be part of the IFBB he even said that he started the IFBB as son has incorporation papers that he started the IFBB in 1948 he incorporated and we just as he started in 1946 who knows they were at odds so Dan had the WB B G the weeders had the IFBB they put the shows on the same day to try and kill each other dan goes and gets as a special guest Steve Reeves now I had seen Steve Reeves when I was 10 11 years old and those Hercules movies I want to go buy a ticket to see it but now I'm working I had money I could buy a ticket because when I was young as a teenager mr. America AAU mr. America was always held in New York Pennsylvania was 13 14 my mother said where you going you're not going to York Pennsylvania on a bus by yourself at 13 you know I never went I got out of body believed for a while I was into boxing I box for sure so were you bodybuilding I trained I never competed okay got it you know when I found out about the drugs I wouldn't take drugs why not harmed your body it was it was defeating the purpose after that contest in 73 we're on a won the Olympia because I couldn't see Steve Reeves so I went to the IFBB show I said I'll see this fella Ahnold because I was reading the magpie it was at the bodybuilding 66-67 when I want to first came on the scene in the Navi universe but then I got into boxing and I stopped bodybuilding I was just total boxing and then I got back into it late 72 again a friend of mine at a magazine I said oh I remember this guy on or with the funny last name he's the greatest bodybuilder in the world he's mr. Olympia Tyson and I look at the thing was late 72 said the contest was gonna be 73 I looked at the other thing there's Steve Reed but I couldn't go to series so I bought a ticket to Brooklyn Academy to see Arnold and honor wins that night and they give him the check and he takes the microphone from the podium and back then everything had a wire there went wild and he's pacing on the stage looking at the check I'm saying is this guy doing you know and then he just stops any goals I train or yeah I train all year last year they give me a thousand dollars just here 7:15 he throws the mic on the floor and walks off I go wow what a wild sport this is entertaining why isn't this place sold out so I joined the gym mid-city gym that promoted the show and I meet the guy that was the promoter Tom minutes hello and he was the IFBB vice president at a time and so I joined a gym and I said oh Tom you know I went to the contest Saturday Wow Arnold was a character yeah that's on will being on I said well why didn't you have any big sponsors and he goes to me well when big companies are ready to sponsor bodybuilding they'll come to me because I run the Olympia at a big show and I go with Tom nobody comes to give you money you got to go out and get it no no you're too aggressive you're young you'll learn stay back you wait and people come to you and I walked out of that room thinking if this is the guy that's in charge of the Olympia and the vice-president and this is his way of thinking I think I could take over the sport I mean that was the thought in my head in that moment in that moment huh so I became friends with Tom and I said you know anything you need because I was to living home with my parents in Richmond Hill Queens not by JFK Airport you know so he goes no why you could be my gopher anybody comes in instead of me having to pay for a taxi you could go pick him up and bring him in I said okay so that's what I would do so I got to know everybody the only guy that didn't come in that I had to pick up was Arnold Arnold the man that a limo or whatever I got to meet Arnold later on in 73 he came back to New York to do something he's trained it came in at lunch time and he was in the locker next to me said hey I go hi I saw you in the thing oh yes fun we just told what's your name my name is Wayne and we shook hands and this and that and we trained a little bit together dissing at just two guys you know I wasn't a groupie you know and I think he enjoyed that you know cuz other guys well just another guy and you know we struck that up in 74 I help Tommy rain in Eastern America in the spring and the mr. America the mr. Olympia in and I helped him with everything this and that for free I bought my tickets but I did a lot of work and I was going to go around I'd go around a contest no matter what the Federation was buy tickets and then offer my help backstage just to see what they were doing wrong not what they were doing right because they would I'm thinking like why aren't these shows run better what's wrong here in January is 75 Tom goes to me I'm gonna make you the Metropolitan director of the eye of the AABA which was the American affiliate to the IFBB because they hadn't affiliated with the AAU NPC yet you can run the eastern America contest this year Wow Tom thanks I go into the gym all the guys that I'd see it train at lunchtime it said guys guys Tom's gonna let me run the eastern America this year what's so funny goes if you don't run that show then we got a show in the spring and then the show in the fall will go to the AAU and he'll have no no amateurs for the fall show so now you're gonna lose the money instead of him and he's still gonna get us in the fall I said I'm not gonna lose money I think what do you mean I'm they said I'm gonna get a sponsor to cover my expenses they looked at me what's a sponsor I said it's a company that gives you money in exchange for exposure you're looking at me now I'm 25 years old I said I'm gonna figure out my expensive so one of the guys that trained there was an assistant principal of a school around the corner and he just come to me cause when you want to use law school it's not that big but he says you know there was only like 30 people in the audience at the Eastern America last year so we've got 200 seats it's plenty big enough I said okay let me go see it we do it he says I'll get it to you for free well you got to do is throw 50 bucks to the custodian to come in on a Saturday I said okay make sure the lighting was good because I understood lighting a little bit or no yeah and so I figured out my budget trophies printing whatever you know put posters up and my budget was $600 so a friend of mine worked at JFK part-time in a hotel reservation company with a husband and wife reservation so if you came off a plane and you didn't know where to stay that night you go to them they'd book in a hotel and they get the Commission and I said to them look you give me $600 everybody that comes in from the show will book a hotel room through you with an amateur show to add a book but then they'll know about your company because of all the publicity anything beyond that is gravy so we're gonna break even here because you'll make enough money and then it's necklace like all the guys coming in from California you know the wieder pub no photographers eNOS and I may have you yet met the wheelers or not yet yeah I had met the weeders I met I met them in at the show in 74 I just said hello to them but not a real sit-down conversation nothing yet they don't really know who you are and what your ask notions are okay no I got my thing covered I had met Jean Mohs a Jim Jose at the time was the editor of muscle building for the genus passed away - and I said to him I'm gonna run the eastern America I called him up at the wieder building and I said can you give me an end he said well I could give you a half a column and I'll run it for two months okay so I had an ad in muscle builder for the contest I didn't I know the concept yet it going around to other gyms and everything but I knew mid-city gym had to have about 500 members so I got on every one of them you get your tickets yet for the Eastern America you get your ticket guy who's like wait here here's my $5 give me the stupid ticket leave me alone let me train then I would go all hours of the day because I was at lunchtime but guys that trained at night with different guys on him he was only open on Saturday wasn't open on Sundays and stuff I sold the 200 tickets in advance reserved in the front with chairs where the norm was 650 folding chairs behind them were $5 and then you know standing room was $5 so I made over $1,000 I remember how we working for AT&T making about a hundred and forty dollars a week and Here I am making twelve hundred fifteen hundred dollars I was I knew I was gonna make money so I even bought a TV set for the winner you know I figured I don't know what to do you know making all this money I'll buy something besides all the trophies so I go in Monday morning everybody's telling me how great I am Saturday night you know there's a fun time seeing all the guys from the gym and you know seeing the guys all these guys come in businessmen of suits now they're coming in you know the way they hang out on a weekend and okay so I go in on Monday morning or train at lunchtime Tom goes get in my office I said what's up Tom you have a good time ever the worst contest to have a sword this was Betty he reams me out I leave there and I'm in my mind I'm in a daze I'm saying oh it's like going to gym and it was Pat me on the back and isn't it I said why is Tom yelling at me saying it was the worst contest ever and the guy that was the principal you know who just came in to Train and that educated guy goes well you know you understand what happened I said no because he's jealous you did what he can't do he's lost money in that show and you've made you know you're an ayat you said you made you know over $1,000 close to 1,500 and he's jealous and he knows you're better and he you know like you know more I said but I'm running it unto him and learning it for his Federation and they go welcome to the business world a real business world a cutthroat business world when you're very successful some people don't like you they're jealous of you and this Annette okay by the time we got to the fall show you know he didn't want me involved with it that much and this Annette but what he did was he had pictures up on the wall that my girlfriend at the time took she eventually became my first wife and he used some of these pictures on the poster I know what laws are so I said to him I'm still training at the gym because I paid every month he wanted my money I said you know Tom you're using Karen's pictures well they're on my wall they're mine now their hardest stamped you could put them on the wall but you're using for advertising purposes now you got to remember back then prejudging wasn't open to the public I don't know why there was another thing I'm saying you're throwing money away but that's the way they thought back then and I said and only select people could be it judging along with the judges yeah so I said you know can me and Karen come and take pictures in this Annette well I'll think about it now he had a partner we're gonna go to the thing and I had met Joe Weider by the fall of 75 what happened in the summer 75 I have been write letters to Joe Weider I didn't really know if there was a difference between Joe and Ben you know he's got oh you don't know yet yeah I just decide I'm just gonna go so I get an airline ticket I get on a plane I rent the car I look on the map Woodland Hills I go to urban street to 1:100 urban street so I just go one way or the other till I meet that number Wow here's the Wiener building I was impressed this beautiful big building this is body building Wow so I walk in and they had these big paintings on each wall but oh 10 12 foot Larry Scott on old Franco all the guys these big paintings that you walk in and I go I'd like to see Joe is yet this point making money Joe Joe of course yeah what kind of money is he making at this point is it real money or not yet oh it's real money it's real money yeah okay well you know the story about Arnold how he talks about in the book Total Recall he says the first time I went out there to visit Joe it was a little shack it wasn't like a big headquarters there so this is and this is at the point is the major building threw out a major 1975 or 76 75 75 Woodland Hills or Woodland Hills yep I said well talk to gene mosey he knows me tell him Wayne from New York was here so gene comes down hey Wayne you know this I said I want to see Joe I wanted I got these ideas he goes okay come on up so he introduces me to analyse Joe secretary she goes you got no appointment I said no I came from New York I want to see Joe well sit here was like 10 o'clock in the morning i sat there till 6 o'clock every time she'd look out you're still here I said I'm still here so finally she goes he'll see you what are you doing here what are you can I go phew I said Joe I said I ran in the eastern America contest last year Tom got all upset and this Annette I said I want to run pro shows what you got is mr. Olympia and you know those are the stars and without the stars it's boring I said so I think by Ballu should be like golf and tennis where there's Grand Prix things and you get points for the shows and this and I've had all these ideas they looks at me and goes I'll never work but it's not me you got to talk you gotta talk to my brother your brother man he's the head of the IFB can I just run the magazine's I don't do nothing yes was he telling the truth well he did run the magazine's but he was Ben's big brother he would always tell Ben what to do so he is just pawning you to Ben right now but the final decision is gonna be still well it's good to be part of the IFBB it's gonna be Ben but you know they would always play good-cop bad-cop got it you know so I'm saying I came out here for not honest in it of course four months later I see Joe's editorial we've got to take pro bodybuilding and make it this dissonance right all right so I start writing you know you got to remember this is before email and before any of a fax machines you had to write letters I write letters to Bend wieder I'd like to come up and see you and this and that I get know where other people that I was helping will body build I said write a letter to this guy now we get to the 75 show in New York mr. Olympia was being held in South Africa pumping iron Pretoria I'm there and the night before everybody's in town because I'm still picking up the guy cuz now the guys don't even go to Tom they could just call me up Wayne can you pick me up my flights coming in at this time so I bring them in and I see Joe with Tom's gym and he goes off come get me I don't want to take a cab Joe with a little cheap pick me up and take me because it was being held at the old felt for important Madison Square Garden I said okay so I pick up Joe now I had said to Tom you know we may be getting prejudging right well I gotta talk to my partner Pete yeah I don't