Better Quinn?

[thethinker48]

Mike came down to the local Golds (which my friend owned), when i was younger and did a seminar and posed. I went out to eat lunch with him after....I think he was still really battling some serious drug use at this time because he seemed really wired and really on edge in front of all of us (both at seminar and at lunch). To be honest, as a fellow Massachusetts guy and feeling like he was one of us....I kind of came away dissapointed (not in his physique) but just his character...I'll just leave it at that. Physique wise his upper body was world class for the time. Big big arms and a great physique from the waist up. It was almost a tale of two physiques because his upper body looked like it belonged onstage at 255 and his lower body looked 215ish....but his back and his arm shape were pretty awesome. Jim Quinn....seen many times, in clothes he was about as impressive as a guy could ever be. I am over 6'1" so i get more impressed with the tall guys who are able to fill everything out. Mike was the better onstage bodybuilder as far as shape. Jim Quinn was hard as nails onstage and offseason but again, guy looked crazy in clothes because his traps were thru the roof, and whatever was showing (forearms, calves) were shredded and unbelievably vascular. Like Kovacs and other guys like that, just the wrong aesthetics to be a show winning bodybuilder. Strong as all hell though. Seen Yates in his heyday looking like granite stone, I have seen Ronnie in the offseason at well over 3 bills and change, and saw Haney at his absolute best coming down for the 91 Olympia and he looked like a freak of nature that big with that small of a waist....so it gets hard to get impressed with some of the second tier guys when you see guys from Planet X

I love these stories, most of us young guys would never get to know this stuff if vets didn't share it.

Which bodybuilder lived up to his name that you met? (good or bad)

 

[lookslikesausage]

Anyone remember when Vince McMahon tried to start his own bodybuilding federation and add elements of pro wrestling (mainly trash talking) to bodybuilding. Mike Quinn was in their first show, and his conditioning was not so good. I remember someone saying his coach put him on a very low carb/ high fat diet for the first time.....didn't work so well. I remember seeing a lot of pics of Mike in BB mags back in the day, and he always looked great. He should have just went with his usual cutting diet for that show.

Actually, Vince and the WWF were being scrutinized by the Feds at that time and his trial was upcoming. The WBF decided to do drug testing at their second show and that's the one you're referencing. Mike might have actually competed drug-free at that show and it showed. He was shockingly soft and he was endorsing the new "anabolic" diet courtesy of none other than Mauro DiPascuale, who was supposedly WBF's drug testing guy. He later wrote The Anabolic Diet, which was a low carb w/high fat/protein. That whole show was a fiasco. Apparently (and clearly) Strydom (the winner) did not get tested. Mike being grossly out of shape was definitely the result of him not having gear for prep. He was so out of shape my guess is that he was off for months leading up to the show.

 

[lookslikesausage]

Mike came down to the local Golds (which my friend owned), when i was younger and did a seminar and posed. I went out to eat lunch with him after....I think he was still really battling some serious drug use at this time because he seemed really wired and really on edge in front of all of us (both at seminar and at lunch). To be honest, as a fellow Massachusetts guy and feeling like he was one of us....I kind of came away dissapointed (not in his physique) but just his character...I'll just leave it at that. Physique wise his upper body was world class for the time. Big big arms and a great physique from the waist up. It was almost a tale of two physiques because his upper body looked like it belonged onstage at 255 and his lower body looked 215ish....but his back and his arm shape were pretty awesome. Jim Quinn....seen many times, in clothes he was about as impressive as a guy could ever be. I am over 6'1" so i get more impressed with the tall guys who are able to fill everything out. Mike was the better onstage bodybuilder as far as shape. Jim Quinn was hard as nails onstage and offseason but again, guy looked crazy in clothes because his traps were thru the roof, and whatever was showing (forearms, calves) were shredded and unbelievably vascular. Like Kovacs and other guys like that, just the wrong aesthetics to be a show winning bodybuilder. Strong as all hell though. Seen Yates in his heyday looking like granite stone, I have seen Ronnie in the offseason at well over 3 bills and change, and saw Haney at his absolute best coming down for the 91 Olympia and he looked like a freak of nature that big with that small of a waist....so it gets hard to get impressed with some of the second tier guys when you see guys from Planet X

Saw Cormier in clothes and i don't think he was full offseason but then i don't think he was in prep either. Oddly, he didn't look massive. He looked like he had incredible shape and muscularity (very small-waisted) but not massive by any means. Meanwhile, Lee Priest looked like he was from another planet. his hands looked like softballs with Vienna Sausages for fingers. His hands were fucking massive, as were his forearms and arms. This was the late 90's btw. Both looked impressive but very different. One of the biggest guys i ever saw in the gym was Jeff Long and it was the offseason. Guy looked like he was well over 300 lbs.

