“Hey, Schmoe, did you hear? Vinny Galanti is competing again! Woo Hoo!” Okay, so that’s probably one thing you DIDN’T hear lately in your gym locker room, while trying to put on your underwear without revealing your post-shower shrunken johnson to the creepy ‘lingerers’ sitting around on the locker room benches eyeballing your junk.

Vinny Galanti is so old, he’s been competing since the days of ESPN’s American Muscle Magazine. And without a little help, he’d probably still be trying to win his IFBB Pro Card. But more on that later.

First off, let’s take an honest look at Vinny. The dude barely even resembles a weight lifter when he’s off the sauce. Serious bodybuilder?? Bah humbug. What serious bodybuilder takes an entire YEAR off going to the gym and spends it eating McDonalds and letting his body go to shit? And there wasn’t even an injury to excuse it! Does that sound like a guy who loves the iron and can’t imagine missing a day, let alone a week in the gym, or does that sound suspiciously like a bodybuilder who understands that there is little to no point in training if one is neither juicing or competiting?

Apparently, he’s six weeks out of a contest that no one cares about or will go see. And Vinny wants you to know that he’s competing. In fact, Vinny has been known to ask forum members to post up news about his ‘career’ at his own request because it will ‘seem more legitimate’ coming from someone else. C’mon Vinny, you’re almost 50 for Chrissakes!! How about growing out that vagina and posting your self-promoting crap under your own name like Steve Namat and the rest of the pathetic, over-compensating, attention whore midgets.

In any event, regardless of how awful his condition is or how little muscle he carries, Vinny will always be the recipient of gift bags from the NPC and IFBB for single-handedly helping to torpedo Wayne DeMilia’s PDI bodybuilding federation.

If you recall, throughout the late ’90′s and early 2000′s, Vinny was a perennial top 3-5 National contender — the prime example of ‘forever a bridesmaid’. A well-balanced physique but no stand-out bodyparts and a little thin on muscle compared to his competition. When DeMilia was recruiting for his federation, fellow Italian New York-area Bodybuilder Vinny Galanti was an obvious choice for the new federation.

Vinny, being a bodybuilder, committed verbally to Wayne and then formally signed with the PDI. Whether Vinny was savvy enough to know that the NPC/IFBB would come running at him with promises of a Pro Card or whether he was simply being a flaky bodybuilder is still unknown.

Whatever the case, after discussing the matter with Manion, Chickerdildo, and several others, Vinny went ahead and publicly committed to the PDI, posting on a public forum “Chick made the point of having my Procard with the IFBB seem great, but after nine years [of unsuccessfully trying]…I doubt I’ll get it .”

Wayne went ahead and announced Vinny would be competing in the Night of Champions and printed posters and other media advertising Vinnie as being a part of the organization.

What happened next is open for speculation, but here’s what I think: Either the IFBB used Vinny as a mole to obtain information from Wayne and set Wayne up by having Vinny merely PRETEND to be seriously interested in competing in the PDI or else, (and more likely), they went into panic mode when Vinny announced he was leaving. With a top NPC guy going to the PDI, what would stop other top NPC competitors who felt they deserved better from also jumping ship. We already know that Manion was having Chick act as a middleman. But Chick shouldn’t have had ANYTHING to do with the NPC and Vinny was not an IFBB Pro, so any conversations between Galanti and Chick surely focused on the possibility of Galanti obtaining his pro card by remaining with the NPC. If you have ever dealt with the NPC/IFBB and their cohorts, you know that they love to use intermediaries to communicate their message to permit plausible deniability that those conversations ever occurred or that they were aware of them.

What I and many others suspect is that Manion, through Chick, strongly hinted to Galanti that he would win his Pro Card if he stuck it out and stayed with the NPC. That wasn’t enough for Vinny. He needed more than a hint. He needed a GUARANTEE. And so, after very publicly leaving the NPC for the PDI, the IFBB and NPC suits scrambled. How could they use Vinny to torpedo the PDI? Easy enough. They waited for Wayne to spend his money and put together his Night of Champions materials and promote Vinny as the new face of the PDI.

And then they fired the TORPEDO.

A single call from Bob Cicherillo to Vinny Galanti sealed the deal. A PRO CARD. A GUARANTEE.

Chick did the dirty work. Vinny took the deal. And both of them were officially ‘made men’. Willing to compromise their morals and integrity for promises of future employment and riches.

What do you think? Did Galanti really have a ‘change of heart’ after committing to the PDI or was it a telephone conversation and a ‘change of mind’?

You decide.

Vinny Galanti Defects from the NPC to the PDI

It has been a very tough decision to make for me, should I do this or not…should I try one more time at the Nationals or go for the Masters Nationals next year.

The PDI is an area of bodybuilding that has never been traveled, as of right now some don’t believe the NOC wont take place.

I have been competing on the NPC National level since 91, and through the years have won my weight class in 3 national contest, I have traveled the world guest posing and doing seminars, And even have a contract with UNIVERSAL NUTRITION for the past 9 years.