think there's a problem okay so we get to the felt forum now they had New York City cops there my dad former president at a PBA Patrolmen's Benevolent Association in New York at that time in 75 he was the vice president he was known so we get there and I said you know to go into the back door and we come with Joe and and they go what's your name I said miss Karen Clark this is Joe Weider I'm Windham Ilya says he goes well Joe Weider is on here I don't see Karen Clark hey so Joe goes while she's with me taking pictures for me so the guy goes okay so the guy goes to me you know Sam DeMille yeah that's it that's my dad I said he's your vice president at rppa so we are talking in this Annette and the next thing Joe comes what the heck is going on and they're they're throwing Karen out so we mean that thrown Karen out camera comes out she goes Tom's partner Pete doesn't want me in there I said but he's using your pictures totally your pictures on the poster you didn't pay you a dime that's technically against the law I go to joke you go in there and you tell Tom if he don't let us into the judging I'm gonna sue him Tom comes out all shaky you want to sue me you're gonna sue me clean out your locker get out of mid-city Jim you're out of here and this and I said fine I leave Joe's going why you're going where you're going I said I don't need this you're coming back tonight right no I'm not you think I'm gonna give him any more money and buy a ticket I'll buy it for you anything be more of two tickets and he's cheap cheap anybody yeah I wasn't way in the back in the cheap seats but he took Karen up front to take pictures for me because he liked her pictures I went back to my locker Mitch City Gym I took the thing they go Wayne what you doing here I was on him out of here I told him the guys in the gym you're quitting I said yep I'm gonna deal with this no more you know I said he can't handle it as it Tom's a nice guy he's laid-back you can't be nice as a promoter you gotta push push push push every day that's how my brain goes and I said you know I want to do bigger things yeah I was in the back and you know I went out with Joey during the guys that night not Tom Tom wasn't with them I'm with all the guys and everything and I continued to write I said you got to talk to your brother where's your brother Ben was there and then Ben took off you know Ben didn't hang out with the bodybuilders Joe did and I said you got to talk to you about you I'll keep on him keep on him so I write and write and write and finally a call and I get a secretary Pamela Kagan on the line and I said hi I've been writing she goes you're the guy from New York with all these letters and get all these people writing I said yes I want to come up there and speak to him got these ideas and Joe said I should speak to me they go okay the world champions now whole year went by we're talking now to fall of 76 and I'm still going around an amateur shows learning World Championships in Congress was gonna be held in Montreal he said she said to me I'll put you down for a time with president leader I was like seeing the Pope I remember the time I had a Thursday afternoon 210 to 220 so I checked into the hotel you're gonna be in and I get there early and there's all these people lined up I'm thinking like wow how do you do it like a doctor door pick a number what do you so I see this lady there and she has a pad and everything I said are you miss Kagan she goes yeah she goes uh you're the guy from New York Wayne I could tell by the way you speak I said yeah she goes to ten you're behind this guy right in this Annette okay so my time comes I go into this room Ben had this big opulent suite and you go in and there's a chair there just like a little folding chair and there was three steps up and Ben was in this big armchair like the king I thought I felt like I was seeing the Pope and she goes mr. wieder this is Wayne d'emilia from New York who's been writing us for the past year so he looks a mini goes well okay you got your time what do you want to do I said I want to run Pro shows I'm gonna do this I'm gonna do that pop-up op op-op he looks at me do you compete no sir do you own a gym no sir I work for AT&T do you even work out I said Mr wieder you're skinnier than me and you're a president to this thing if I was in the gym competing all day taking drugs how could I be a promoter and he left and he goes typical Ben Ben was a politician I learned a lot from bang we fight all the time as years went on we fight constantly one of the reasons why I left I just had enough but I learned a lot from him I give him a lot of credit on a lot of things he goes well you know Joe got the idea for a pro committee and only those people on the pro committee could run contests and we're going to start the Pro Committee tonight so if the chairman of the Pro Committee wants to put you on it you could be on it I said okay who's the chairman greatest champion on a Schwarzenegger I said okay okay I said well I met Arnold in the gym three years ago and I said I'm good friends with George Butler and I'm an independent unpaid consultant on pumping iron and whenever they have screenings in New York I go to it and half the time Arnold's there and we're goofing around so you're Arnold getting along at this oh yeah it's a relationship yeah okay so he goes well if he wants to put you on a committee it's fine with me I said well thank you shake his hand leave say goodbye to mrs. Kay again there's an act no lie I go to the elevator I push the button the elevator door opens up there's one person in there Arnold I think to myself in that one split second this is meant to be I go on oh you starting a pro committee tonight I want to be on it then okay come to my room seven o'clock is my room number okay so I go there the original committee Jim Lauren was there I had met Jim Norman at a contest the year before they were supposed to be another aaba contest in 1975 and the promoter had four guest posers he's gonna have Arnold Franco Louie and Chuck Cipes 1975 all big names but he forgot to do one thing sell tickets and get amateur athletes in the show the only athletes were the guys that came with me from mid-city gym and he sold two rows of tickets but he double sold the first row and the guys were fighting and arnold goes i have a friend here in columbus that could help out and he calls jim Norman that's how I met Jim Warren got 1975 Jim always hit it off saying can you believe this guy so the whole plate there's 4,000 seats in here and he sells the first row twice that's the only people he had so Jim Lorimer was on that committee and it was John Balak was on that committee from Ironman and this Annette but I'm looking at the guys I'm saying I already got a tentative date on a venue in New York for the spring of 78 I figured I'm gonna do a spring show again going back a little bit that Monday after the first show I ran in 75 when Tom Murray me out I saw you know all the guys in the gym talkin so I see another guy dare that I'd see every day and I go on what'd you think contest because I didn't I couldn't make it Mike I got a flat and I never got there I said really he goes yeah I said you got your tickets he goes yeah he's a dwarf reserve I said here's $13 give me the tickets that gave him a refund it goes I see you here every day he said who did your ad I said I did you know copy thing said it's terrible it sucks I said really it's just like the ads in a magazine he says well the ads in the muscle magazine don't know what to do he gives me his card he says after we trained today come on up to my office I'm the vice president of on-air design for NBC so I go up there and we talked and I said I tell you what let's be partners I got all these ideas staging and everything but I can't do all this hard work I'm not an artist you do the ads I come up with crazy ideas for staging because look at the stages black curtain and a thing no it's gotta be staging we got to do this we got to do that and you do that and I take care of the money I sell the tickets isn't it we split 50-50 it goes fine we shake you know about a contract I said to him I'm gonna go up there and get the rights it laugh at me okay whatever Charlie with a little older than me Charlie stole a life and he'd go okay you know go ahead do your thing so I come back to the room after saying I'm gonna see Arnold that night I say yeah I'm gonna be on the committee only people on the committee can run it I'll let you know who's on the committee after I go there tonight and I looked around I'm saying maybe Arnold and Jim Lorimar gonna do it because they're gonna run the Olympia here they just ran the Olympia in 76 and they're running it again but nobody else in that room is gonna run a show and I got the date set so when I got back and everything wrote a letter to Ben wieder and I said how do I go about locking in my show I'm gonna do a show in the spring of 70 yeah I need 18 I figured I needed a year and a half I couldn't do it that quick from November to May I never run a big show that I wanted to do prize money in this net remember the prize money in the 1977 mr. Olympia was only 12 five or $15,000 total and I was going to give away ten and there wasn't many sponsors for big shows I figured I'm gonna sell every seat I will sell every seat I don't care about 1650 or a 5000 no no now I'm doing a pro show the judging was five dollars go now I'm going to first show that the judging was open to the public how many showed up oh I had over a thousand people at five bucks yeah okay so he made for this is a 1978 September in May of 78 and the finals I sold for 10 12 and 15 I was sold out before I went in and then you know you talked to the theater manager and they'll do standing room half and half because it's all cash I did well we made money we made about mmm seven eight thousand profit on that first show which was a lot back then you know thirty five hundred four thousand dollars a piece me and Joe are you still working at AT&T or network oh yeah oh you're still working at okay we're full-time job yeah how long were you at AT&T until 1985 okay so you did all this stuff while you're still working full-time yeah yeah I know you are you married still or no you're not married married in 77 so what time is show in 78 I was married to Karen at the time and wanting the show and working for AT&T I just bought a house this Annette and then the guys will come stay in my house I bought a big house for the bodybuilders to stay in my house now the interesting story about that 78 show I go around earlier in 77 late in 77 Dan Laurie ran a contest and he advertises on old versus Sergio everybody wanted to see that again and they were saying he put down invited to compete but it was in very small print everybody sort of pictures arnold and sergio everybody bought tickets sergio showed up I wasn't going to show up because he was under the IFBB and they said you're not allowed to go into a non-sanctioned event sound familiar you know so he didn't show all the gyms that sold tickets for Dan Lori all the fans were yelling at the gym owner and everything you know I want my money back I went to biodiverse sérgio he wasn't there so here I come in January 78 and I got a poster to the biggest star in the sport at that time it was Robby Bobby came on the scene the Black Prince the afro the vest all shredded up you know that's coming out dissonant to any padilha boy echo had joined the IFBB two years before from being in other things I got them all on this poster beautiful poster with overlays and mezzo tinsel Charlie did it of course it was better you know when we did an ad like the first poster Joe vehicles who did to say call me up oh that's ad it's better than any ad in here you're making me look bad I said my partner Charlie I wanna talk to him I want to hire him later on that year when we had the universe in 78 in Acapulco he goes to Charlie you know I want to hire you Charlie goes well you gotta pay me more than NBC you know well what are they paying you this in 1978 Charlie was a vice president because I'm getting paid 80 grand plus all the things they jungle rot Joe was freaking out by anybody like that you know Charlie was Charlie would run the affiliates Joe a millionaire yeah at that time yeah but Joe is cheap okay yeah so I go to the gym in Bath Beach gym in Bensonhurst Brooklyn in 1978 everybody was John Travolta in the gym the black slicked back hair the white t-shirt with their pack of cigarettes under the arm just right out of the movie I come in I'm going to go to that gym because that's the big hot gym and I go in there and I go hi you're the owner goes yeah who are you I said hi my name is Wayne and I'm gonna be running a showing man I'd like you to put up my poster and sell tickets for me he looks at the thing that's Robbie Robinson I said yeah it's friend of mine a heck of you I said well you know I'm just I'm a promoter I'm but I just sold tickets for Dan Laurie we all know Dan laureate look is his name is on every one of the plates in my gym you know because Dan Lori made barbells and he said he was gonna have a long and Sergio and Arnold don't show up and everybody wanted money back and now you come in here you're gonna be in Robbie Robinson and Danny put Diller and boy or Cole get out of here he goes to me I said no they're gonna come and this guy comes here and this guy comes here camera goes I think it's gonna be a hit I go I'll tell you what I tell you what I look at him like this I take out my wallet I said here it's my driver's license it's got my address on it goes yeah I said see just phone number on here Ticketmaster didn't exist yet this how far back we're going ticket no no Ticketmaster you the last three weeks at the box office or else by mail order and if you wanted information that was the phone number in my car okay and that's that's my home phone number give me that calendar he looked at me I said give me a talent off the wall now he's backing up a look like I'm getting aggressive may 6th Saturday May 6 the contest Monday here the first we go back this day in April this day in April 8 p.m. Robbie Robinson I'm gonna bring Robbie Robinson to your gym three weeks approximately three weeks before the show but when I do then you're gonna put my posters up and you're gonna sell me tickets copy down Maya and if I don't do it or your Guido friends here they couldn't come and take me out copy it down they go you're a cocky guy you know that I said copy it down so they copied down my address and everything I call them Karen goes you sure I said come on just what did we do in the summer we spent two weeks at Robbie's house so I call up Robbie is it Robbie you know nobody want to sell