 

[hawkmoon]

Mike came down to the local Golds (which my friend owned), when i was younger and did a seminar and posed. I went out to eat lunch with him after....I think he was still really battling some serious drug use at this time because he seemed really wired and really on edge in front of all of us (both at seminar and at lunch). To be honest, as a fellow Massachusetts guy and feeling like he was one of us....I kind of came away dissapointed (not in his physique) but just his character...I'll just leave it at that. Physique wise his upper body was world class for the time. Big big arms and a great physique from the waist up. It was almost a tale of two physiques because his upper body looked like it belonged onstage at 255 and his lower body looked 215ish....but his back and his arm shape were pretty awesome. Jim Quinn....seen many times, in clothes he was about as impressive as a guy could ever be. I am over 6'1" so i get more impressed with the tall guys who are able to fill everything out. Mike was the better onstage bodybuilder as far as shape. Jim Quinn was hard as nails onstage and offseason but again, guy looked crazy in clothes because his traps were thru the roof, and whatever was showing (forearms, calves) were shredded and unbelievably vascular. Like Kovacs and other guys like that, just the wrong aesthetics to be a show winning bodybuilder. Strong as all hell though. Seen Yates in his heyday looking like granite stone, I have seen Ronnie in the offseason at well over 3 bills and change, and saw Haney at his absolute best coming down for the 91 Olympia and he looked like a freak of nature that big with that small of a waist....so it gets hard to get impressed with some of the second tier guys when you see guys from Planet X

I know it's incredibly unlikely, but it would be amusing if that was the same seminar I attended. I think it was Brockton, but it was sooooo long ago.

 

[hawkmoon]

Saw Cormier in clothes and i don't think he was full offseason but then i don't think he was in prep either. Oddly, he didn't look massive. He looked like he had incredible shape and muscularity (very small-waisted) but not massive by any means. Meanwhile, Lee Priest looked like he was from another planet. his hands looked like softballs with Vienna Sausages for fingers. His hands were fucking massive, as were his forearms and arms. This was the late 90's btw. Both looked impressive but very different. One of the biggest guys i ever saw in the gym was Jeff Long and it was the offseason. Guy looked like he was well over 300 lbs.

Not exactly a street clothes story , but I used to train in the same gym as Paul DeMayo on occasion. I was working out next to him while he was squatting with our mutual "friend" Louie.

He sat next to me on the bench and I remember those legs full of blood. Good God. Classic 90s spandex, his hams making contact halfway down his calf. Meat seeming to rise inches above his kneecap.

So long ago, but still vivid.

We had some good bodybuilders in Massachusetts.

 

[DOGGCRAPP]

I love these stories, most of us young guys would never get to know this stuff if vets didn't share it.

Which bodybuilder lived up to his name that you met? (good or bad)

In a personality way or a physique way? In a personality way, the guys you have seen become my close friends over the years were the people that were most like myself in nature. (Someone like Dusty, we text each other virtually every day...there are a few others). Physique wise...Haney was impressive, Yates was impressive, ronnie was impressive....the only person I can really think of note that I havent seen or knew is Kovacs. I saw Jeff King in his prime...that was impressive. Seeing Platz's quads from about 3 feet away was pretty insane. I used to see Nasser alot locally but that really didnt impress me because in the offseason he kind of looked like a big blocky water tank (he looked great for shows though). Vic Richards was pretty crazy looking among other pro's. But personally for me the true "WTF?!" moment was Paul Dillett. See all of you guys have seen stage shots and some photo shoot shots of him, where he was dieted down and depleted.....I saw that guy at about 6 and 8 and 12 weeks out of shows multiple times and it was truly a freak of nature. You rarely ever see pics of him unless they are all from a contest stage. I saw him stand right next to Flex, Cormier and others in a lobby and in the audience and he would dwarf those guys. He was just insane looking in person. 7.5 inch wrists into an upper arm that had to be 24 inches....wide as all hell. The look of him at 10 weeks out of a show did not look physically possible. I remember being in the lobby of a show one year and he walked by wearing a white shirt with high cut sleeves, and it looked so from another world....it did not look like other pros. Just muscle on top of muscle on top of tiny joints. Ronnie at 320-330 was a human sherman tank. I used to see Demayo out a the Palace Nightclub and at shows. I also have a video of him guest posing to the quadzilla routine that i should transfer online. Phil Hill's quads were pretty damn crazy looking. But personally for me seeing Dillett in the offseason was pretty damn mind boggling. To be honest it really messed up my confidence level...because we were roughly the same height at 6'1" 1/2" and there was nothing on this planet that could make myself (or anyone for that matter) have those proportions. And 225 on the bench press and 3-4 plates on each side of the leg press to look like that? Put Hanshaw, or Yates drive/personality into that physique and you would have seen the best bodybuilder of all time.

