Ibanez's Olympia 2005 Experience!!

[Ibanez]

Hello Ppl... It is NASTY in Vegas right now!!!

Man, I am in my element, this is just crazy! I am staying at the Orleans hotel and you can literally smell the testosterone.. Here are some pics of myself with a couple of friends..lol This is linked on one of my websites. I couldn't post the pics here (files are too large!!)

Ronnie looks gigantic and totally shredded, I asked him yesterday what he weighs right now, and he is 290, belly looks different, as does Jay Cutlers, and ESPECIALLY Gustavo Badell....

THURSDAY
I arrived in Las Vegas in the morning and went straight to the Orleans and actually got my room early in the morning. The hotel was excellant, and exceeded my expectations based upon what soom tool squeezer wrote on another forum. I was pleasaently surprised. Veryclean, with marble appointments everywhere!

PRESS CONFERENCE
This was awesome, and they could have easily charged an admission to this alone. All Figure, fitness, and Ms`Olympia contestants were on hand for a large interview with the Bob and HHH show. I thought Bob C. was a tool prior to this, but I came away with a new respect for him, he is quick witted, very friendly and definitely one of the more switcxhed on BodyBuilders of the moment. I had a great pic taken with him. Bob C was the first pro I saw in the room, and I was like my God, would you see the size of this guy, just cartoonish to see.

Fast forward to the Olympians themselves now. So Bob asked Ronnie, what would you do if you were to Lose this years Olympia? Would you come back to attempt another win? Ronnie's response 'Well, first, I would wake up... in a cold sweat from this nightmare' It ain't gonna happen... Jay Cutler sat there motionless, obviously missing the humour of the situation :)

Gustavo Badell calls out Ronnie for a posedown right there at the conference. Ronnie just says When I was at school, I did Math 101, which I had to do before doing Math 102. You ain't in my class fool, you gotta earn your way up. There are others before you, before I will get up and pose with you... You could here the crowd go 'oooh' Gustavo clearly deflated, did what any person would do in that situation. he jumps up on the table and rips his jacket and shirt off, and hits some poses. I must admit, I thought Gustavo would be a bloated mess... UH UH, He was dialed in perfectly, FLAT STOMACH and all... dang, he looked cut baby!!!

MEET THE OLYMPIANS
This was later that evening. All Olympians were on hand to sign books, photo's have photo's taken etc. It was so good to meet some of these pro's. Big props go out to Gunter. The meet and greet started at 7pm and the last two standing wereRonnie (because his line just grew the whole night) and Gunter's. I understand now why he is so popular with the ppl. He was in great spirits and VERY friendly, always smiling, always stopping for pics (see my pic with the Big guy) Jay Cutler needs a chill pill, a bit too focused and detached from the ppl. I understand where his focus was, but he looked weak and depleted big time. I like Jay, so I hope he picks up for the big dance today! Dennis' The menace' James was there and he meant business, he was shredded and in good spirits, the only guy wearing a tank top and he had reson too, his conditioning was outstanding.

Shawn Ray was there, and he was very small nowadays and had a gut too, I was very surprised to see that. Nationals winner Phil Heath was there and always smiling having a laugh. Flex Wheeler was there, and was half the size he once was...gee how amusing to see these guys just shrink so quickly after their careers have been completed!! :)

Markus Ruhl was there with his wife Simone. I had a pic taken with both of them and they were friendly. Marcus looks smaller than prior occasions, maybe this IFBB advisory thing really DID cause the competitors to rethink things!!

FUNNY MOMENT PART 1

I walked down tio the fitness center, and this guy came walking out with very large eyes, he was not an Olympia attendee, just some guy staying at the Casino, he says to the staff member, there is a friggin monster in there right now, who the hell is that guy?? Oh, thats Ronnie... Who the hell is Ronnie?? Oh he is Mr Olympia, the staff member says almost glibly..

I almost pissed myself laughing, just hilarious, poor guy, enjoying his Thursday afternoon workout next to arguably the most muscular human being alive ever :)

Ok, I am out of here, need`to go to Pre Judging, will write more tonight.


HERE ARE THE PICS LINKS!!
http/www.rockstarzusa.com/ROCKSTARZUSA1.html

[Ibanez]

Ok... Back from Round 1 & 2 morning judging..... News and More news to report!! 21 competitors lined up and what an interesting show it was....