these tickets and you know I got you Center on the thing could you come to my house like a month before he had no problem I said good I saw set up your airline ticket I'll fly in his wife at the time he Lane I said I'll fly in Elaine - so you and Elaine long you want Elaine here you know I always got to double check that with bodybuilders no no yeah I mean Elena cominis and so he comes a week before us and I know I got so I said so I set up like five gyms to do that we're going on that Monday night eight o'clock I said let's leave I'm in Westbury Long Island we gotta take the Belt Parkway all the way down and they're good hour plus let's leave early so we go we can't park within six blocks at a gym okay now I had been called I called Johnny Barbera the owner I said remember I'm coming Monday night I called him the Thursday before he goes you better he said I got signs up you better or we're coming out there I said no problem you know so we park a couple of blocks away and we walk in me and Robby up walking together talking our wives are behind us talking this and that and we're walking get to the street where the gym is the gym is three-quarters away down the street and it's like a banner or so and there's like 30 40 guys outside any oh man we're all them people you know Robby with that Devo well any people yet I said that's the gym they're there for you not to my aunt man you all crazy people from Brooklyn man will you create it right a lien people hold on to you you're gonna have make sure I get saved you just do what I tell you to do we're gonna sell tickets and they're gonna love you I said because you came to them they're gonna love you says we're getting close to somebody goes there he is now you know when a bunch of guys talking to you that low Rumble silence I was like Moses and Robbie was my scepter I'm not parting the Red Sea they just opened up and they're staring and we go into the gym it was a storefront and the gym was in the basement and everybody goes from stand along the thing and we walk in and his johnny is father his brothers his uncles I go Johnny Bob arrow Robbie Robinson and they're there with their motto the father takes a hefty trash bag takes everything off the shelf for you Robbie you came to my gym could we take a picture you know and in this Annette Robbie cuz ya sure dis Annette I said now remember that Karen's got tickets she's gonna count them out with you we got a bunch of tickets we're gonna go downstairs is everybody in down at Jimmy said it's so packed down there you cambrie I said we're gonna go down there and you're going to announce could they all had a little speaker system Robbie's gonna be competing in this show and we got tickets on sale that was the deal he goes you got it so we go downstairs and it was walk walk you couldn't even train look rather cousin man what do I do I said you're gonna stand on the bench you're gonna take off your shirt and you're gonna hit some shots you okay just as long as I get out of here alive and then I'm gonna take you home and feed you okay you know you feed a bodybuilder habit he's enjoying great shape you know and they're going crazy because back then no internet this was the pages in the magazine coming to life and you got to remember 1978 magazine was black and white here's Robbie in the flesh in color right in front of them on a bench posing and you're looking at him saying wow this is real look at this and I when he finished his pose and I said in two-and-a-half weeks on May 6th Robbie Robinson is going to be competing in New York at the Town Hall and Johnny's gonna have tickets get your tickets Robbie we're gonna be there for you we left them a hundred tickets for the finals and about 40 tickets for the judging on a Monday night Tuesday afternoon he called me and he said I need more tickets so we had five gyms like that and Robbie was the one that did the publicity for me the first year they were chanting his name in the theater yeah he was the best bodybuilding on stage but he was also the favorite and they were chanting away and this Annette I had Ricki Wayne who was the editor he was the emcee I said Ricky I want this showmanship he says okay I said I want you when it talks what color you want and he goes to me peach I said fine you know I looked around I found our peach tuxedo put him in Pete I said no podium I want you walking around like a stand up coming goes I love it cause Ricky was into that too we did all of that you know standing room only the aisles were filled with people everybody's dissing it now the original name of the contest was the American professional bodybuilding championships the theme was a Night of Champions because we were going like boxing the thriller in Manila every every boxing match had a theme two months after the contest the kid calls I get a phone call because I was the ticket number I want to buy tickets for Knight of the champions - I said no did name it a contest with the guy goes why aren't you there it's called Night of Champions and I'm thinking back and I say yeah it was you're right Night of Champions he had tickets to go on sale because by then I was saying I needed a bigger theater I was negotiating with the bigger Beacon Theater had three thousand seats instead of 1500 I remember call him Charlie that day Charlie Charlie there's the name of the contest gonna be called the night of champion what are you talking about it goes the kid named it then naming it like Rocky - Night of Champions - like this - Night of Champions - we're gonna put a woman numbers like the super balls it's a net okay it goes okay you know that's what you want yeah go ahead and that's how it became Night of Champions and we did things that show that we did for 26 years we did things unique it got so unique if we want to use that word the weeders wouldn't come no more you're running a circus in E - I decide no we're gonna do Carlos Rodriguez with a body builder who lived in Arizona but he was really from New Jersey and Carlos said not a champion it's gonna be my last show I'm gonna retire I said tell you what after you pose you know you could do it from the stage and then I go let me a call us you live in Tucson Arizona you got a horse yeah I'm gonna rent the horse you come out on a horse get off the horse I said we'll put a little thing at it you tie the horse up - for the stage for your pose and then you put your posing routine in front of your horse you go to this page you retire and then when you get on the horse we'll play that old cowboy song from that TV show of I don't know is Gene Autry or whatever happy trails and you'd ride off into the sunset and will dim the lights he goes okay the Sunday before the show I'm home on a Sunday afternoon I'm looking you know tickets are going I'm almost sold out already and when I got bad news I said what up Carlos I hurt my back I can't move I can't come I got horse that can't come he hangs up I'm depressed I'm walking around the house depressed I call up Charlie Charlie goes it was a dumb idea anyway what the heck is in your head I said nah I got to do something I said I had my I was set on the horse you know it's something that's never been done and we got to do things you got to be creative you got to be entertaining the bodybuilders all do the same things we gotta be creative well whatever that go ahead whatever you want to do I'm looking at the list of competitors hmm and one name catches me I wonder I call up the place I was gonna rent the horse right cuz I couldn't cancel it on Sunday they were closed I go guys the gutter was gonna ride the horse he hurt his back he can't do it now this was movie animal rentals they do it for films in New Jersey somewhere I said do you happen to have a camel neck oh yeah George I said that's the camels name yeah I said great can I rent the camel he goes yeah I said okay I went to camp is it you're gonna like the horse with $800 the camels only four not many people weren't camels I said fine he said the only thing you know the camel comes in a little bigger truck becoming a 45-foot tractor-trailer so you got to get the police the port and off all of that stuff back there on the back end the 76th and Amsterdam so they could get in the back door to Beacon Theatre I said no problem you know call my dad he called the precinct we got a pardon all I say I'm not gonna tell nobody nobody will believe me anyway I'm not even gonna tell him account Mohammad Macao he who's from Egypt daddy's gonna be on a camel till that night because I don't want him pulling out so I casually mentioned it that morning to someone and they go to Mohammad I'll have it I think Wayne said he's got a camel coming you're gonna come out on a camel tonight he goes where's he gonna get a camel from in Manhattan you can't get a camel so we do the judging and everything guys go disappear I have the camel come at 6:00 p.m. police are there Yeah right the cops are going you were really wearing a camel for a bodybuilding show I said yeah sure enough six o'clock here comes this tractor-trailer right and out comes no I said you got the camel and the guy goes yeah George is in there George's very mellow that's enough so they bring George out so here's six o'clock on a Saturday night in May on Amsterdam in 76 and out comes this camel and I go oh god you just sent me the wrong camel take what what do you mean it's got one huh does they need two humps and the guy rides in between the humps he goes first off do you know how rare are two hump camel is and I said I have no idea he goes secondly we got the hump basket he sits in the basket I said oh and then as he's standing there on the thing I said you know when I was a kid I see camels in the zoo he's kind of big oh yeah there's a big camel I said how are we going to get him in the door it's only eight foot high he said we'll tell George to get on his knees and he'll call in so George crawls in and we put them behind the back curtain you have the front curtain the stage you know the curtain goes up it says Night of Champions the platform whatever stage and behind the back hurt and there was about ten foot to the wall so we put George back there and he just sits down and he's chewing on his cotton y'all nice guy petting them a nice little animal it was big and they put the basket on him the guys start coming back one of the guys looks oh my god he's really got a camel so they go tell my McHale we Wayne's got a camel with backstage no he doesn't so the guys all come down it's about 6:30 and they're looking there's the camel I said come on you're from Egypt he goes what do you think we live in we drive cars on the street we don't drive camels yeah but for this you go to the door hello I said you know I said you're a great bodybuilder but you're always overlooked this will put you on the cover of every magazine in the world and this will set us apart from everything I said come on he said okay I said now you're getting a basket and the camel stand up and there's a net so macao he sits in a bad cow he's only five foot three he sits in the basket but he doesn't hold on and when George goes to stand up he puts one leg out this way my Hammond went out the back that way rolled on his head and goes I ain't doing it and he runs upstairs like a jilted lover goes in one of the dressing rooms six flights up closed the door and says I'm not coming out I gotta go up there come on the guys were laughing because I'm come on Mohammed please come out he's come on talk to me maja me come on give me another chance give give me and the thing another chance I'm begging I'm begging and one of my backstage guys goes goes you got another problem I said what's that the Union wants to kill you I can why the camel just relieve themselves I said whoa so I go down and I see them and they want to kill me I'll give you an extra overtime I don't I said let me go out the front so the people are starting to come in and the front curtains are closed and I see the judges I remember like I see Jim Mannion it now nobody knew I had a camel and Jim Mannie goes to me you know we got to do something about their diet I could smell their gas from out here of course it's the urine from the camels so they got they got to get buckets and mops in this Annette I said Mohammed get in the camel he says I can't run a camel I said to the guy that came with the camel I said you look like a camel guy here's a beard and usin a day I don't know I said you take the camel out you make them sit down Mohammed's got a hold on okay so we agree to do it Mohammed was I pick competitor number three that night so the curtain closes you know after competitor number two and the emcee goes tonight you're gonna see something that you've never seen on a bodybuilding show before and you may never see again the magic of Egypt Mohammed Macao and we play some kind of majestic music - Chariots of Fire but we played some other majestic music the curtain goes up and out of the corner over there all of a sudden the guy completing out and the people are cheering and then they see the camel this gigantic camel Mohammed on one side and doing a one-bite I got a picture in my phone too to show you one on bicep like this and there was silence for about two seconds and then they go nuts cheering and he takes the camel around the platform in the front and Mohammed's waving to the crowd the camels getting a standing ovation goes and the camel sits down well Hammett jumps out of the hump seat whatever you think you call it the guy goes to me what do I do I go kneel down majestically he nails down on one knee like this holding the camel's head to his and Mohammed gets on the platform and then they start that Chariots of Fire music you know very majestic he poses to team now he's supposed to name get back in the pump seat and ride around and go off he looks at me when he finishes posing Mohammad and he takes off the other way he get back on that thing again so the guy goes like this ankle the Campbell gets up camel gets a standing ovation okay Monday morning I get a phone call from Montreal Canada van wieder what are you doing you're running a circus go to Ringling Brothers go to that circus this is a bodybuilding show you don't have animals on stage I've had calls from all over the place I said these pictures are gonna be everywhere Ben we just did something no one's ever done don't you understand you know it's entertainment you know people went let's say they they can't believe what they saw they're glad they took pictures listen you're crazy you're crazy go run a circus go to the circus you're no pole no part of the IFBB go to this event wait to see everything sure enough it ended up on every magazine around the world and even though people down he goes to