 

[DOGGCRAPP]

I know it's incredibly unlikely, but it would be amusing if that was the same seminar I attended. I think it was Brockton, but it was sooooo long ago.

This was in Leominster Massachusetts at the Golds Gym there

 

[DOGGCRAPP]

Not exactly a street clothes story , but I used to train in the same gym as Paul DeMayo on occasion. I was working out next to him while he was squatting with our mutual "friend" Louie.

He sat next to me on the bench and I remember those legs full of blood. Good God. Classic 90s spandex, his hams making contact halfway down his calf. Meat seeming to rise inches above his kneecap.

So long ago, but still vivid.

We had some good bodybuilders in Massachusetts.

Yes we did. Cutler, Mattarrazzo, Demayo, King, Arthur Prince (remember him?), I remember a guy named Chuck Re up near Boston that was a big dude...but I think he got an autoimmune disorder or something.

 

[maldorf]

Yes we did. Cutler, Mattarrazzo, Demayo, King, Arthur Prince (remember him?), I remember a guy named Chuck Re up near Boston that was a big dude...but I think he got an autoimmune disorder or something.

Did you ever meet Matt Mendenhall? I was a big fan of him back in the 80s. Talked with one guy that grew up with him and his brother. He seems like a nice guy and had an incredible physique.

Matt Mendenhall: a Short Biography

mendenhall.fortunecity.ws

 

[DOGGCRAPP]

Did you ever meet Matt Mendenhall? I was a big fan of him back in the 80s. Talked with one guy that grew up with him and his brother. He seems like a nice guy and had an incredible physique.

Matt Mendenhall: a Short Biography

mendenhall.fortunecity.ws

I saw into him very quickly in NY outside of a Night of Champions show and also saw him onstage at a Musclemania show. (He had some problems back in the day as you probably know).... Very impressive in person....along with Rory Leidemeyer, Edgar Fletcher, Jeff Williams, probably the greatest bodybuilder never to get a pro card.

 

[lookslikesausage]

In a personality way or a physique way? In a personality way, the guys you have seen become my close friends over the years were the people that were most like myself in nature. (Someone like Dusty, we text each other virtually every day...there are a few others). Physique wise...Haney was impressive, Yates was impressive, ronnie was impressive....the only person I can really think of note that I havent seen or knew is Kovacs. I saw Jeff King in his prime...that was impressive. Seeing Platz's quads from about 3 feet away was pretty insane. I used to see Nasser alot locally but that really didnt impress me because in the offseason he kind of looked like a big blocky water tank (he looked great for shows though). Vic Richards was pretty crazy looking among other pro's. But personally for me the true "WTF?!" moment was Paul Dillett. See all of you guys have seen stage shots and some photo shoot shots of him, where he was dieted down and depleted.....I saw that guy at about 6 and 8 and 12 weeks out of shows multiple times and it was truly a freak of nature. You rarely ever see pics of him unless they are all from a contest stage. I saw him stand right next to Flex, Cormier and others in a lobby and in the audience and he would dwarf those guys. He was just insane looking in person. 7.5 inch wrists into an upper arm that had to be 24 inches....wide as all hell. The look of him at 10 weeks out of a show did not look physically possible. I remember being in the lobby of a show one year and he walked by wearing a white shirt with high cut sleeves, and it looked so from another world....it did not look like other pros. Just muscle on top of muscle on top of tiny joints. Ronnie at 320-330 was a human sherman tank. I used to see Demayo out a the Palace Nightclub and at shows. I also have a video of him guest posing to the quadzilla routine that i should transfer online. Phil Hill's quads were pretty damn crazy looking. But personally for me seeing Dillett in the offseason was pretty damn mind boggling. To be honest it really messed up my confidence level...because we were roughly the same height at 6'1" 1/2" and there was nothing on this planet that could make myself (or anyone for that matter) have those proportions. And 225 on the bench press and 3-4 plates on each side of the leg press to look like that? Put Hanshaw, or Yates drive/personality into that physique and you would have seen the best bodybuilder of all time.

what was the deal with Dillett's training? did he train light on purpose? was he weak? lazy? i've heard all of the above but i also heard he used ridiculously light weight, especially in comparison to other pros, even to gym rats. I've also read that he ate very little all year round.

