Articles Latest News Is It The 90s All Over Again? Comparing Today’s Champs With Those of Yesteryear!
Is It The 90s All Over Again? Comparing Today’s Champs With Those of Yesteryear!
By Geoff Roberts
Bodybuilding fans, particularly o
lder bodybuilding fans, have been comparing the bodybuilders of the 90s with the athletes of today to no end in recent years. Most, if not all of these fans agree that the general competitiveness as well as talent of the athletes was far superior in the past.
In an attempt to rekindle the nostalgic flame of the mid to late 90s bodybuilding landscape, an effective strategy may be to examine similarities of specific athletes from then and now including everything from attitude, placings, hype and, of course, their physique.
Starting with the cream of the crop of the 90s – Dorian Yates! For the sake of this discussion, focus will be put mostly on the few years following Dorian's retirement simply because this timeframe seems to mesh nicely with today's.
In today's competitive scene, Jay Cutler seems to fit the bill as a modern day Dorian. Like Dorian, Cutler, instead of bowing out on top, has continued to compete, and with fairly decent success. The 90s saw a large crop of talent on the heels of The Shadow when he decided to call it quits after the 1997 Olympia.
In a similar fashion, some extremely talented bodybuilders are now hot on Jay’s heels and have even bested him a couple times which is notablyunlike the great Dorian’s experience.
The next order of business has to be the great Ronnie Coleman. It is unlikely that any fans would argue that the closest athlete to The Big Nasty in today's field is Phil Heath. Some may argue that Ronnie was much bigger, more dominant, etc.; however, it is worth noting that until 2003, Ronnie was certainly dominant but not overwhelmingly so, similar to how Phil is now.
As far as size is concerned, Coleman won his first Olympia under 250 lbs., standing 5 foot 11 inches. The Gift won his first Olympia around 240 lbs., standing 5 foot 9 inches, so even the topic of size is very comparable.Another aspect of these two mutants that is comparable is their staggered fan base of many supporters that love them as well as many detractors that do not.
Differences seem to be rare, but there is one that sticks out like a sore thumb. When Ronnie was climbing up through the ranks, nobody, and I mean nobody, figured him to ever be a threat at the top. Phil, on the other hand, was viewed as the heir to the throne – seemingly destined to be the next Mr. Olympia – as a 192lb amateur with a whopping two shows under his belt.
If not for this glaring difference of early potential, one may think that Phil's mother might have had too much to drink one night while hanging around The Big Nasty.
If Phil is the modern day Ronnie, one must ask, “Who is the modern day Nasser El Sonbaty, Paul Dillett, or Kevin Levrone?”
Beginning this discussion with Nasser, Paul, and Kevin, while excluding Shawn Ray, Chris Cormier, Flex Wheeler, and Gunter Schlierkamp is not by mistake. Using a “save the best for last” strategy, these three names are chosen first for the simple fact that they do not share as tantalizing similarities to the athletes of today as the latter four names.
Using the criteria mentioned earlier, the logical matches to Nasser, Paul, and Kevin today would be Kai Greene, Big Ramy, and Branch Warren respectively.
Similarities between Kai and Nasser are not overpoweringly strong, however, there are some, including their general freakishness, predictions of greatness, and wavering placings among the rest of the top pros. Both Nasser and Kai, while being top bodybuilders in the world, have had their share of extreme ups and downs at the top.
Most recently Kai took a strong second to Phil at the 2012 Olympia and many fans felt that Kai actually bested Phil, particularly from the back. This is almost a mirror image of what happened with Dorian and Nasser in 1997, even down to the front/back argument. It was commonly accepted that Nasser defeated Dorian from the front and thus should have won the show.
Big Ramy is being hyped as a top contender at this year’s show. Unfortunately, there were really no out-of-nowhere freaks (aside from Ronnie, I guess) in the late 90's. There was however a monster freak of a man named Paul Dillett.
The similarities of Big Ramy and Dillett are scarce but the ones that do exist are very specific. Most notably are the rumors of some sort of rare genetic abnormality, the likes of which has not yet been seen in professional bodybuilding. Aside from this, you also have the fact that these two are both monsters of men with muscle that hangs off them like steaks stapled to a scarecrow, while also sporting hard to believe proportions.
The comparisons between Bra
nch Warren and Kevin Levrone are a bit different. The only real physique similarity between these two would be the fact that they have both mastered Kevin's classic slightly-angled-to-the-side, slightly-bent-over, crab most muscular pose with lethal effectiveness.
These two have also shown an amazing ability to not only come back from bad injuries, but to come back in a fashion that makes Usain Bolt appear to be of just average speed. Branch and Kevin also share similar placings (between fifth and second) at the top in respect to their best years. The majority of diehard fans and historians would call these last two examples nit-picking, and for good reason.
