Written by Peter McGough
03 April 2014

 The WBF Story

Why The IFBB's Greatest Ever Challenge Failed

 

 It started as a rumor in the late spring of 1990. Wrestling czar Vince McMahon, President of the World Wrestling Federation (WWE) and TitanSports, was planning to launch a bodybuilding magazine as a precursor to forming a rival pro federation to the IFBB.

All summer of that year, McMahon and his associates denied they had any designs on creating a bodybuilding federation, saying that they proposed only to produce a magazine called Bodybuilding Lifestyles. In mid summer, it was announced that Tom Platz, one of bodybuilding's favorite sons, had joined the Bodybuilding Lifestyles team.

 In order to promote the magazine, TitanSports booked an exhibitor booth at the 1990 IFBB Mr. Olympia contest (the first and so far only drug tested Olympia in the contest’s history) to be held on September 15th in Chicago. At the conclusion of the contest, the Bodybuilding Lifestyles staff, in Trojan-horse style, scurried around the Arie Crown Theater handing out a press release that announced the formation of a new bodybuilding federation: the World Bodybuilding Federation (WBF). The release stated that the WBF would, “Revamp professional bodybuilding with dramatic new events and the richest prize money in the history of the sport”. Furthermore, Tom Platz had been appointed Director of Talent Development for the WBF.

 Throughout that fall and winter, potential WBF candidates were flown first class to TitanSport's Connecticut headquarters and given VIP treatment. Speculation ran wild as to who the WBF would sign.

 THE DIRTY DOZEN

 All was revealed at a glitzy press conference staged at New York's Plaza Hotel on January 30th, 1991, when out strode the following 13 athletes: Aaron Baker, Mike Christian, Vince Comerford, David Dearth, Berry DeMey, Johnnie Morant, Danny Padilla, Tony Pearson, Jim Quinn, Mike Quinn, Eddie Robinson, Gary Strydom, and Troy Zuccolotto.

 In recruiting the 13 musclemen, the WBF had shelled out megabucks. For instance, it was reported that Gary Strydom had a three-year deal worth $400,000 per year.

McMahon announced that the WBF's first contest would be held in Atlantic City on June 15th, 1991 at the opulent Taj Mahal casino, owned by Donald Trump. The Plaza Hotel lineup was more impressive than anyone had previously thought, and Tom Platz further said that the signing of other “biggies” would occur before June 15th. It seemed that a potent force was being assembled, and in reaction to the threat, Joe Weider began to sign more athletes to keep them in the IFBB fold. In retrospect, that press conference can be viewed as the WBF's finest hour.

 Eighteen months later on July 15th, 1992, Vince McMahon was reduced from kicking butt to sort of kissing it when he called Ben and Joe Weider, pronounced them the fathers of bodybuilding, and told them he was closing down his bodybuilding magazine production and the WBF.

 Since the January 1991 press conference, the history of the WBF has been nothing but a catalog of misfires, including the promised signing of Lou Ferrigno, which became a now you see him, now you don't farce. Then there was the two WBF Championships they staged in 1991 and 1992 that relied more on show biz than the show me the muscle biz. In the 1991 event each competitor was introduced by a two-minute video allegedly highlighting their personas after which the subject himself appeared personifying the characterization just previewed. Therefore among other sights we had Berry DeMey appearing as a Dutch James Bond, Troy Zuccolotto as the California beach dude complete with surf board, Aaron Baker as The Dark Angel, Mike Christian as the Iron Warrior, Gary Strydom anointed as the “Toast of The Town” complete with top hat and cane, and Vince Comerford coming out swinging a golf club. They made Kai Greene’s various exotic ensembles seem like attire for a Vicarage tea party. It was over the top and under the excitement radar; a state of affairs that prompted your humble scribe to comment that WBF stood for “We Bore Fans”.

 THE NAIL IN THE COFFIN

 What the WBF presented was of no interest to hardcore bodybuilding fans and equally insignificant to non-bodybuilding fans. Like Charlie Sheen at his local late night bar the enterprise fell between two stools.

 Shortly after the 1992 extravaganza Mc Mahon pulled the plug on the whole WBF project. But in reality the factor that put the nail in the WBF’s coffin was that the WWE had become embroiled in a drug scandal where it became mainstream news that a doctor on staff was administering drugs to headline grapplers and the whole episode escalated to the point that McMahon had been forced to admit to his own “experimental” use of anabolic steroids. Thus being enmeshed in a drug scandal while trying to promote a new bodybuilding federation (let’s face it, bodybuilding, especially in those pre baseball juicing times. had always been a lightning rod and Exhibit A in the drugs in sport debate) was as good a PR move as Bill O’Reilly opening a charm school.

 But for that drug scandal would McMahon have persevered and re-shaped his bodybuilding vision to hit the target with the sport’s core audience? We’ll never know but my guess is that devoid of the drug debacle he would have re-thought his strategy, listened more to Tom Platz and brought others in with a thorough grounding of what makes bodybuilders and bodybuilding fans tick. I can tell you many figures were sitting on the fence waiting to see if McMahon required their services.

 LAST CALL

 The reason for McMahon's astonishing phone call to the brothers Weider, presumably, was that he wished to ensure he would be able to advertise Icopro products (the supplement line he had millions invested in) in Muscle & Fitness, and Flex. Anyway, having lost a reported 15 million dollars on his foray into bodybuilding, McMahon bowed out rather gracefully.

 After several variations of an appropriate penalty for re-entering the IFBB arena had been mooted, it was announced in February 1993 that the WBF athletes would be allowed to compete at IFBB events: the fine being 10% of each individual's annual WBF salary, deducted from contest winnings and guest appearances. Of the 13 WBF athletes, Mike Christian and Vince Comerford never competed again. And of those 11 who did renew their IFBB career, only Aaron Baker and Mike Quinn ever qualified for an Olympia.

 The WBF came into being in 1991 with 13 athletes and, after a two-contest lifespan, expired in 1992 with 13 athletes. The athletes who signed with the WBF did so for financial gain. There's nothing wrong with that, and the IFBB, understanding that “business is business”, allowed them to return with a much milder penalty than anyone had first imagined. To those who say there should have been no penalty, how would they explain such leniency to those who refused the WBF's bait?

 The opening of May's 1993 Night of Champions in New York celebrated the return of the WBF athletes to the IFBB fold. Against a graveyard setting, they were resurrected and reunited with their former colleagues. The tableau concluded with the strains of John Sebastian singing “Welcome Back”. The WBF story was over and done with.

 

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