 

[lookslikesausage]

Not exactly a street clothes story , but I used to train in the same gym as Paul DeMayo on occasion. I was working out next to him while he was squatting with our mutual "friend" Louie.

He sat next to me on the bench and I remember those legs full of blood. Good God. Classic 90s spandex, his hams making contact halfway down his calf. Meat seeming to rise inches above his kneecap.

So long ago, but still vivid.

We had some good bodybuilders in Massachusetts.

i read that he never squatted more the 3-4 plates. what was he squatting on that day (if you recall)?

 

[DOGGCRAPP]

what was the deal with Dillett's training? did he train light on purpose? was he weak? lazy? i've heard all of the above but i also heard he used ridiculously light weight, especially in comparison to other pros, even to gym rats. I've also read that he ate very little all year round.

Yep he pretty much went thru the motions, didnt eat much, didnt train too hard unless it was for a video, just kind of did this bodybuilding thing because he had genetics for it but not because he loved it at all. Until you stood next to this freak in person....its really hard to grasp the kind of volume of muscle that was hanging off his joints at 6'1". Arms were bigger than his head in front double bicep pose.

 

[FK86]

Boy, is this ever stupid.

 

[maldorf]

Boy, is this ever stupid.

Would have been nice if it took off, because I think it would have made the sport more popular.

 

[lookslikesausage]

Would have been nice if it took off, because I think it would have made the sport more popular.

I agree. I think Vince had the right idea. How often do you hear the question, "what was ______ like outside of the gym?" I think Vince understands that very well obviously and i think the character aspect of pro-wrestling would've carried over very well into bodybuilding. Vince is a visionary. Timing seemed to be the biggest obstacle with the WBF. Now would've been a great time for it. Actually, the timing couldn't have been worse with steroid trial that was looming against Vince at the time. It's incredible how many scandals Vince and WWF/WWE have been through and still managed to come out the other side mostly intact.

 

[hawkmoon]

Yes we did. Cutler, Mattarrazzo, Demayo, King, Arthur Prince (remember him?), I remember a guy named Chuck Re up near Boston that was a big dude...but I think he got an autoimmune disorder or something.

I knew Arthur, we trained a few times at World's in Quincy. Arthur used to show up in his Mustang with one of those early giant cabinet speaker boxes in his trunk.
When I went to to tour a particular University. The admin officer mentioned he was there, "We have the Prince of Bodybuilding here". He presented it as a bonus reason for me to attend.

In MA we had the King (Jeff) and Prince (Arthur) of Bodybuilding.

Chuck Re I think I recall showing up at Universe in Quincy when Mike Aristide still owned it.
That was my first real bodybuilding gym.

 

[Polska 2]

Both were awesome.
Jim jokes that he had the worst genetics ever as a pro

Mike Quinn was lambasted at the second WBF drug-tested championships. His routine had him as a villain on the run with a cop chasing him. He was really out of shape and someone from the crowd screamed “arrest him for being fat”.

 

[hawkmoon]

i read that he never squatted more the 3-4 plates. what was he squatting on that day (if you recall)?

I recall him squatting 6 plates that day if my memory is correct.
I remember because I took second to his brother and made legs a priority thereafter. I made it a mission to train like him (though my genetic were inferior).
He always used a 2x4 under the heels, I copied that too.

My legs did become my best bodypart.

 

[lookslikesausage]

I recall him squatting 6 plates that day if my memory is correct.
I remember because I took second to his brother and made legs a priority thereafter. I made it a mission to train like him (though my genetic were inferior).
He always used a 2x4 under the heels, I copied that too.

My legs did become my best bodypart.

yeah, elevating the heels makes it almost like a totally different exercise. so many people would get what they're looking out of squats if they did that. Definitely the better way to squat for most bodybuilders. How many reps was he getting with 6 plates? That's pretty damn heavy!