1997 Women's Extravaganza

Secaucus, NJ - OK, the 1997 edition of this event was the first one I have ever attended so I had mixed expectations of what I was about to see. Unfortunately, I missed part of the show due to missing my flight (that being a result of a little overindulgance the previous night). Anyhow, the first event of the day I was able to see was the squat event for the strength show, after mulling about the lobby for a bit. The strength show was the portion of the event I was most interested in intially, and the squatting really set the tone well. To me the most impressive competitor was Annie Rivieccio from right here in Atlanta. Unlike the rest of the competitors, Annie used no wraps and no belt while performing the squats and I think posted the second most reps - very impressive.

After that, I only saw the evening events. The fitness category had some nice physiques, and some notable names as well. Kathy Meyers is definitely the classiest fitness competitor that I met being both a great competitor as well as having a charming personality and keen mind. There were a few i didn't care for much, especially Renita Harris for having an attitude.

In the physique categories, Marianna Kolmos is definitely a great looking woman. If she gets a little more mass on her lower body, wider lats and gets harder, she'll do well... I was a little surprised that the lightweight woman from Japan won the overall in the Open class, but she was very hard and cut. Some of the competitors in the various other classes were "interesting" to say the least... The master's competitors need to get posing music that was composed in this decade, not some weird oldies.

Guest posers were great. Christa Bauch who is over 50 (although they said she was 49) had a great creative routine coming out as a St. Pauli girl complete with dual beer steins (full of real beer that she gave away!). The rest of her routine was solid and her hardness was there as always. She always looks good and did and excellent job, unlike the bloated mail guest poser, to whom the woman sitting next to me, "Chris" said looked fat and smaller than her ex-boyfriend - i have to agree with her completely... However, Tazzie Colomb stole the show with her routine, which later she said she did on purposefully provocatively, as she had been talking with Snooop Doggy Dog about being in one of his videos and she was going to send that tape to him... If the doesn't put her in a video for that, he's bool-yah!
Debbie Kruck had a fairly crowd-pleasing routine that was a little annoying b/c of Beavis and Butthead in it, but it was appropriate as all they kept saying was that "Hard stuff is cool!" - yes, it is, isn't it?

Mike Bogen has put it best, so i'll use his commentary:

"...I actually spent considerable time with Bass, and her husband Bob Fuchs, over the weekend. I'd done a story about Bass several years ago, but hadn't spoken to her since then. I'm not terribly surprised at Di's view of Nicole, but I also think Nicole's behavior falls within some pretty normal boundaries. Bass was there, set up at a table, to sell pictures and meet potential "wrestling customers." In the former sense, she was no different than the guy at the next table, who was selling Valkryie tee-shirts. In the latter sense, what she's selling is herself. Now, this is not a little sideline for Nicole and Bob. They had to give up their gym some time ago, and Nicole's wrestling is their main source of income. Thus, she has the same obligations as any breadwinner, and had to use her time at the Extravaganza to it's best advantage.

"To me, it's analagous to most any sales job. Go to a record store, and try schmoozing with the person behind the counter, and he'll chat -- but only to the point where a "customer" is waiting for help. Then you take a back seat. It's probably not the best way to win friends among the non-customers, but it's also likely a fact of retail life.

"To me, the only other question that remains is if a "celebrity" owes more to the public than does everyone else. Personally, I think it's very nice if a celebrity can be attentive to all fans, but it's not an obligation. What a performer owes is his or her best performance. Everything else is above and beyond. In this case, Bass was not just a celebrity hanging around to schmooze ... she was engaged in her primary business, and that's gotta put a slightly different spin on the situation."

Another thing was that it was such an interesting dynamic going on between the experience fBBs who are used to the scene and the new ones, who got taken advantage of... Some of these fans could have probably been arrested anywhere else.

Renita "whino" Harris - Renita seemed to think she was the shit and should have won the fitness contest just because of who she is. She did make top five, and i think she was lucky to do so... she came in pretty soft and her routine was not creative at all.

Stank B.O. - I probably wasn't the best smelling person there, but some folks really smelled bad... It's really bad when the pigpen effect causes you to move from your seat. Fortunately i had taken a motion discomfort bag from my flight in the morning (due to my hangover), b/c some of these folks almost made me puke! blech!