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The World Bodybuilding Federation (WBF) was a bodybuilding organization founded in 1990 by Vince McMahon that lasted until 1992. It was a subsidiary of Titan Sports, which owned and operated the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE).

History

Creation

Vince McMahon created the WBF as competition to the long established International Federation of BodyBuilding (IFBB). In 1990, McMahon initially denied that he was starting a bodybuilding organization, instead stressing that he was only starting a magazine called Bodybuilding Lifestyles. He hired famed bodybuilding personality Tom Platz to oversee the publication. McMahon also invested in a line of bodybuilding supplements known as ICOPRO (Integrated Conditioning Program). These ventures were part of efforts by Titan Sports to diversify beyond its flagship professional wrestling business,

The magazine secured a booth at the 1990 Mr. Olympia competition on September 15, 1990 in Chicago, where Platz and McMahon made appearances and signed autographs. Tom Platz asked if he could make a speech to the crowd, unbeknownst to the IFBB's co-founders Ben and Joe Weider. Platz used that platform to announce that Titan Sports would be forming the World Bodybuilding Federation, and proclaimed that they planned to "kick the IFBB's ass". A group of models subsequently entered the auditorium to distribute a promotional pamphlet.

At the conclusion of that competition, the booth handed out press releases announcing the WBF's formation. The press release stated that the WBF would "revamp professional bodybuilding with dramatic new events and the richest prize money in the history of the sport." It also mentioned that Tom Platz would be Director of Talent Development for the organization. In a press conference the next day, McMahon explained that the WBF planned to feature "bodybuilding the way it was meant to be"—which was interpreted by some as a thinly-veiled reference to a lack of drug testing; the 1990 Mr. Olympia competition was the first to employ drug testing of participants, although criticism of the change by attendees led the IFBB to reverse course the following year.

Inaugural event

In a January 30, 1991 press conference at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, McMahon presented the inaugural members of the WBF's roster, and announced the organization's inaugural championship. The federation signed 13 competitors, many IFBB regulars, to long-term contracts, including 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.

The competitors had been lured to the WBF with lucrative contracts of at least $100,000 per-year (in addition to competition purses), with Strydom's reportedly valued at $400,000 per-year. The IFBB warned that it would blacklist any competitor who moved to the WBF. In an effort to compete with the WBF, it increased the top prize of Mr. Olympia 1991 to $100,000, while its 1991 Night of Champions event featured an opening sketch with its competitors destroying headstones engraved with the names of the 13 people who had signed to the WBF.

The WBF sought to combine traditional bodybuilding competitions with sports entertainment elements similar to the WWF's programming and events. The roster were promoted as the "WBF BodyStars" (a parallel to the WWF marketing its performers as "superstars"), and adopted kayfabe personas (such as Tony Pearson being billed as "The Jet Man", for example). During the lead-up to the inaugural WBF Championship pay-per-view, the participants made appearances and cut promos during WWF programming. WWF performers also promoted the WBF, and a celebrity episode of the game show Family Feud was played between teams representing the WBF and WWF.

The first WBF Championship would be held at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City on June 15, 1991, which was hosted by talk show host Regis Philbin and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, with guest appearances by WWF performers Miss Elizabeth and Randy Savage. The competition would consist of two mandatory pose rounds, followed by an "entertainment" round, where the competitors each appeared in a pre-recorded short that concluded live on-stage. The event's presentation wrestling-inspired features such as entrance videos for each competitor, and the use of pyrotechnics. Strydom would win the inaugural WBF Championship, receiving $275,000.

The show was met with mixed reviews: some critics praised the event's emphasis on production values and the competitor's personalities, but felt that its use of sports entertainment gimmicks drew too many comparisons to wrestling.

Going drug-free, 1992 championship

In a continued effort to build crossovers between the WBF and wrestling, it hired Lex Luger away from the WWF's chief competitor WCW. Luger would serve as a co-host for a weekly WBF television series, WBF BodyStars.

In June 1991, shortly after the WBF Championship, former WWF ringside doctor George Zahorian was convicted of illegally supplying anabolic steroids to multiple WWF wrestlers Later, McMahon himself would be indicted as well; the WWF would soon introduce a drug testing policy in response to the indictment, . In August 1991, in an attempt to build mainstream interest in the WBF, it announced that it would sign former bodybuilder and The Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno, in a deal reported to be $900,000 per-year. In an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, he stated that he was attracted to the WBF for his return to competitive bodybuilding because it had the "strictest drug testing in all of professional sports." Despite claiming prior to its 1991 championship that steroid testing would be used, the WBF did not actually perform any tests during the competition.

Promotional material for the 1992 WBF Championship, scheduled for June 13, 1992 in Long Beach, billed Ferrigno as a top contender for Strydom's title. In March 1992, three months prior to the Championship, McMahon publicly announced that the WBF would begin conducting drug testing for its competitions. Titan Sports would hire Mauro Di Pasquale to oversee the drug testing programs for the WWF and WBF. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that in a company meeting, "most of the guys freaked out about being told to give up all their drugs just three months before a contest, despite many willingly spouting the drug-free company line", and that Ferrigno quit the WBF shortly afterward (citing his upcoming and legitimate carpal tunnel surgery as reasoning, but subsequently jumping to IFBB to compete at Mr. Olympia later that year), as "the idea of competing without drugs, as he was so proudly talking of on Carson months earlier, apparently wasn't even considered as an option".