me yes you got publicity yes the crazy fans in New York liked it because I had a taped you know and I sent them the tape I said listen to the fans on you do you have that tape till today yeah I sent it to Wayne galosh and he's want to do a whole big thing I like DVDs of the history and Night of Champions with me doing a voice so interested in that oh he's doing but you know they never came to Night of Champions again now I've had a bull steer on stage or theme that year was more beef than a cattle ranch okay so Charlie calls what kind of theme is that I said well I said you know I talked to the animal rental place all the time they got a bull steer I'm gonna get a bull steer on stage because you know how big they are I said yeah they told me it's a little over 2,000 pounds so we I said built me a Corral and the hay and everything I said and the bull he goes but what if he goes crazy oh I said no he comes with his thing I said the bull steer his name is Richard camel was George the bull steer was Richard I said the old lady comes is this master and she's gonna sit on sighs sage as long as Richard could see her you could do anything before the show we put him in the corral because when the thing opened up and we had some of the guys that weren't competing including Sean in cowboy hats and everything with the bull steer but before the show I'm in the back I'm in there with the bull steer I'm packing things like this is horns and he was long as she was there I could do anything I wanted to him you know the show starts and Lonnie Tepper was the emcee from Iron Man and he goes every time I am see this show I never know what's going to happen it was almost like on cue the bull steer turns around this is tail and poos on the stage on stage on stage in his Corral people can see it oh yeah the bull but bodybuilding has to be entertaining was a lesson it was like that last time I ran Night of Champions or the Olympia bodybuilding hasn't been entertaining since I left they don't do nothing things like the bodybuilding hasn't been entertaining since you left it's boring now let me ask you this why do some people not like you because I was successful or I was domineering you know I'm putting money and ideas and everything to build a sport you know when I took over the Olympia prize money was 50,000 you know we won't even get into sanctioned fees and when I left prize money was four hundred and ten thousand and a Cadillac Escalade would you leave 2003 was the last Olympia I ran I had over 5500 paid people and over 6500 in the place with comps at Mandalay Bay now during the Orleans Arena which is not Mandalay Bay and people loved Mandalay Bay cause everything was in the same facility see it's only the athletes that don't like me because you know I made them go to the banquet I said a VIP ticket holder I wouldn't be I wouldn't why would the athletes not like you though they told them they had to do certain things or outside fine I want to show you video hang on hang on because I know your stories I've got a pace myself because your your your I ask you one question you can go for two hours so got a base my time you can't go down yet no it's all good I don't mind I'm the one that would drink a Red Bull before it comes natural wait till we get you a monster so so let me pull this up so Paul I got the videos here okay well I'm gonna I'm up play two of them okay and I want to see your reaction obviously see what you're gonna say here and then I want to play Shawn's video and then I know I'm gonna get a reaction from you so here's you you'll know exactly when this is watch this one here this is [Music] [Music] I would do something that nobody does in this sport I was the head of pro bodybuilding okay I was the promoter in Olympia yeah and I would do do it I would do the press conference and and the press conference was not staged like now okay where they have thing I would let anybody ask me anything and I would answer it because I had nothing to hide one time or buddy Shawn goes why aren't we getting more money cuz the athletes could ask to I could be a target anybody could ask if you want to ask me a question Jemaine you gonna ask answer questions you know did David Peck our answer questions when he was running the Olympic Germans running everything now there the reveal sinto could do that nobody I went out there we had 1500 people at the press conference I made the guy they didn't like it I made them dress in a suit they're not dressed in suits now at the press conference they I wanted them to look professional you know you take NBA players they go on a plane they gotta be trust you're representing your league you're representing your profession you you're a professional look it you already want you know you're gonna go up there on sweat suits and everything no you go dressed once a year you buy a suit and you go dressed and a lot of fans saying wow they guys look so good and you know the guys would get into colorful thing you could look at some rose outfits call a fool while it was different and fans loved it like I said 1500 people at the press conference let me pay this other one here's yeah they do we did it for free less than seven thousand people came in worldwide actually no mr. one you can check with the Wiener company today that was for free this year depending on what kind of modem you have is how much you pay we'll see how many people log on there so it's not a million dollars or twenty five million pneumatics of the lotion it's 2.5 million it would be a mess correct but anyway we're not making a million dollars okay secondly she wants mouth has never heard him in a contest judges don't care Shawn picks a what he wants he knows I always tell them that no problem I will do mr. third time in all the years I've been involved I've done this in the other two times again we have problems with athletes confronting judges aggressively I will destruct call the tianni was doing this on computer to set up the program give down breakdown sheet to everybody [Applause] once I left nine Yin didn't do that [Music] here's the thing Shan made things the wieder company tried to do a webcast and Shawn said something like you got you know 100 thousand people watching it at $10 a piece that's a million dollars where's our money it wasn't that money and Vince Scalisi who is the editor of Muscle & Fitness at the time that was doing I said there's Vince right there Vince how many people did and Vince told him they did it for two years they lost money two years you're in the production business think about doing a webcast back then 20 years ago with three four cameras and everything else your production cost has run forty fifty thousand dollars they were barely breaking even they you only stopped doing something when you're losing money you don't stop doing it if you're making money it wasn't making money the webcast and it was being run by the wieder company not me why would they want it to continue why wouldn't they want it to continue they were losing money no no the athletes they thought they were making money and we were pocketing it Sean makes up things sean has the you know the world according to Sean okay I drove him at a sport I could I Drive him out of the sport in 2001 he's made these things I he can go yak his mouth all he wants you know they may come a day where I say you know Sean if you write it or you say it it's called libel slander defamation of character maybe I'll sue you because then you're gonna have to prove it in 2001 when he supposedly said I drove matters points 36 years old he was coming to the end of his time okay other guys were going and they were all annoyed because they looked at Ronnie Coleman it's like their little brother and all of a sudden little brother got bigger than everybody and was winning and was wiping the floor with everyone and they were wondering why they were not winning or whatever and they didn't like him winning I don't know what it was but I didn't drive him out of the sport you know he failed that drug test I didn't give the urine sample I didn't collect the urine sample Bob dr. Bob Goldman did back then I didn't take it from the cup and put it into the two vial Shawn de Shawn filled out the forms Shawn put on the labels Shawn put on the caps he gave it to dr. Bob Goldman he signed the documents Goldman signed the documents Goldman took the samples put it in the package goldman sent it to the lab that he was using not me this was under goldman back to ben wieder wanted samples were tested the lab called goldman said this athlete failed i didn't know one athlete from another Goldman called Ben weeder and Ben wieder said you got to tell him he failed we don't want to okay so I called Shawn I found out I remember calling him that he was guest posing somewhere I believe in Toronto and I called him in his hotel room and said sure now unfortunately you failed the drug test you got the option of doing sample B you could be there when they test it and this and that you know the normal procedure but you know I didn't fail the drug test I was just the messenger but he hated me for that that's okay that's just prerogative you know Shawn ray and I are not you know bosom buddies some of the guys I'm still friends with some I'm not which ones are you friends with which one good friends were Paul to let because Paul the let's a promoter like me he runs a WBFF right and we talk all the time talking promotion strategies dissonant what did you do this where you did it I was always good friends with Kevin you know but you know when we took pictures you know they don't Kevin no we don't want you talking to when you all these things you know you're not allowed to do the gym manion's insecurities Jimmy's insecure that way I don't know why I don't hold no ill will against Jimmy what was a different style of gym running you versus you running obviously he's not anymore we just took place last two weeks ago but what's the biggest difference between you running your says gym running it well let's take the Olympia the Olympia I would use 12 judges okay to make it as fair as possible six foreign judges six American judges okay we had a computer program developed where the computer which select randomly each round the random judge so no one knew who the random judge was and then the computer would eliminate the three highs and three lows to get to it so in that method if you wanted a 50/50 shot to fix the contest you'd have to buy off nine judges and if you wanted a 100% shot you'd have to buy off ten what's gonna buy off ten judges and how you're gonna keep ten judges quiet it is impossible and it was the fairest way and no one knew who the alternate was but Sean talks about the fact that if for seven years straight it was the same judges well here's the thing Jim Mannion picked the American judges he don't say nothing against Jim Mannion because he needs to man you to let him in shows now Jimmy picked the American judges I picked the foreign judges okay there would be a change of the judges when we had panels of eight and nine there'd be a change of two or three judges you don't change the whole time look at boxing do we almost know some of the boxing judges names that we see them all the time right I mean where you gonna get people that understand the sport that are confident most X athletes don't want to judge why isn't shirring judging now why don't y'all go to Jimmy and say I want to judge mr. Olympia he doesn't want to because if he makes a decision he knows whoever he doesn't put first only the guy in first is gonna like him and everybody else is not and he wants to be in the media part of this because I heard he's part of Digital muscle now they won't talk to him you know when you're a judge you're stating your opinion and people are not gonna like you because you state that opinion because you're voting on you on a person's most personal thing their body and they put in time and effort and you know the strain of going to the gym two times a day and and everything you got to do to win and then somebody rips you apart saying well you know your back wasn't as good as the other guy I put you down you know there's all the controversy from the 1981 mr. Olympia when Franco won the changed me we made after that there was points so when people say how did Franco win it look at the score sheet you know Jimmy was a judge on that Jimmy had did he had to dilla first but he gave 20 he but he gave Franco 20 and Dominick serda was a judge I think he had Platts first but he gave Franco 20 so all these guys had a couple of 20 but Franco had a lot of twenties because everybody in a sympathy vote and when you eliminate the highs and lows on just seven judges back then wasn't even 87 you know one high and one low that's how we want did I think he should have won looking at an observer and I co-head judge that would Oscar state no do I know what happened because back then at the Olympia that was an 81 was in Columbus they would do three rounds in the afternoon which I could never understand why if I pay for the judging I see round one quarter turns I found two seven compulsories I see round three two posing why am I gonna pay more money to see the posing at night made no sense to me I split it up but when we came back I remember me and Oscar went back and we're adding the scores and we look at each other Franco's gonna win three rounds Franklin's gonna win so we come back to the thing Roger Schwab was a judge Dominick Winston Robert all these guys you know they all had their guy who they thought was gonna win you know this guy thought Dickerson was gonna win he was in great shape this guy Roy was gonna work and he was in great shape well Frank was gonna win Wow I said you gave him a 20 in this round and you gave him a 20 and you gave me a 20 and we had a change to placement which forced the judges to judge because now you couldn't give away two or three 20s now 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th where I say in there we're gonna give down the breakdown sheet the judges didn't want that because then the athlete would see I got it yeah who paid the judges by the way who the contest paid the judges what do you think about that the fact that you're paying the judges so well did the local tea of the judges us to the guy that cuts the check isn't it no you sure know the judges the judges was selected I told you Ben wanted Jimmy to select the American judges from the MPC fine and I selected the foreign judges we try to alternate a couple like I said we'd alternate a couple here now you can't change the whole panel every year there's not enough competent people in the sport now yeah okay you're a judge you're assigned to judge Leland by the design of