Cutting to the chase, it was all Ronnie and Jay's show. Period

I personally like Ronnie a lot, but Jay looked incredible. The back double biceps shot from my position had Jay pip Ronnie at the post... yes I know, thats a big call. I think Ronnie will still win, based on several factors, but Jay looks unbelieveable, I think Jay has pulled out all the stops today and man...tough call.....but whoever wins, will have the 2nd place getter nipping dang close at the heels.

[Ibanez]

Which moves us to 3rd place. Gunter was called out the most with Ronnie and Jay, but at the end those two were called out on their own, over and over again.

3rd place will have Gunter, Gustavo Badell or Victor Martinez battling it out I think. Dennis James was also looking sharp. Gustavo had gigantic quads with deep cuts and definition..... Martinez's back was really defined, Gunter calves were nowhere to be seen, and just lacked that little extra mass in comparison to Cutler and Coleman....

Chris Cormier and especially Alex Federov looked smooth. The real deal lost this hand I think. I think Alex will place right near the bottom, and previously I thought he would do well. Humungous quads though.

Markus Ruhl, will probably get around 5th I think. He looked very sharp and seemed to be better than previous Olympia's. Branch Warren got a lot of attention and could place somewhere around 6-10 I think. Mustapha Mohammed looked great, deep cuts too. Melvin Anthony was called out with Ruhl and James so he may move up some places???

Michael Sheridan and Quincy Taylor looked great but too smooth, the competition is just too brutal to go up against though.

Ronny Rockel had lots of fans, as did Johhnie Jackson, but I don't see them in top 10. Kris Dim looked great for a small guy, George Farrah, who almost everyone writes off will do ok I think, I could be wrong, but I think there will be those placing lower than him!!

[Ibanez]

DISCOUNT ANABOLICS AT THE 2005 OLMPIA EXPO

Gotta give a plug to Chris and Andrea. Great to meet you guys at the expo. You were very friendly and personable and enjoyed shooting the breeze with you. I really trust you get some great exposure with the expo. There were huge booths around them, but props go out to the Little Engine that could!!!

Discount Anabolics will always be my favourite place for supplements and nutrition, I appreciate the FREE T-Shirt too!!

[Ibanez]

The expo is a blast... I bought a huge gym bag, and I swear that the whole bag is almost packed full of samples, protein bars, drink bottles, shirts, protein powder and on the list goes. My beautiful wife attended, and I asked her to take as many samples as possible too :) When I tallied it, I managed to collect 116 nutrition products alone. Good call Rod.... I am glad I traveled with only 1 bag. We are going back again this afternoon late to pick up some deals.....

I met Rich Gaspari and Lee Labrada, Larry Scott, Sergio Olivia and a ton of others while there. I was SO in my element. While I love Gaspari nutrition, the massive MASSIVE guy they had there trying to convince me that he built his body using Gaspari products kinda made me smile a little. Gaspari stuff works, no doubt, but a NPC national ranked competitor who JUST uses those products :) Ahh, it was all good fun. I think I must have tried about 100 protein bars and drinks yesterday alone....

There will be more to report soon. Any questions I can answer for anyone???

[max von]

Great log man. I ma glad to see that you are having such a great time. Believe me the feeling never changes no matter how many times you go there. I hope Jay looks like you say, I got my photos sent to me today in the mail from him and he looks awesome. Ron is awesome but I am a Jay Cutler fan. I hear what you say about being very intense but believe me when all the pressure is not on him Jay is one of the nicest guys you will meet.

Side not I told you to bring plenty of empty bags, Gasparis guys head is bigger then my chest I think, he is a monster LOL

[max von]

Dude I just checked out our photos, Jay looks increadible, the seperation in his arms is amazing. I truely believe that this is his year, he took the whole year of and when I spoke with him at the Arnold his whole life was revolving around this years O.

One thing that always shocked me was how short the guys were, they look like they should be 6'5 on tv and in magazines

[Ibanez]

OLYMPIA EXPO 2005 PART 2

Ok, well the show is done, and officially I have two events left, the big finals night tonight in 90 mins and the training seminar tomorrow. So a few hours ago, I got to catch up with Art Atwood and good 'ol Dorian Yates. I can honestly say that I have been inspirted tremendously over the last 72 hours, that will keep me going for 6 months at least.

Gotta be honest here, sex sells sure, but the way some of the girls were parading around the expo, I would honestly think I was at some pornstar awards. If you got it flaunt it, but c'mon, some of these girls made me feel embarrassed that they were bundled in with the bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts... but ahhh well.... I mean, some of the girls wore nothing but paint in the right spots...... sheesh!!

