Manion's Minions: How exactly would the conspiracy work?

[littlearm]

This post will sound sarcastic, but it's not meant to be. Skeptical? Yes, but not sarcastic.

Let's assume Jim Manion doesn't want Kai to become Mr. Olympia for whatever reason. What exactly happens next? How does he get that information to the judges?

Does he have dinner with them one at a time and drop hints: "We might have a PR problem if Kai won." And then the judges just instinctively know what to do?
Does Manion just tell them directly: "Kai can't win. Make sure it doesn't happen."

And then what is the motivation for the judges to do as they are told? Does Jim sneak them cash? Does he threaten them? Does Jim just stack the deck with his own people? (Let's call them "Manion's Minions".) I think they'd be risking jail time if they were caught so it would have to be something really worthwhile.

Beyond speculation, do we have any evidence of past judge tampering? I'd have to think that by now there would be some disgruntled judge who wrote a whistle-blowing article. Maybe even anonymously. If something like that is out there, I would really like to see it.

The supplement companies are part of a billion-dollar industry (I assume). There is some risk to having a POSSIBLY controversial champion, but there is a HUGE risk to getting caught up in a competition-fixing scandal. Maybe, MAYBE companies would lose a few million dollars in sales if Kai won, and that is debatable. But if a company got caught buying judges they could go completely out of business.

We've seen a lot of stupid scandals in recent years - look at the banking industry - so it's not crazy to think the supplement companies could be involved with something. But think about how much they'd be risking. I'm trying to understand how this would work.

[FlatBodybuilder]

lol.

You actually think ANYBODY would give a chit about rigged bodybuilding competitions? It's a frickin' "sport" built on the biggest drug users in the world, both performance enhancing and recreational, filled with trannies, perverts, deviants, legitimate criminals and gang members, schmoes, scandals and blackmail, so on and so forth...

Bodybuilders themselves know the ropes long before they ever hit the Olympia stage. They're conditioned to the degenerate culture of the industry long before they reach the big leagues.

Nobody gives a crap remotely enough to 'expose' anything

[littlearm]

You actually think ANYBODY would give a chit about rigged bodybuilding competitions?

If I owned a supplement company and my athletes didn't win because some other company paid off the judges you better believe I'd care.

Kai Greene is sponsored by MuscleMeds Performance Technologies. Not the biggest company out there. Maybe they understand the conspiracy as well and just accept the fact that they can't bribe the judges as easily as Weider Publications. But if they try to make a stink about it they'd get destroyed, so they keep quiet. That's your argument. Absolutely possible, just seems a stretch.

[jakebrah]

"risking jail time" .. lol... is bribing the judge of a bodybuilding contest a felony?

[littlearm]

"risking jail time" .. lol... is bribing the judge of a bodybuilding contest a felony?

lol...not knowing the law.

Following the quiz show scandals of the 50s, new laws were passed making it illegal to rig any kind of contest. No one went to jail for the quiz shows because their actions pre-dated the law.

Considering how much money the state of Nevada gets from gambling, I can only assume they have very strict laws about contest rigging. I couldn't quickly find the Nevada statue (where the Olympia is held), but 30 seconds of google found this law in Connecticut:

"(a) A person is guilty of rigging if, with intent to prevent a publicly exhibited sporting or other contest from being conducted in accordance with the rules and usages purporting to govern it, he: (1) Confers or offers or agrees to confer any benefit upon, or threatens any injury to, a participant, official or other person associated with the contest or exhibition; or (2) tampers with any person, animal or thing.
(b) Rigging is a class D felony."

Class D felonies have sentences of 2-7 years jail time.

[mrusa85]

Man, each year after the Olympia the boards light up with conspiracy theories and people are screaming politics. MuscleTech was always the one accused in the past. MuscleTech doesn't sponsor anyone anymore. (And one year they weren't even a sponsor and they were still accused of a payoff.)

Joe Weider was always accused of hand-picking the winner. Now he's dead...

So that means it's AMI/Weider as a company... wait Kai is sponsored by them too... Jay Cutler won as an MD athlete too so how does that work if Weider/AMI is in control? Unless it's MuscleTech, but now they aren't a factor.

So it's the image of the sport and someone (Manion?) needs to protect the IFBB so the general public doesn't get wind of Kai Greene's past? Really? You think anyone cares? Seems like Kai would have a few 3rd-place finishes to let him know who is boss if that is the case. And why was Kai allowed to win the 2010 AC over Phil when Phil was in the lead after the judging? He wasn't an AMI athlete yet. MuscleTech didn't pay enough on that one? MuscleMeds outbid MuscleTech and Manion, so Manion was powerless and couldn't do anything?

It's just easier to believe the judges selected the first-place winner on the grounds of who they thought looked best than to believe the crazy conspiracy-politics theories that keep popping up after every contest. Every single year.

Did Manion have something to do with Building 7 falling too and did he also place the orders for most of those puts (stock options) and made tons of money on 9/11? No, it was probably AMI or MuscleTech.

[BOUNTYHUNTERMK2]

The judges had a ouji board in front of the during the Olympia. Joe Weider told them, from beyond the grave, that Phil had to win.

[mrusa85]

The judges had a ouji board in front of the during the Olympia. Joe Weider told them, from beyond the grave, that Phil had to win.

Okay, now we are getting somewhere!