competent people in the sport say thank you you don't think there's enough competent people in the sport to judge the Olympia level no to change the judging panel every year no no no these guys that are judges these guys that are judges I mean if they don't if they do something out of control you're probably not gonna bring him back next year yeah exactly yeah but that's also like for the athlete it's kind of like well then you know they're afraid of the guy that's cutting the check though does that kind of make it uncomfortable for the athlete let's check they get food allowance money well what I'm saying is that's even scarier the fact that they're not getting paid nothing judges they apply to be a judge they work their way up to be a judge people want to be involved in a sport you started a local level I want to I want to learn to be a judge okay you could test judge here you could do this thing it's like that in any sport I mean yes let me ask space the umpire let me ask you this Phil Heath against a rodent in your judgment who should have won I can't say unless I was there I can't go by pictures and I haven't been to a contest since the last Olympia I ran so you you don't you can't say unless if you go there I know this that you unless I'm there and sitting in close proximity to the judges so I see the same view as them yeah I will not give an opinion once the last time you wrote a mr. Olympia the last one I ran in 2003 so from oh three til today you haven't gone you know so from everything you've ever seen all the body builders you've ever seen who's your top five best physiques so I know you've battled oh no not in no particular order no no I won't order like put it in well in order accounting everything not just body everything Arnold has to be fir whose second I would go with you know and you got to go by certain years I would say Ahnold 73 74 which I believe was his best I was there I saw it even though 75 he was very good and I saw oh ma I own the outtakes at one time so I saw old 110 hours of pumping iron but I still think 73 74 was his peak 75 in my opinion he came back just to do the movie and this and that wasn't gung-ho like before you gotta remember 73 when he competed he had tours his knee guess posing after the 72 Olympia in South Africa that's posing for reg Park need a knee surgery so he came back with a vengeance but people said he wouldn't come back and he those two years he was right on the money Dorian Yates in 93 as one of these pictures here who's goes this this one with the original picture to take was taken by Kevin Horton where he had the pants around his ankles that was before he tore anything you put him at second I don't know I don't know how to put a second in the top five Sherman okay okay Lee Haney Lee Haney at his peak again what was Lee any weaknesses yet none right there I can't go up by two guys if after I left it's fine I'm saying to up two or three though but that's plenty of names there up two or three yeah I guess the other two would be Ronnie and Sergio Sergio Oliva right so you're leaving out a lot of names you take me top five you got leave somebody out okay so Sergio for you and then Ronnie at that time no big idea and who they're competing against in their era I'm not taking Sergio from 68 and putting them next to Coleman of 2001 different ear at different time at that time Sergio in 1960 nobody would compete against him he was so good you know he was he was unbeatable you know Lee Haney at his peak okay it was more pros than but Lee Haney was very good and very complete and very big what was Lee haney's weakness I mean if he had a weakness a little bit it was just posing and he worked on it you know because we judged posing that you know Dorian to a weakness was probably worked on it by the way another change I wanted to make to make it better I wanted to scores given for posing because the way the rules were written and I read wrote those original rules with Oscar State round one when they were doing quarter turns you're judging the same thing but a different form so when you're doing the quarter turns proportion symmetry and balance comes more into play than muscularity when you're doing the seven compulsories muscularity comes more into play because you're flexing in round three the way it was written and they don't go by it anymore anyway the athlete the first two rounds the judge is saying to the athlete this is the way I want to see you round three the athlete is presenting their body to the judge the way they want to choreograph to music and you only judge what you see so for example Muhammad McHale we will take him because we're talking camels he was very good at three quarterback shots but straight on back he was no good in his posing routine do no straight on backs he just did three court he showed his body to his best advantage you can hide your weaknesses what I wanted as routines became more entertaining as I was pushing for that you take like Vince Taylor my time Vince Taylor was really getting into the posing doing the robot and doing the Macarena man and all that I saw stuff that brought the house down he was around 40 so his physique couldn't stand next to the other guys but he was definitely the most entertaining so I wanted the judges to give two scores one for the entertainment value of the routine so on the entertainment value yeah Vince would have gotten the first and it would have forced the athletes to do better routines because that's what you're selling to the audience why am I gonna buy a ticket to the show if I'm gonna see the guy come out there and hit four poses and then walk to each side of stage and go like this and hit the same four and walk to the other side and do the same thing no I mean I was the one that came in with the first night of Champions you pose to your own music I couldn't understand that when a guy gets posed he posed to his own music but when they went in a contest back then they would either play Exodus over and over again from that old movie from the 1960s or in Columbus they had the organ player playing something as the guy was posing and I'm saying first night of champions round three that we're doing at night you're posing to your own music because I was good friends with Ed corny and Ed was posing to my went whenever he gets posed even if he wasn't in tip-top shape he'd bring the house down he was known as the greatest poet yes and so when Eddie was going to do that first night of champions you know as I said you're pulling humor they couldn't believe it they said really we could post or yeah let's do it we're gonna put on a show crowd loved it within two years every amateur show in America that kid was coming with his own music to pose we changed all it's gotta be entertaining why do you why did we watch the boxing match okay last week why don't we watch full show coming in the way they came in with no show - hold this hold that it's a show it's entertaining it has that today bodybuilding yeah no not at all no okay so let me ask you this recent to transition with Jake wood and you got you got right now you know the personalities there Jim Mannion okay you got em he's old school you know Jimmy's old school Jimmy Jimmy would always say to me why you spending so much money on staging I said because I got to give the people a show he'd go to me how about David Parker David pecker had the option of really doing something special and taken the thing more mainstream with his mainstream publications and he didn't do it and you know they didn't they didn't know how to make things work I left everything at Mandalay Bay okay 6,500 people the next year I left right they didn't reimburse me for the I had the deposit down for the next two years they didn't pay me back for the deposit on 2004 okay I gotta screw them if I wanted to because it was in my name I could have left them hanging but I didn't they did it they didn't know how to treat the people right you know and I don't know what happened it went downhill you know they they had a lot less people first year I wasn't there and then they went to Mandalay Bay because this was told to me by Mandalay Bay people that they went in and they wanted Mandalay Bay to be a sponsor of the event and put up big money and give him this a net and they said we don't do that we got a line of people for this thing and they went down the strip to find other people to run the show and then they came back to Mandalay Bay two three hours later they already had to rent it to someone else I had a great deal with Mandalay Bay I was friends with everyone there they took care of me you know last you know the last year I ran I had 512 booths at the expo okay they don't have nowheres near that now I mean as for Jake wood I mean I don't know Jake wood I mean I know obviously he's got a lot of money because according to the New York Post he paid seventy million dollars for the Olympia and the magazine's according to the Keith Kelly at the New York Post they had a whole article about it you know and so he's got lots of you know he's an aeronautical engineer so he's a very smart fellow you know I've heard that he sold his company according it's writing for lots of money I heard that he develop a rivet for commercial jets so he's a smart guy okay aeronautical engineer I understand engineering smart guy that Solomon dance what Dan promote before last year's Olympia nothing okay Dan Solomon's a nice guy I met him briefly before I left nice fellow nobody says a bad word about him nice guy you know but does he have that drive does he have that energy does he have that foresight does you have that creativity what you have to be to be a promoter you know what is the stage going to be what is this going to be how you going to get the people in it you know I look at the other thing too in a certain way I feel sorry for Robin Chang because didn't give him things to work with the marketing okay meaning meaning athletes I mean I was lucky I was in the right place at the right time and I had a lot of marketable athletes okay and no knock on these guys but nobody's breaking down doors to see Brandon Currie or Phil Heath or whatever they can say what they want about attendance be you hear all these stories about copying this and copy that and again if the Olympia is making that much money while you're selling it okay if the Olympians making that much money why did they fire Robin Cheng okay Robins doing the work okay I know what it takes to run that contest okay he's working on that show all year did it for like 14 years okay and they just fire you know why you know he can only do with what he has okay if you don't have marketable athletes then you got to go you know I was lucky to position I was in I would see athletes and you know okay you know that guy if he wins the German championships when I first saw Gunther you know we're gonna get him got to get him to California and Nissa neck he's marketable you know with me Lowe's and Nasser they were from the former Yugoslavia and when everything split up that form you was it didn't exist no more you know but these were good bodybuilders that were marketable I remember when I brought Nasser and you know when Vince McMahon took a lot of the marketable guys away in 91 and I brought all these other guys from York that nobody had ever seen wanna be in dorian yates 1991 and dorian Nasser that's when I've got pastel Ben Faro Ben Aziza Monza all these new guy every sample where did you find this guy all these guys were in Europe they won there and the fact that the other guys were gone it was the opportunity okay I'll give you an invite to Night of Champions where I'll pay you away because maybe they couldn't they didn't have the money to come to me they wanted to but I didn't have the money so it opened the door and I would travel around a lot and go to local contests all around the world to always look for other guys I also looked and you know loopholes like take Charles clammer Charles Clement was four or five time naba Universe winner tremendous bodybuilder late 80s there was always the good thing in England who is better in the late eighties Clairmont door Yeats Clermont won everything and he didn't want to compete no more there was nothing else because they wouldn't let him in the IFBB and I said Ben this is crazy this is the best athlete naba he's retiring he's only 28 years old and he's a good-looking guy beautiful symmetrical physique marketable well you know he has to go through the British Federation I said you're gonna tell me he's got to go into mr. London to qualify for the British Championships and then go into pretty championships and you know Duty if he goes into mr. London who's gonna compete who's gonna hurt who if he goes into mr. London if he goes into mr. London nobody else competes you know what rules rules rules which annoys me these rules sometimes so I got to be friends with Clermont because I was just looking at pictures of them saying we need this guy look at him another great body built all I wanted to do it put great body builders on stage entertain the audience so I got to know him I said you know they want you to go to the British thing you know this Annette he goes you know I'm under a Barbados passport oh really I said according to IFBB rules you represent the country of the which passport you're under and the head of that Federation can recommend you for pro status would out of a win in a context I take a nobody and recommend them for pro status so I got in touch with the head of the Barbados Federation I said you know Charlie Clermont is Annette and he goes to me wait send you a letter of recommendation I just want one thing you know when you do the scoresheet put down Charles Clermont Barbados not Charles Clermont England I said done so you get to pro chord the head of English Federation at the time Julian finds me friend of mine well he's pissed been spit I said let me redo the rules Ben Papa Papa here's the letter can't say nothing I said no I and when your brother sees him he'll be out in California taking us fly him out to California take a picture put him in the magazine because he's marketable and it sells tickets and it sells magazines which is what happened you know sometimes you know the rules if you're gonna bend the rules you gotta bend it for the betterment of the Federation not for an individual you know promoter money or this or that you know what the oldies guys don't know as I built that European Tour over the years eleven times to promote a flop I couldn't pay his bills I paid the prize money and of course Ben wieder well you pay me my half at a sanction fee you wouldn't even let me off do it I said he lost money he didn't care I had to pay him that half I paid