There is another large bodybuilding online site that were at the expo who I thought were gonna go all out..... yeah, whatever..... very dissapointed in their representation.... they could have done a great job with all their resourses, but they chose to invest it primarily in some online talk show that you had NO chance of hearing because of the dj from another booth spinning disks just down the aisle..lol :)

It was interesting to see Ronnie get mobbed at this years expo, but as I spoke with Chris, from Discount Anabolics, there was Dorian Yates (6 time Mr 'O', who just 8 years ago was mobbed himself, standing around with a handful of interested parties nearby (me included) I will say that Dorian did look very healthy and quite fit all the same.

[max von]

I see in the pre-judging that Jay is ahead, did you see it that way. I sure hope it is true, I am really pulling for my man Jay.

[Ibanez]

Where did you hear that Max? I must admit, Cutler did impress me a hell of a lot this morning!

[max von]

Thats what they were saying on flex online. That the judges had Jay ahead after the pre judging.

[Ibanez]

Man... what a night. This was one intense Bodybuilding contest... Here are my personal thoughts. At the end of pre-judging, I thought Jay and Ronnie were dead even, perhaps even having Jay slightly ahead...maybe. I stated earlier after prejudging that Jay seemed batter on the last two back poses with Ronnie, comments that have since been echoed by flexonline....so It wasn't just hot air I was talking about!!

At the end of the evening though it was different. King Ronnie still ruled the animal kingdom, but I actually had Gustavo Badell CLEARLY in 2nd spot... he was the driest, hardest guy on stage. his muscle mass and separation were huge and I felt Jay just didn 't CUT it.... bu8t there was no way in hell that Jay would be walking away with anything less than 2nd.

I really feel for Cutler, he must be wondering what the hell he can do to be NO.1 I dunno, but I only see Gustavo Badell getting brighter at this point, the guy was a walking anatomy chart. He was dialed in like Coleman was in 2001.

Ronnie gave a very very heartfelt speech where he continously thanked God for being his Lord and savior and for making his dreams a reality. You know I felt his conviction, he really meant what he said, and he had his VERY proud mama beside him as well :)

Interesting that I talked to Larry Scott the day before and I said it will be great that ex-Olympians are judging the challenge round, keep it real. He rolled his eyes and commented something about politics still existing... read into that what you will. I know that Olympia placings sometimes make you scratch your head. I really felt that with the exception of the Cutler and Badell placing, spots 1-5 were on the money... and it is to be noted that I am not a fan as such of Badell, but gotta give kudo's.. Badell was a bad ass tonight!!!

Gunter seemd surprised that 4th was as good as it got for him, but I thought it was spot on, and he got what he should have placing wise.... Gunter is a great guy and I walk away from the weekend with a deeper respect for him.

Poor Victor Martinez, the challenge round saw him call out poses with the other 4 athlets in the top 5 and he lost all except one... which was overturned a minute later, with one of the judges saying he hit the wrong button (yeah right-gee the judges are full of poop at times)

Rounding out the top 10 were

6th Dennis James
7th Melvin Anthony
8th Branch Warren
9th Darrem Charles
10th Mustafa Mohammad

[ghostwheel]

Vegas is always a blast. That was at the Venetian right? I used to attend VSDA conventions there which were always help simultaneously with the adult video industry convention s AND the consumer electronics show so there were always pro adult film actresses, hookers, booth girls, everywhere you turned.

The result was the highest tits and ass ratio per capita packed into one square mile in the USA.

[max von]

Great review, looked throught that pitchures and it was almost like we were there with you. May have to do that again soon, like in march LOL

[Trans_Isomer]

Thanks for keeping the people who couldnt go updated Ibanez!

Great detail, I could picture in my head what you were talking about, lol, thanks again man

[Ibanez]

AHHHHHHHHH.....

All done for another year! Man, I am just on top of the world. It was something else. There were so many highlights, it's hard to think through all of them. I tell ya this though. I had my trusty mini dv camcorder with me a lot (with the exception of pre judging and finals) and I have a lot of memoies recorded. I will post more pics online tonight on my website and update here when that has been done.

The whole weekend cost around $1,000 for wife and I to attend (not including tix to events) and for the motivation, inspiration, product samples at the expo and fun that was had, it makes the decision to go next year again an absolute no brainer Best $1,000 investment into bodybuilding I ever made. To meet so many past Olympians, current greats etc was just outstanding.