The last comparison however, should hold a bit more water(no pun intended). This being the fan bases of The Maryland Muscle Machine and The Texas Rattle Snake. To say these two men have a strong, loyal, and positive fan base is a Lou Ferrigno-sized understatement.
Modern day comparisons to the greats of the past now begin to reach a higher level of significance. In comparing Dennis Wolf with Gunter Schlierkamp, it may be more effective to simply ask the question “what did they not have in common?” Loud dissatisfied boos from the fans after each of their placings is announced, massively wide shoulders, dramatic X-frames, both from Germany, multiple 5th place finishes at the Olympia, never lived up to the potential everyone thought was there, etc. If only Phil did a smaller show this year and Wolf managed to beat him à la the 2002 GNC Show of Strength!
Flex Wheeler and Shawn Rhoden are a true bodybuilding comparison due to the fact that – unlike Branch and Kevin – it is based ninety percent on their physiques alone. Aside from their physique you do have the consistency of a sort of mysterious aura about them, as well as an extremely quiet demeanor.
The physiques of Flex and Shawn are clearly comparable, most obviously with their waists and joints that it seems God mistakenly derived from small Asian female genetics. They both coupled these impossibly small waists and joints with an amount of muscle that even Dexter Jackson would not have bet on them ever achieving.
Comparison number eight can be summed up in one simple word: Consistency. 
Of course this is referring to Dexter Jackson and Shawn Ray. These men are the epitome of consistency, both to the point of being ridiculed by fans and even judges for “staying the same” year to year.
Dexter and Shawn are also closer than a father and son in regards to how they climbed to and stayed at the top of the bodybuilding world for years on end. This was done through not overdoing any aspect of the bodybuilding lifestyle, maintaining near perfect proportions and, of course, coming in bone dry and shredded.
Last but not least is the ironic comparison of Victor Martinez and Chris Cormier. This comparison is ironic because Victor and Chris have butted heads on numerous occasions throughout their careers, at times these confrontations even came to blows!
Chris and Vic are two of the few bodybuilders in the history of the sport who literally do not have strong or weak body parts. If one is asked what Chris' or Victor's best body part is, the answer is like finding Bigfoot. Some people will name a weakness, but they are probably just seeing things.
Interestingly, these two rivals' other common trait is the well-documented fact that they are easy-going guys who like to party. They are not stiffs who never leave the house in fear of missing a meal or possibly being around a non-anabolic drug like most obsessive bodybuilders.
Taking everything discussed here into consideration, an argument can still be made that the talent pool was deeper in the 90s than today. However, the cast of characters remains just as diverse, while the level of competition is still extremely high.
Imagine for a moment if you had a rookie Paul Dillett who had just decimated the field at the third biggest show in the world, as well as a rested and recovered Dorian Yates both coming into the 2000 (Ronnie's attempt at number 3) Mr. Olympia. This would be a Mr. Olympia of truly epic proportions. What is being seen today is not a far cry from this hypothetical rendition of the 2000 Mr. Olympia.
If you judged this year’s contest based solely on these individual comparisons of the past, the outcome would have Phil Heath (Ronnie Coleman) taking the Sandow, Branch Warren (Kevin Levrone) in second, Shawn Rhoden (Flex Wheeler) taking third, Dexter Jackson (Shawn Ray) landing in fourth place, with Kai Greene (Nasser el Sonbaty) finding himself just making the top 5, with a returning Jay Cutler (Dorian Yates) displacing one of these men, most likely towards the top.
So who is this era’s Jay Cutler? Who is the m
an who will dethrone the king? Two possible athletes that would certainly fit this bill are Steve Kuclo and Justin Compton. First, foremost, and possibly most important is the fact that these two have that all-American golden boy look. Not only that, but both are also very young and possess some serious talent as top bodybuilders already.
Justin is one of the hardest guys in the IFBB, and possesses unbelievable shape and symmetry. If he is capable of adding another 20 lbs. of muscle in the next couple of years while keeping his waist tight he will be a sight to behold. Steve may not be as hard as Justin but he more than makes up for it by being at least as wide and big as 95 percent of the IFBB Pros, while still needing to “fill out” his young frame. It is certainly not farfetched to think that either of these two young guns could shoot up the ranks and take a strong second to Phil in 2014, just as Jay did with Ronnie in 2001.
Obviously this form of “prediction based on a similar past era” is just a conversation piece with little to no solid rationale, but nonetheless it’s still entertaining to think about. Nearly as entertaining as this year’s Mr. Olympia competition is shaping up to be!