okay my company that's why I'm running the Olympia I gotta sell VIP seats that last Olympia I saw I had 660 VIP seats sold going in every seat at $650 you can multiply it out times how much particular 650 650 at 600 tickets 660 tickets but it gets even better in that last Olympia in 2003 to Iran I go back to my room after the judging now there was a lot of things going on in that show and my room is the sweetest packed I would have Dinah Anderson a former female bodybuilder and her husband in the other room because she was a legal secretary and Carlo was there from Italy because he was the computer guy and other people and I can't even get into my room I said what's going on here they go win it's sold out and they want tickets and guys are going to Wayne please please please I said let me see what I can do the other guy that was there was Giorgio - colos the star of ancient aliens George Jones like my other son I met him in in Europe when he was 16 you want to be a promoter he did promote for me for five years and he was up there too he'd always helped me a children so I called a box office I go Kim I'm looking at the schematic can we fit in to all the roles of folding chairs in the back on both sides of the center section she goes Wayne for you I'll cuz I picked the girls from the box office out every time I go on a production meeting I go on a Friday because they'd never go back to work I'd take them to the Mexican restaurant we don't get drunk they call the fire marshal they call the head of Mandalay Bay and everything they go Wayne they'll do it till it's two rows of 16 on each side that's 64 seats but the fire marshal wants us two sons to be able to go backstage and some of the executives want their son I said have all the sons come they'll they hang with me backstage the whole show they go done so I go to the people in my room I said they're printing up tickets now I said Georgia go down to Kim and get the tickets you're gonna get the finals you'll get the banquet and you get the seminar tomorrow I'm not going to charge you 650 I got a charge of 600 and it's got to be cash you got time when Giorgio comes back you're getting a line you give me the cash sold in no time they wanted to see a show they know who's gonna be a good show they know it's gonna be entertaining we ran that show we had a script on the night show both that in Night of Champions minute by minute we knew exactly everything we'd collect the music on the Wednesday night at the meeting we'd have we knew the order of the competitors so let's say a guy out of music 8 9 minutes hey you got eight nine minutes on all I'm only gonna do the first two minutes and 45 seconds okay we did it put it on there put it on a mini disc cleaned it so the acoustic Li was perfect on a mini disc in that order we just pushed the number song number one Porsche it comes right out so if he wanted it as he enters of stage or in position we had it we had all their everybody's on headphones the sound guy the lighting guys Charlie calling a show me backstage all the backstage people it was long like a regular Broadway play the stage hands would say to us we can't believe you do so much here for a one night show what kind of money you're making at this time at the Olympia the Olympian and you know I'd fight with the weeders on the elliptical they always wanted more and more that last Olympia our expenses were 1.65 million and we gave away four hundred thousand four hundred ten thousand and the cadillac escalade and we took in about two point two six two point almost two point three okay so we made close to 600 thousand okay on the show but when you look at it percentage-wise we're making like twenty seven percent of the gross a normal business if you do ten percent you're doing great normal is eight percent we were doing twenty seven twenty eight percent is that what the athletes were upset about the fact that they could got a more cash out of it or no I was raising the prize money every year you know you don't know what the attendance is going to be I raised it every year and then every year they're adding in you got to remember that was just the men I had women's bodybuilding yeah I had fitness bodybuilding and by 2003 I had figured one of the problems that they have now is you've got so many divisions last year they gave away about 1.45 million in total prize money okay eight hundred thousand to the men total prize money you got Dwayne Johnson with athletic on saying on the bodybuilding part they're hinting that they're going to top the Olympia well you're gonna have to go more than one point five then because the Olympia if they do all the things that go add wellness in another division they're gonna go over one point five it's not just mr. anymore you know it's it's all over the place I look at what they do want to let it con and you got to remember the Olympia the focal point was mr. Olympia bodybuilding everything was bodybuilding which thought on Wednesday night they laughed a me saying what are you going to on Wednesday night muscle movie night I said yeah it's gonna get the fans in earlier get them in the mood it's for free the hotels giving me the room for free I got to pay a hundred and fifty dollars for the thing to project it on the screen but with every movie each year I'm gonna bring in somebody so of course the first year is pumping iron everybody's seen it but I brought in George Butler and they could ask Georgie any question about the film and this Annette 450 plus people showed up now of course every room night I get credit for free rooms and I get a kickback okay after you pass so much they make you all these deals and everything and the more I got that's why I got the expo hall for free I got a hundred and sixty eight thousand square feet at Bayside B for free because I booked so many rooms I had so many room nights in the place okay the guys liked me so much the Union guys they'd say to me Wayne nobody's in here when do you want to come in and set up and I go well set up days at back then with twenty five thousand a day plus you where you going with this was I'm just saying because where I'm going is where's the money is why we made so much profit because I made deals with people right so let me ask you a question in oh three your last one you did how much the first place make [Music] so I thought he had to make a hundred or 125 plus the car so so 100 grand plus the car deescalate yeah so first place is winning somewhere around two hundred thousand dollars 150 cars 50 grand let's just say it was fully loaded extended Cadillac Escalade that's about 60 grand yeah so I'm one of my between 160 to 180 depending on if it's 120 or $100,000 yeah from oh three two now $400,000 growth okay once they say 120 it's three xed okay I mean it's it's gone relatively high so let me let me ask you this do you know you go into a Dana got heat because Dana wasn't paying two fighters well okay that's what Dana White was getting keyed for you got in in mob world Paul Castellano got heat because he wasn't sharing the profits that the family was making so he eventually took him out kind of like they took you out okay eventually put me out I quit I'm a quiet you'll I get it but also at the same time you don't have a lot of allies with these competitors because when I look from the outside when you see you're like the ideal promoter to do this kind of stuff but let me let me get to my question here's my question for you this one I'm going with this but eventually what what a Mayweather did Mayweather said I want to take outs on how many pay-per-views we sell so what about if we change a portion of the payout because you know a lot of the camp there's two camps there's one camp that's saying this last mr. Olympia biggest tickets sell ever more than em yeah it's the greatest I've ever had if you look at the pictures it was so that you couldn't fit a single person in here it was unbelievable right now you weren't there so if you don't want to irritate the upper deck was was not even opened okay I'm just telling you what this hey so now watch the other side so what what if you know you got an opportunity to say guys first place is 400 grand okay what else and here's the thing if you help us sell XYZ amount of tickets on top of that I'm gonna put another three hundred thousand dollars into the pool with the same mathematical formula so maybe tops gonna get sixty thousand that's gonna if you sell this many tickets another six hundred thousand if you get much another $900,000 now I'm going to place with this so the athletes are not going to be saying well you want there's one thing you're not taking it was down two thirds of the profits went to the weavers at that time yeah how about today I don't know what they deal is now right so at that time wait out of the $600,000 two thirds went to the reader so four hundred thousand dollars one today I'm 200 was kept by you is this public everybody knows this I never hid it okay so so Wow two-thirds went to Wieters no [ __ ] okay see that's when you insure intoxicant Olympia or alive that's why we created the Olympia weekend because if Miss Olympia was on its own it was gonna die for someone giving you compliment I think you're crazy promoter what I'm trying to tell you a ridiculous promoter yeah I mean yours you can't even hold yourself with all these stories in the way you're telling details you're telling the deal of I got crazy mind I know but you're that's a part of a being a promoter so to know that you can't teach this you can't teach somebody how to do this you either gather you don't have it so you could have gone been a politician being a campaign manager for somebody you would have done a great job just to go on in that route so it's okay so what do you think right now with the future of mr. Olympia do you think do you think athletic con is bringing because you know sometimes the political answer is oh we always know athletic on what's gonna happen we support them at the rock this is great this is just gonna bring more attention to Mastro Olympia this is a very good thing behind closed doors we've been talking to each other this is exactly what we want him to do then there's another camp that says hell no dirac and Danny they want to take the entire attention away and they want to kind of get get the athletic on to become bigger what do you know with some of the conversations you're at okay let's look at this before the sale you really think that Robin Chang wanted to help the Olympia David pecker fired him I don't think Robin now I didn't speak to him I'm just looking from the outside what do you really want to help David pecker I don't think so okay so now that it's gone to Jake wood I don't know what that dynamic is I mean if let it con if you read what they're trying to do there is beyond anything and guy remember it's letter con it's not a bodybuilding show it's uh it's a fitness thing body buildings one part of sure and you know the fact I mean what are they paying and even though Dwayne Johnson has connections in the Hollywood industry where he says he's gonna have top music acts and stop comedians at that party Saturday I read about a letter Khanna said wow I want to buy a ticket and go how do you fight that how do I compete against ya I said I wanna buy a ticket and go it sounds great they gonna have meditation yoga they're gonna have everything there now his budget I would estimate he's using all of the World Congress Center to eight hundred and fifty thousand square feet and he's using the outside area I've read to do the the party that Saturday night thing that kind of have a ton of security there because if you're gonna have alcohol everybody partying it's like a club or whatever you know how that goes but it's but it's gotta be somewhere between seven and ten million dollars okay you know that's heavy duty we know where the Olympia budget is the on budgets probably between a half to four say in there with everything this is this is big-time is this a threat though well I mean it depends on if the promoters are working together I mean I always had a relationship with Jim Laura and I would never push the Olympia until the Arnold was over and vice-versa respect yeah respect right and we were friends respect yeah but you know you're on your tennis team Arnold you you you guys have no illusions you know they would hire me to coordinate the bodybuilding part of their event so we were all together I don't see any big things from athletic on yet so maybe they got the same respect there you know and we don't see anything big from the Olympia yet you know of course the sale was going on I don't know what Jake Woods objective is if he just doesn't care about making money he could make the most spectacular event ever okay I don't know you know if you wants to make money well he's got to make a lot of changes you know hey Jake you want to make money give me a call I'll give you advice how to make money on that event you know but you know was that a plug let me ask you let me ask you a question let me ask you a question are you indirectly wanting to go back and promote mr. Olympia you know would you like to know if it sounds like it no no I like promoting if Jake called you and says listen III want you to come and consider promoting mr. Olympia would you do it I talked to him okay so you would want to do it if the money was right it was like there's an itch there he feels like I just like I you know I like to create I liked him it's like I give you an example when I was a little boy you know I used to like my electric trains but I do all these elaborate setups but after it was built and they went around a circle once I was bored hmm what I found with contests I come up with a concept we're gonna do this the edge they're gonna be this is gonna be that and you build to that day and once you get to that day it's over yeah you relax you didn't but then you start all over again it's like a movie I know why people like movies I couldn't my brain could have went for that you do a movie you put all this effort and you do this to use it and then you move on to another project I was thinking of leaving bodybuilding I was getting bored numerous times it was becoming the same thing over and I was going to quit after 98 a couple of things when I was getting bored and two that's when I got the prostate cancer and who knows what was going on and then the opportunity came to move it to Vegas Vegas excited me okay Vegas fun there's an app and the possibility of staying in the same location and building it out but by 2003 when I went after the contest was over and the banquet goes on but I never made it to the banquet were taken down things we got to make sure everything gets back