I know my wife reads this, so I gotta give a huge thanks to her for encouraging me for us to go. Whilst she doesn't have the same passion as I do, she enjoyed herself and she is 100% supportive of my interests-thanks babe!!

Again, Chris, Andrea and staff from Discount Anabolics are just fantastic. They are genuine people who were down to earth and real friendly. DA will have my business and my recommendations for a LONG LONG time to come HAPPILY!! They are so much more real to work with, in comparison to so many other booths that has half naked models attempting to turn you on, or slick marketing types that spoke mountains of B.S (Gaspari and Labrada come to mind) Both thoise respecxtive companies have awesome products-but some of their reps noses were growing faster than pinnoccio :) hahahahaha.....

I have 114 pics from the finals which I will post on another webpage tonight. Special note-Max Von, I got a lotta pics of your boy Jay for ya champion!!

Man, high as a damn kite I am!! :)

[max von]

Excellent cant wait to see them.

[Ibanez]

Hey ppl... I have more pics updated and placed on the website for you. I have added about 20 pics or so ranging from expo pics to evening posing pics, challenge round pics and awards presentation pics.... All pics are thumbnails which can be clicked on for a larger image. I have also catorgarised them for easier viewing...

As promised Max, I have about half a dozen pics of your boy Cutler on there. Enjoy, feedback? questions? feel free to post away... Here is the link below

http://www.rockstarzusa.com/ROCKSTARZUSA1.html

Cheers F.T

[max von]

Hey ppl... I have more pics updated and placed on the website for you. I have added about 20 pics or so ranging from expo pics to evening posing pics, challenge round pics and awards presentation pics.... All pics are thumbnails which can be clicked on for a larger image. I have also catorgarised them for easier viewing...

As promised Max, I have about half a dozen pics of your boy Cutler on there. Enjoy, feedback? questions? feel free to post away... Here is the link below

http://www.rockstarzusa.com/ROCKSTARZUSA1.html

Cheers F.T

you are the man.

thanks buddy they look great

[max von]

I forgot to ask you how was HHH. He is the bomb, I will admitt I am a WWE fan

[Ibanez]

Hey Max, HHH was great, I would probably be impressed with his size if I met him under different circumstances.... I mean, he looked so small in comparison to others floating around. He seemed to be... professional would be the word I would use. He was at the BSN stand etc throughout the weekend, although I met him at the press conference myself. He made the time for me, so I appreciate that.

I found Gunter Schlierkamp and Ronnie Coleman the most pleasant of all the people. Neither of whom I expected to find like that. Jay seemed to be very happy to accomodate fans, although he looked tired in preparation for the show itself. I felt like he placed a lot of pressure on himself to win the 2005 Olympia, which didn't transpire, but damn he looked the best I have ever seen him. Nothing would make me happier than seeing Cutler wear the Olympia crown, even if it was just once.

I had to laugh at the press conference. The 'smaller' guys (who were still massive) were bringing up the trim midsection advisory etc and they obviously felt that Jay and Ronnie could be panalised for that. These same guys stated that Aesthetics needed to come into play. Jay responded with 'I am a freak bodybuilder, I have never had an aesthetic body, I am massive and I don't care to fit into the aesthetic look. Man, the crowd went nuts!! Jay made me feel so pumped at that point, I clenched my fist and pumped it in the air, yelling, you the man Jay!!!..lol

Ahhh, so many fun memories!!

[wedgylx]

Great pics fletch! and nice size!

[ghostwheel]

Who was who in the DA picture? From left to right please. Thanx!


Just don't try to arm wrestle or squeeze the grip too hard with those guys when you shake their hands. Looks like they could to some serious damage to a regular body type person.

Looks like it was a fun show.

[Ibanez]

Thanks guys, yeah I had fun there for sure!! I din't try and grip hands, it was the other way around ;) I would shake hands and they would all come in and slam a handshake with you, with the exception of Jay and Markus (poor buggers were probably starving when I met them..lol)

Ok, the DA photo, leftmost was Andrea (Chris Gatchis wife) lovely woman, next to her was a staff member whose name eludes me this second, he was very friendly and took the time to shoot the breeze (can't stress the importance of hiring good staff like that!!) and then beside him was Chris, the man himself! To the right of Chris was yours truly.

[Ibanez]

Oh yeah, thats the other thing, all the pro's I met had large LARGE hands, obviously from training, but maybe a few other things just caused them to grow at their extremities if you know what I mean ;)