Promotion for the 1992 championship on WBF BodyStars subsequently emphasized that the event would be "drug-free", despite the fact that many of the participants would fail drug tests in the weeks leading up to the event, leading to fines and six-week suspensions that reduced morale. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter noted that "while the idea of promoting a show where the majority of participants had recently failed a steroid test as drug-free on the surface was both ludicrous and fraudulent, the funny thing is, when show time came, it appeared that in the preparatory period for the show among the crew, there was less steroid use than at any contest of that level in recent years." Many of the competitors relied on Di Pasquale's ketogenic diet as al alternative to anabolic steroids.

Lex Luger was scheduled to participate in the championship as a guest performer, but was involved in a motorcycle accident prior to the event. He was instead interviewed via satellite during the pay-per-view. The resulting competition was marred by most of the competitors being relatively out-of-shape due to the lack of steroids.

Demise

After the second event received only around 3,000 pay-per-view buys, on July 15, 1992, McMahon called Ben and Joe Weider to tell them that the WBF had been disbanded, and encouraged them to allow the WBF members to rejoin the IFBB.

Champions

• 1991 - Gary Strydom
• 1992 - Gary Strydom

Results

WBF Championship - 1991

June 15, 1991 from the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey

• 1. Gary Strydom
• 2. Mike Christian
• 3. Berry de Mey
• 4. Jim Quinn
• 5. Eddie Robinson

WBF Championship - 1992

June 13, 1992 from Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center in Long Beach, California

• 1. Gary Strydom
• 2. Jim Quinn
• 3. Aaron Baker
• 4. Berry de Mey
• 5. David Dearth

Home video

Both the 1991 and 1992 WBF Championship events were released by Coliseum Video.

WBF BodyStars

WBF BodyStars was a weekly television program that aired weekends in 1992 on USA Network. Matt Lauer was advertised as the show's host prior to its première, but he never made an appearance. Instead, it was co-hosted by Vince McMahon, Cameo Kneuer, and Lex Luger, the last of which . The show followed the training lifestyles of the bodybuilders, featured a variety of skits and humorous quips, and offered general bodybuilding and health-related advice.

The program changed its title to BodyStars in late 1992 after the WBF had disbanded. At that point, the program was primarily used to promote McMahon's ICOPRO line of bodybuilding supplements. Having lost much of its appeal, the show was soon taken off the air.

Legacy

Even after the WBF was shut down, WWF programming continued to regularly plug ICOPRO products through at least 1995, to the point that an ICOPRO banner was displayed inside Manhattan Center during a throwback-themed leg of the WWE Raw 25th anniversary special in 2018.

References

1. ^ "Vince McMahon's Attempt to Take Over Bodybuilding". Muscle & Fitness. 2019-03-07. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
2. ^ Dilbert, Ryan. "Vince McMahon's Failed Attempt to Take over Bodybuilding". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
3. ^ "When Bodybuilding Met Wrestling: The Bizarre Tale of the World Bodybuilding Federation". BarBend. 2020-03-17. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
4. Muchnick, Irvin (2007). Wrestling Babylon : piledriving tales of drugs, sex, death and scandal. Toronto : ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55490-761-8. OCLC 244769018.
5. "Only Natural For Bodybuilders". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2021-05-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
6. "The Return Of Gary Strydom!". Bodybuilding.com. April 23, 2006. Retrieved April 25, 2007.
7. ^ "MCMAHON, TITAN FACE STEROID INDICTMENTT, LAWLER EXPECTS TO BE CLEARED OF ALL CHARGES". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. 1993-11-29.
8. "Wrestling Promoter Fights Steroid Charges". New York Times. 28 April 1994. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
9. "Nailz the Wrestler Testifies He Was Told to Use Steroids". The New York Times. 1994-07-12. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
10. ""Incredible Hulk" star resumes bodybuilding". Associated Press. 1991-08-09. Retrieved 2021-05-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
11. Shaun Assael, Mike Mooneyham (February 24, 2004). Sex, Lies, and Headlocks: The Real Story of Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment. Crown Publishing. p. 117. ISBN 978-1-4000-5143-4. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
12. "RETRO SPECIALIST – WWE 15 Yrs. Ago: The Best & Worst Moments of 1992 (Part 1 of 2)". Pro Wrestling Torch. Archived from the original on May 28, 2007. Retrieved April 25, 2007.
13. "Induction: ICOPRO - Inedible COlonic PROduct". WrestleCrap - The Very Worst of Pro Wrestling!. 2020-05-08. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
14. "Live Notes From RAW 25 At Manhattan Center: How Many Segments Expected, ICOPRO, More". 411Mania. Retrieved 2021-05-23.

External links

• The Pro Wrestling Chronicle's Definitive History Of The WBF

• Bodybuilding organizations
• History of WWE
• Television series by WWE
• Sports organizations established in 1990
• Organizations disestablished in 1992