then the truck and everything is the right way and my second wife Palvin Ari was there with my son they held a little bit of food for me and I remember saying I heard that night I said uh I don't think I'm gonna do this anymore I mean you should have made a lot of money too with so many people and I auto shows up for you oh no came to that 2003 Olympia because I donated for his campaign and wanted a few people from bodybuilding that did and when I went to his last fundraiser that was run by goals and world's gym when he walked through the crowd you saw me there it says rain you came I said no no I support you he says I come to Olympia for you and this was the Friday week before eight days before I said no no you're gonna win on Tuesday it's gonna be King you have my word I come for you I don't say a word to nobody because you know you put that out there and then you don't show up it's a letdown so I don't think Charlie don't even know nobody knows oh no no not to do that and we finished our judging we would do the judging at 12 noon on a Saturday and a 2 o'clock I get a call and they go Wayne to Millie I go yeah this is uh chief so-and-so from the California Highway Patrol we need you to put us in touch with the Nevada State Police the Las Vegas police and the Mandalay Bay security I said any reason they go yes the governor-elect is coming this is when you know it's legit yeah and he goes when he lands we're gonna close down Las Vegas Boulevard so he doesn't get caught in traffic I said well when is he landing they go about seven o'clock I said you're gonna close down Las Vegas Boulevard seven o'clock on a Saturday night singles yes we are and you know that's when I called Mandalay Bay Network little leak out not much but he came and the fans didn't know was a reaction pandemonium that's your last one ever yeah my last Olimpia we must finished it with that yeah and you didn't come back no did you get fired or you didn't come back me and Ben were fighting so much every day Decker wanted to take over he said you know if I take over the Olympia you know you're gonna run it in this and I said I can't take it with Ben no more and then he made a deal with Ben you know and Ben said you know Wayne and pecker and we didn't Lauren what we're trying to undermine me and this and that and Arnold told pecker don't sign wood then you'll regret it Arnold toward pecker don't sign wood Ben you'll regret it mm-hmm Ben and Joe Bennett Bennett and Arnold didn't get along but but honor God along with Joe but not bad not bad what's best personality like Ben was a businessman Joe was more the bodybuilder guy so been fired you then said to me I don't think we can exist anymore I said you're right I said I can't take this anymore I'm living in stress everyday with my medical condition I don't need stress I don't need this no more you think you can do it better go ahead watch what happens and I said that's it what's the last Olympia that was the biggest Olympia it's oh three the last biggest one I can't tell what other Olympians did since I left I wasn't there I don't know what the box office receipts are I can't comment on something I will add on the inside for but you know you don't have marketable guys either they're not bringing in marketable how do you know though you know you don't know you're not there to see it you said I don't want a judge because I'm not there so well I'm saying they're not marketable they're not selling the tickets there's no excitement is there excitement about bran and curry no knock on the guy maybe a nice fellow I don't know but I don't see an excitement there yeah marketable is a different story your marketability is is it completely different I get it I told you get it you gotta have a personality Arnold was marketable even my dad also was 16 you know wasn't winning but he was still a marketable personality you had some of these guys that were marketable personalities so so okay and then you had and then you had at the time you had magazines with Joe knowing how to create personalities and create marketable guys yeah okay now with the internet magazines dead it's almost self-promotion and it's all over the place and you may have so many followers on Instagram or whatever but it doesn't translate into tickets you got to do that last question for you yeah one of Joe weeders dreams was to for Mistral and Peter goal in two Olympics I know they did the Pan Am stuff is this ever gonna happen or is Ben's dream Rafael's trying but you got the drug think problem it's difficult you know the IFBB Raphael's part of the IFBB cookbook Jimmy and Raphael your boss or no huh Israel fill your boss or technically that's kind of why it's right you know when he called me to ask me to come you gotta remember I was his boss yeah I know that but but I mean it's you're almost like doing each other for you it's not even out yeah yeah I mean I call up Raffy it's different you know but there's respect there's a respect for you I told him I said Raphael you know me I said every time I would flip out on Ben Ben would call you up saying I can't take her with him no more I said but you want me to be aggressive and energetic because if I'm not then I'm useless if I don't have this energy then I'm no good for anything okay so if I don't have a passion for what I'm doing then why do it get somebody else you just want a yes man now I'm not the guy for you I'm not the guy for you you know you gotta be aggressive yeah I'm you know I'm not making no money running a body but I make my money doing other things but you know it's kind of fun trying to teach young younger guys or guys that never promoted before to do some catch on and do it and they follow you some don't it's kind of nice on these yeah these shows aren't big 35 people in this show 22 people in this show whatever and but when he athlete comes up to you and say you know we like the organization you're putting together you know nothing's going on here you know her deal like so much music America yeah yeah IFBB physique America calm that's what you're doing yeah and you know so when an athlete comes to you and says you know thank you it was a nice show we've taken all the membership money okay and we're sending athletes every show to different international events you know it does that you're not doing it for money this is a passion play yeah you still have the passion for this game yeah to a point yeah - yes or no yes so not - what's there - points look the point is money you got to make some money if these guys call you yeah if the other guys want me to you know I'm not gonna you know four years of running the Olympia and teaching myself learning on my own how to run big events I'm not gonna give it away - Jake would this equation boys Salomon crazy I mean not a crazy question what what is a quality of a great promoter what makes a great promoter from your eyes you're a great promoter what makes somebody a great promoter you have to have the passion for it one okay you have to be creative you got to think like a fan what entertains you I'm still a fan I would always say to people you know when the show started and I'm sitting there with the judges I got the best seat in the house and the show goes and I'm creating this whatever this entertainment that I put in my head you got to entertain people anything Pro is entertaining this show is no good if you don't entertain people why do people watch it do you got to be entertaining if everybody comes out and does the same thing it's boring nobody ever knew what I was going to do at Night of Champions so so a sense of surprise a sense of unknown yeah you think that's quality of a promoter part of it what else so so far I have passion creative entertain a sense of the unknown well you got work all the time you got to work all the time I would I say to promoters you're promoting a show every day you got to get something accomplished i when I would run the Olympia I would give myself goals I would play games with myself I was like okay this week I'm gonna raise $20,000 in vendors and sponsors and let's say I sign a company for 25,000 on Tuesday I don't take the rest of the week off hey maybe I could get to 50,000 this week I'm gonna push even harder the last three days I was always competing against myself to make it better that's why in 2003 you know let's face it in 2003 you had well let's go back a couple years Jay was winning in 2001 after the judging and Ronnie came back and beat him and Jay got mad he thought i fixed the show against him I said to him one time I'm a promoter I do this to make money who's gonna sell me more tickets a big white blond guy or the big black guy come on Don King told me one time Don King came to when we did women's bodybuilding the women's pumping iron and he saw I was promoting that thing he goes remember one thing boy white means green I know what he meant he goes you know how much money I made off Gerry Cooney fightin combs we all knew homes we've got to kill them his boxing kills with soap but they built up Cooney you get the thing the audience is 95% white right you don't have white guys in the show dissing at Jay Cutler didn't win in 2001 he was upset so he didn't compete in 2002 let's go back stay focused hang on because I want to get this out of you because because I'm trying to get this out of you because I think it's brilliant what you're saying number one is passion yeah you got to be passion about what you're promoting number two is being creative you can't think like everybody else and be illogical or conventional number three is entertained you got to entertain for you this sense of the unknown some kind of a surprise yeah number five you're working all the time yeah number six you said competitiveness I'm going to compete against yourself to push yourself to succeed okay how about the next one do you think there's a part of it of you choosing the right person to be face of the sport or all of that or no you don't think that playing it pick the faces meaning Conor is go I get that but Conor is great for MMA right Mayweather was good for boxing yeah yeah well the thing is I would pick the guys who I put on the poster who would sell me tickets I'd go sign up a guy so maybe that's picked the market oh god yeah I'm with them I just at Night of Champions and Night of Champions we would try to get the Year befores overall USA and Nationals winner that would be their pro debut I would always say whether wins newest a internationals your turn pro I puff are you in tonight of Champions you're in that show so the fans knew they were gonna see the young up upcoming guys here I would always bring back three four five favorites people that they knew you know that they liked that the New York audience like the host stars and they like I always bring in and unknown from Europe okay so I would fly in because I would have sometimes 45 50 guys in Night of Champions I would pay full expenses for like 16 to 18 and then guys from that lived in the area that could drive I would pay their hotel yeah I said you driving off Friday I don't want you going back and forth you stay in a hotel I'll pay pourcel expenses and in guys that I didn't know that wanted to come and pay their way and make their mark do this during the judging the judges would judge one to fifteen everyone else is 16 at the beginning of the show at night the ones that didn't make the top 15 they'd come out depending on how many one or two at a time and do you know 15 20 seconds of posing and this and that and then they were done the top 15 did their full posing routine for the audience we would start that show at 8:05 we'd end at 10:15 on the button all timed out you want the people leaving wanting more okay that's another one okay so what else so here's again passion creative entertain sense of unknown work your ass off compete against your prior best pick the right person to be the face like a marketable guy think like a fan which you just said right now is people leaving wanting more give me one more when we get one more out of you just having energy to do it okay miles I would walk in Mandalay Bay going from my room down the elevators to where the convention was where the theater wore greatest was where that was you got to do what you got to do give me one of these but we're not even done and I was freaking sick I got data that was sick anybody well no matter what business you're in you just heard from one of the best promoters in the stores sport of bodybuilding which was never a marketable product years ago to go from doing the most shows we can't learn something from here the the deep promoter speed round I'm gonna give you a name you give me one word okay let's see what you can do here I'll give you a name you give me one word germanium friend form a friend friend or former friend well you don't want to talk to me I gave you because you're my friend but that's two words so I get what it's okay now you're good with that I know an enemy I don't hate go on you know I don't know why Arnold greatest bodybuilder greatest greatest ever Lee Priest under under appreciated Wow Sean ray one word for Sean ray mmm unhappy you know he you know not one word but you know they were years you know I like Dorian Dorian is a great guy 91 he pushed Haney 92 we won it was like 227 pounds 90 Toria he was tremendous that picture but when he started tearing things I didn't agree with the judges that he should have won you know just my opinion I thought those years could flex of one could Shawn have one quit Kevin have one yeah I I could have seen that you know but I wasn't a judge I don't tell the judges who to vote for I tell them how the judge meaning apply the rules but I don't tell them who the judge who to vote for yeah Sean I mean when you look at Sean's physique you know weaknesses yeah well what Sean's weakness it wasn't quite as tall as the other fellows probably could have wore his trunks a little bit higher so we didn't see him as long wasted you know you created an optical illusion you look at the guys back on of time how much bigger the trunks were now they're basically wearing bikinis if your trunks are higher you don't seem as long wasted where they say always sky-high lats well if his trunks were you know an inch below his belly button true instead of six inches it's all an optical illusion and that's why I think Sean was unhappy you know people would say to me why do you let him speak why do you let him knock you why do you let him say things at the press conference and I would always say Sean may say a hundred things 99 maybe idiotic or annoy me but he may say one thing that's good and that's what you have to do when you're in charge and that's something that nobody sees and let's look