I owe all my success to the NPC, but at this time in my career…it’s time to move on, I feel I have reached my max. I don’t believe I can go any further…so i’l try something new.

I have talked to Shawn Ray, and Bob Chick, and they both make great reasons for staying with the NPC.
and AS OF THIS PAST WEEKEND…I was going to stay, but…after talking to my wife about the pro’s and con’s of switching or stay….Chick made the point of having my procard with the IFBB seem great, but after trying 9 times…I doubt I’ll get it.

I have nothing bad to say about anyone with the NPC, everyone has been great…and I hope to continue with the relationships that have formed from the years I was at the national level.

Shawn, Bob…thank you for the advice….

Rather than stick around Venice and continue to try to eke out a living by training fatsos and doing the ‘Venice Hustle’, Paul returned to his native Ontario and quietly launched the WBFF. While the IFBB initially expressed some concern about a new organization, Paul provided assurances to the powers-that-be that the WBFF was no threat to the IFBB — that Paul had zero interest or ambition to bring his contests to the United States and that he was simply filling a void that neither the NPC nor the IFBB could fill. Convinced that Paul was a good soldier, the power-brokers accepted him at his word and made no efforts to sabotage Paul’s new WBFF organization.

Paul’s sense of showmanship and experience as a bodybuilder led to several successful promotions and even brought aboard mainstream sponsors. With Paul bringing in entertainment to provide lively performances for the fans, his shows were reminiscent of the old IFBB Night of Champions or Olympia events, replete with mainstream news coverage, widely seen advertising, and sellout crowds.

It seemed to be just a matter of time before Paul’s ambitions to grow his organization locked horns with the NPC/IFBB. When Paul launched the Male Fitness Model division in 2009, it seemed that he had stumbled upon something golden. What if the majority of the attendees and consumers — men — had another option to display their physique without having to take years off their health and lives by mass consuming growth hormone, steroids, diuretics, insulin, and painkillers?

The WBFF’s Male Fitness Model competition was an immediate hit with both competitors and the fans.

And the NPC/IFBB took notice. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Dillett must have been incredibly flattered when in 2010, the NPC launched their own version of the WBFF’s Male Fitness Model competition — renaming it Men’s Physique Division (MPD).

Except that Paul Dillett wasn’t flattered. He was incensed. Just like he was nearly ten years earlier when some of those same NPC/IFBB decision-makers placed Paul a ridiculous 6th behind a mutant of messy mass known as Paco Bautista and a man half his width in Darrem Charles. And just as he had done ten years earlier, Paul didn’t sit around moping about it — he ACTED upon it.

Paul announced the WBFF’s invasion of the United States by launching his first state-wide show in Boston in July, 2011. Although turnout for the show was less than expected (only 4 men competed in the Male Fitness Model division), the message was clear.  The WBFF had declared war on the NPC.

So it wasn’t that much of a surprise that Dillett followed up his initial foray into NPC-territory by launching an attack on the IFBB front as well. By signing longtime IFBB-nuisance Lee Priest, the WBFF communicated their intent to bring both a highly-organized and well-funded alternative to both the NPC and the IFBB to the United States. And after some questionable judging at the recent IFBB Europa and Tijuana shows, many IFBB competitors were quick to call Paul and make more than just a passing inquiry or two.

Sure, we’ve seen all of this before. Wayne DeMilia’s PDI (also starring Lee Priest) launch was a dismal failure, in part because of Wayne’s failing health and in part because of the NPC/IFBB’s desperate attempts to sabotage it in every way. For a small example of that, just see NPC/IFBB Shill and Getbig Owner Ron Avidan’s absurd interview with DeMilia.

But give the NPC/IFBB credit. They are no fools. They’ve been down this road before and know precisely how to control the ‘bodybuilding media’. Using a combination of a carrot-and-stick approach and an iron fist, they will do everything in their power to prevent Paul from getting word out about his show. They will offer rewards to prominent and dissatisfied Pros like King Kamali (such as an Olympia commentating spot), hand out Pro Cards to undeserving candidates who burn the new organization (see Vinny Galanti), and be forced to finally hand over pro cards to former dissidents like Sean Allan (another former PDI Pro who returned to the NPC on his knees and begging forgiveness).

Wayne DeMilia’s biggest mistake with the PDI was his own failure to aggressively recruit IFBB Pros. His ‘sit back and wait for the phone to ring’ approach doesn’t cut the mustard in a business as cutthroat as the fitness and physique business. No, I expect Paul Dillett to be spending several hours a day over the next few weeks reaching out to those guys who for one reason or another have gotten the shaft from the NPC/IFBB. And speaking of elevators and shafts, I fully expect world-renowned bodybuilding MC Robert Cicherillo to be doing the exact same on behalf of his unofficial bosses at the NPC/IFBB.

Make no mistake. The WBFF isn’t playing.

This is WAR.