Swami Sucks, Yogi Lies, Hardbody Hides

Well, at least I’m consistent so far in 2010—I’ve sucked in my predictions for the first two shows. My bad streak began by picking Toney Freeman to win the Phoenix Pro, and putting Melvin Anthony in 6th. And, as we all know, Marvelous won the Arizona muscle fest, with Freeman dropping to 3rd.

Then, even though I had a disclaimer for the Arnold Classic, saying loud and clear in my blog than ANY of FOUR dudes—Dexter Jackson, Kai Greene, Phil Heath or Branch Warren—could take top honors and that all four were legit pre-contest favorites, I am still responsible for my eventual top 6 listings.

I initiated a rule for “The Experts” a couple of years back that we (me, Yogi Avidan and Hardbody Hinds) had to selected different choices for the top slot to make things more entertaining.

So, my choice in Columbus, Ohio, of course, was 3-time champ Dexter Jackson, feeling The Blade still had the goods to tie Flex Wheeler for the all-time ASC record of four wins. Jackson winds up 4th.  Yogi went with Greene, and Hinds tabbed Heath so, on the surface, Avidan wins the Swami crown on this one. Like I said, on the surface, Yogi had a great night. Even picked Heath in second.

But, after LYING on the video wrap of the show, claiming he had the first four dead on, I’m officially disqualifying him for the egregious lack of integrity. And, to pour salt in the wound, he continued to fabricate his pick of Warren in third even after I quickly brought up the fact he had Dexter in fourth on our preview, just like I did, in our picks.

Hinds is another story all together. After assuring me he would be available for the wrap-ups videos for both Friday and Saturday night, he was a no-show. To make matters worse, Hinds was the one to make sure the entire crew knew to meet in the pump up room immediately after the finals so Roland Balik could get our word side view on video.

Stunned with the Heath loss (Heath was ahead by 3 points points after the prejudging, but Greene bested him by 8 at the finals and won by 5), Hardbody made sure the other duties he had snapping away for the NPC News, Bodybuilding.com and ifbbpro.com  (that he ASSURED me would NOT get in the way of taking part in the weekend wraps) did get in the way. Oh, he did finally make an appearance, 45 minutes after the contest was completed, but knew the video would be shot before then.

I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on Mr. Hinds; it was, in fact, his on-the-spot research that verified that Avidan absolutely, positively, had Jackson in third in his predictions. Then again, Snookie, of the hit reality show “Jersey Shore”, pulled a Hinds as well. Hardbody told me she was coming to the prejudging and finals, and I was hoping to add her as the “celebrity” commentator. Wait, I’m starting to connect the dots…Snookie thought Hardbody was “The Situation” (the biggest star of the show, with his sliced mid-section and Guido persona), and convinced him to do a wrap up with her instead of me. Somewhere outside of Veterans Memorial Auditorium.

So, after taking this all into consideration, I think I still deserve the Swami crown. Integrity, and reliability, gets the nod over knowledge any day.