at another thing no matter who the president is half the people hate them okay if you're in charge and you let people have freedom to speak and speak their minds and write anything they want and say anything they want publicly privately you're gonna get knocked once you come out from the crowd and you're up here your target mm-hmm if you don't want to be a target then don't do it you know I understood that from the beginning and it was like I understood that other phrase publicity good or bad as long as they spell my name right long you put about the things you mention the contest you mentioned mr. pincher that what is my job not to Pat myself on the back my job is to promote good contests I I continue to promote good contests and make money I continue to promote contests and build a sport if I had lost money and gone away what would happen to pro bodybuilding if I didn't take that risk and use my own money yeah people criticize you I'm sure all the time yeah do you care no you enjoy what you're doing actually I learned a lot I gotta tell you I learn a lot because the way I look at it is Mike and my heavy duty critics who are competitors there be the best consultants I'll have because they identify my weakness more than my peers ever will and that's how you get better it's the best consultants cheapest consultants because you don't pay for it they just criticize you yeah it's like you know I would get criticized with those things guys that were into women bodybuilding why don't the women get paid as much as the man they don't bring in the money I would say to people during those press conferences you want to run Miss Olympia you think it's so profitable I'll talk to Ben we'll give it to you with no sanction fee you could run it see what happens I put it together to keep it the men of supporting the women that's why we did it that's the longest two words I've seen in my life okay it's okay that's okay maybe a David Becker David Becker there's so much goes on with David pecker bodybuilding and non bodybuilding [Laughter] Trump Trump is my aunt's a truck guy fair enough Joe Weider innovator Ben wheeler administrator Ronnie Coleman great champion champion flex wheeler aesthetics Oh somebody mass Phil Heath I don't know him that well hopefully for post 203 a fair enough Mike Matarazzo great guy great guy they hurt me when he left us some of these guys when they've gone the night nasa died Kevin Paul and my cell phone on the phone till 3:00 in the morning I mean you know you got to remember on those tours we'd live together like a rock band you know and you know Nasser Paul flex Chris Melo's you know there was a group of guys that would go at we'd go every year Vince Ronnie a lot of times Dorian do half of it Shawn never went I don't think the guys could be rough on each other at times okay I don't think he had the temperament to handle that but we were close we get in fights where we wanted to beat each other up and we'd other times we defend each other and we talk about it and we laugh about it I mean and you know NASA was only one 4748 it hurt ma terrazzo you know moderato found happiness he had a young daughter you know and you know some people get bad side effects from the supplements and sometimes like some people get lung cancer from smoking and some don't and you know Mikey like his heart couldn't handle it you know and he was on a list for a transplant and it didn't come in time you know and that hurts you know because it was more than just with some of these guys um athlete him official he became friends in a certain way I knew Mikey's mom and dad that his dad was in a wheelchair whenever you compete tonight a champion I said your dad never has to get a ticket you get to bed and he comes right down in front and this and that you know Mikey appreciated that like hey I was happy that dad was there poor guy was in what you know I look at myself I'm 70 years old I've been fighting prostate cancer for 22 years they told me in 1998 I had one two three months to live and Here I am I'm bouncing around look at me and you know I think Mikey's dad when he would come to the shows was in the late 50s the poor guy was in a wheelchair it's like you know you look at all the people you know and then you realize how lucky you are and you don't complain about your life you just go on in life and just be thankful every day I wake up every day and I say how nothing hurts I could go to the gym yeah I can't lift what I used to but I could still do okay and cancer you're not gonna get me today because I'm gonna drink my green drink and have my almond milk and drink liters of water and do whatever I got to do to live a good life and to be the way I am you know a lot of people don't believe my age because of my energy and you know when I take the drugs that kill my testosterone I mean basically they chemically castrate me half the year I'm chemically castrated and you suffer depression I've learned how to deal with it without drugs I found that works for me espresso being Italian you know the caffeine kicks in a little bit of serotonin and I'm fine but you know when I'm on the drugs especially after four months you wake up with suicidal thoughts but I'm lucky I know how to deal with it and then I just get myself down and it's not sometimes you wake up in the middle of night the suicidal thoughts are so bad you got to get up at 3:30 in the morning cause you can't sleep you know so you appreciate other things in life and you deal with it you know and like I said when we lose some of our guys Munzer ones are competed in San Francisco Grand Prix I guess that was 94 I believe off the top of my head and I saw him when he checked out at a hotel on the Sunday morning and I get a call Tuesday early in the morning my time from one of my guys in Germany saying he passed away last night I said I saw him Sunday he flew home he got home Monday he went to went out he was drinking beer but everything fell apart in his system you know and he he died you know and you know he wanted to be a champion so much that he would take drugs to mask things even though he was told by many doctors stop doing it you know and sometimes guys can't they want it so bad you know and the steroids come on you don't know what we felt like when we were 17 18 19 years old like you know we could run through the wall or indestructible well you know they've taken steroids artificial testosterone that's ten times that amount so they feel yep indestructible and they can't go you know it's crazy you opened up with that you're finishing with that it tells you you know what consumes your mind the most with the sport you know I gotta tell you when I almost didn't do this interview when they reached out to remember like why why am I gonna sit down Woodman I don't want to do any more bodybuilding interviews this it's not a bodybuilding channel I'm like enough of these bodybuilding it's my passion I love their sport I see I grew up with this think I've made my money because of bodybuilding because every single time a guy named Fred gambar II I'm saying his last name probably wrong at YMCA told me to increase the weights by 25 pounds and I went from barely benching the bar to doing three plates and a quarter on each side and I was in the Army competing and I wanted to be a minstrel in pure gada and I said I don't want to do it but that that discipline of being a bodybuilder for that period it it bled into work it bled into business it bled into entrepreneurship so I feel like in a way I want to give back as much as I can but this is a channel that's for business and we do a lot of different interviews but I got to tell you I had a blast sitting with you hey this the longest interview we've ever done would you say yes Marty how long have we been sitting here first of all you're long-winded very obvious you can talk four nights four days but I've had a problem at that stage they're in a debate I'll talk Bernie just telling you I really enjoyed talking to you thank you I really sincerely enjoy talking to just having a conversation with you and I know we cover a lot of different things a lot of different topics I know the bodybuilding community is gonna look at this and they're gonna do what they're gonna do and they're gonna say whatever you say and we didn't even get into the pumping iron films that we didn't get into the high Major League Baseball I hope that I'm not gonna get a chance to kiss my daughter good night tonight but I but I'm gonna more important but I wanted I wanted to have this conversation with you and I'm glad it went in the direction it went because I feel smarter every time I'm sitting down and I got it from a different perspective on what you said and I hope the viewers that are watching this has walk out a different perspective about mr. Olympia there's one thing for sure like you not like you disagree with you the passions there and there's no way in the world somebody can teach somebody how to have that passion that passion is in your bones and it's very very obvious and again I appreciate you for coming out thank for people to get a hold you what do you want to do what do you want to direct them to is the physique American IFBB physique America calm okay and we're gonna put that link below for them to get a see that any are you an Instagram guy or Twitter and you that's support more than ever I don't post and you don't really post them well I mean for anything we'll send a link over yes and put it to that so if they want to compete in our shows and like I say you know like our first show is March 22nd in Florida to athletes are gonna win a trip a male and a female this is fantastic this is gonna stay for a while stead of giving a date yeah just keep in mind that these guys are gonna be going any avail there's some people gonna go to on classic South Africa some people win trips to our pro qualifier in Miami in July you know I'm not taking a dime I'm putting all the money back and people think I'm crazy but you know what you can't take it with you I would always get on Ben wheeler I said what are you gonna do with all this money you can't take it with you and he would always go to me I'm going to try him up but you can't you know and you know I I think my disease my illness I was always positive but it brought me to a different level you know and whenever I get caught up in the business rat race say I always bring myself back to the night before my surgery where the doctors came in saying Wayne we're gonna open you up and this and that but we think it's in the lymph nodes we think he got you know not much time blah blah blah and I thought in my head when they left I said when I get past this because I was always positive I'm not gonna let relationship problems business problems financial problems affect me because those can all be dealt with another individual this I had to be blessed to get to hear whatever reason why I'm still here I don't know you know the cancer still in me I go for tests every three months I go for scans and isn't that once a year I got to do what I got to do but you know it makes you look at life different so when things go bad and you and you're upset about something I always pull myself back and say it's okay no big deal it's very obvious it's very obvious you got that and I applaud you for it and they're all the body builders I like them all you know I like Sean I don't hate Sean you know like I said it's a great body builder you know he's got you know you're gonna hear from him you're gonna hear from what they're saying from this one and oh yeah like I I you know hey they can say what they want you know I basically some people say when you created pro bodybuilding cause it really didn't exist before you came along you did all these shows and lalala you know what I think we need to do you know and it's like yeah I did it I enjoy doing it I mean my favorite day of the year was Night of Champions date I was you know that was my baby - all these are babies and you know that show the Olympia it was big you had to deal with so much and this and that and it was big it was a satisfying but it was big but Night of Champions was that morning I could never sleep the night before I wouldn't stay at the hotel I'd sleep home because it was so close and I get up like at 4:00 in the morning and this and I couldn't wait to get there and truck would come at 7:30 and the Union guys would open the door at 8:00 and they'd let us unload the truck because I'd buy to breakfast because they get paid for it they didn't have to work and they're eating and then letting us do the work so he could have better staging because I had you know 20 guys would show up that would work it was always so much fun and in the way just to tell you this if we go two minutes longer my guy's not gonna be able to see his girl tonight okay he's gotta go see his girl tonight how old is your girl he's got a lot of them because he's a tinder expert it's easy completely easy easy I don't know if you're from my finger I could tell you that finally if I show you what I got if you if you attend their expert like he is he's always not up well I do with that but wait I'll come back any time yeah I mean I'm telling you I'm Jenny I really enjoyed this conversation there was a lot of depth and it's preciate you for coming out and thank you really Wayne can tell stories I mean if I would have let him we would have gone for another 2-3 hours but we all had places to go to but it was still amazing to hear the stories and his passion for the love of bodybuilding and promoting that one part about the ten things I was able to get out of him on what makes a great promoter you see a lot of similarities between that world they know wide you know dunking different styles but still a lot to learn from there but if you enjoyed this interview and you into the bodybuilding world and you made it all the way to the end I'm assuming you love bodybuilding there's two other ones I want you to watch one of them is Sean rate which led to us wanting to do this so if you've now watched this one click over you to watch John Ray's interview if you watch that there's another one I want you to watch by Dorian Yates which is absolutely interesting as well click on either one of them if not subscribe to the channel please do so thanks for watching everybody take care bye you [Music]

Channel: Valuetainment

Views: 223,831

Rating: 4.8509092 out of 5

Keywords: wayne demilia, ifbb, patrick bet david, valuetainment, arnold classic, brandon curry, dorian yates, flex wheeler, shawn ray, diet doctor, dexter jackson, phil heath, athleticon, ifbb physique america

Id: AVQRR0OUALA

Length: 152min 29sec (9149 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 16 2020