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Westside Pro Invitational Powered by RogueLetter from Donnie Thompson-Event PromoterWOW! I can say “3005 great things” about the Westside Pro InvitationalPowered by Rogue, but I will just stick to several points that were abreakthrough for the sport of Powerlifting. This epic event was on Saturday,August 17th 2013, at the historical York Barbell’s Weightlifting Hall of Fame.We had 26 lifters on the docket for the day. The meet started promptly at9:00 am. There was six divisions to lift in. This was a combination ofweight classes for Women and Men. Two divisions for women; Lightweight(148 & down) and Heavyweight (165 & up). Four divisions for the men,Lightweight(165 & down), Middleweight(181-220’s), Heavyweight(242’s275’s) and Super Heavyweights(308’s & SHW).There are 5 things we accomplished outside of the normal powerlifting meetexpectations. It was very important to me that we accomplish these for thesport of Powerlifting to move out of the dark ages.1. We classified a “Pro-only” multiply meet. It was not in conjunctionwith an amateur meet or anyone else. Louie Simmons set the Prototal qualifications for each weight class and we went with that. Wedid not want the worlds best geared lifters to have to share the stagewith anyone but their equals. You don’t invite high school footballplayers to play on the same field with the NFL players, so itshouldn’t happen on the platform either. There has not been a Proonly meet since the 2007 Arnold.2. This is the first major meet that Women lifters were treatedEQUALLY across the board!!! From prize money to the awards,there was no greater than or less than treatment. What amonumental breakthrough in our sport. Of course, if this was goingto be done, it took a Westside man by the name of Louie Simmons tomake it happen.3. The talk in powerlifting seems to be unification. We put that to thetest. We asked the owner and head of the IPA, Mark Chaillet, towork with and judge with the owner and head of the SPF, JesseRodgers. Also our platform Judge was Clay Brandenburg, formerAPF National judge and meet promoter in Michigan. Sotechnically, we had representatives with backgrounds in or formallyfrom 3 federations. And none of them got in a fight! Miracle.4. As far back as the 1980’s, there has not been a major industry that

sponsored powerlifting. I know that Budweiser sponsored some bigmeets back in the day, but not in the last 25 years. On this day,ROGUE FITNESS, the biggest name in fitness and CrossFit,headline sponsored the Westside Pro Invitational. What anincredible advancement this is for our sport!!! I noticed other meetsin Texas and Ohio that run annual “big time” meets and they havevery small commitments from small companies at best. Every yearthey have to solicit and grovel new merchants for sponsorship thatmay or may not be related for the strongest sport of all time,Powerlifiting! Rogue is HUGE! Just like the lifts at WestsideBarbell. They love our concept and this is just the beginning of agreat relationship with Powerlifting and the largest equipmentmanufacturer of all-time!5. The Westside Pro Invitational Powered by Rogue(WPI) accepted Prototals from every federation. We decided not to bottleneck the WPIwith one fed. This will be our policy to get into the Semi-finals. TheWPI will follow the rules of the now defunct WPO and there will beno card fee. Plus Division winners will not have to pay an entry feefor the following finals and Semi-finals.This is geared lifting. Multiply! It is our world. Many of you do not evencare about gear and feel its a joke! So critique and stay in your realm. Mineis and always will be gear! It was the biggest challenge to me so I chased thebig numbers as a multiply lifter. I left the platform after I totaled 3000lbs.Since then, my dream has been to bring powerlifting a venue that rivals andsurpasses that of our Glory days in the late 1970’s to mid-late 1980’s! Withthe advancement in training methods, equipment and instant access media,Powerlifting needed a home. Working with Louie Simmons of Westside, Iknew I couldn’t lure the great lifters if the Westside brand was not involved.Secondly, I needed a venue that reflected the attitude of the past. It washands down York Barbell and Louie agreed. Mark and Ellen helped mesecure the place and now it is in the record book literally. Third, weneeded a sponsor that we felt would believe in what we want to accomplishand want to be a major part in not only conception, but its future. Rogue, forthose of us about to try, we salute you!We had great lifters come to the meet. We had the top lifters of the femalesand males but needed more of the upper middle Pro’s. As to be expected,Laura Phelps-Sweatt and David Hoff both lifted like the champions they are.However, there were a few surprises. Shawna Mendelson came out ofretirement to pull third attempts out of her behind! She was second in the

Heavy’s. Nickie Anderson is so in shape that you can see her abs through hercanvas suit when she pulls the top women’s deadlift of the meet. Big BurleyHawk is 24 years old and weighed in at 399.3 pounds. He wanted to get a2400 total. In only his second meet, his attempts fell just shy with a 2320aggregate. His attempts were so easy I actually had to laugh at theeffortlessness of his brute strength. Then we had a very lovely 148 ladygrace the platform from San Diego, CA. She earned her second placeLightweight earnings with a 1190 day. Maybe next year some of the Pro’sfrom CA will venture east and take time from the strongest training facilitiesof the West coast to challenge the Westside gang at their own game. Also, Iknow for a fact there is some very Elite lifters that stayed home in Ohio.They will want to be a part of this great meet next year and showcase theirlifting powers. I am sure they will.Then there was HOFF! He squatted 1210 that went viral! (to say the least)Did a text book all-time three lift meet bench of 975 on his third attempt andPulled an easy 820 for the kill. And now there is two! Well it didn’t endthere. Jake Anderson decided to pull an 875 deadlift!! Who does thatnow? Not to be outdone, the farmboy from Ohio, Josh Conley, upped theaggregate to 900 pounds. He ended the Pro meet with that. It was Nuclear.I couldn’t take any more. Way too much excitement for one day. I had threemajor goals I wanted promoting my first Pro meet. Treat the lifter great, treatthe lifter greater than great and when I think I did my best treating themgreat, try even harder to treat them better. Their reputation and most of alltheir health is on the line pushing weights beyond the limits of man. All forvery little in return. Its not their hobby, its their life!“Rise of the Legends” is and always will be our theme and credo. I hadbanners made and got sponsors to buy them for the meet that honored pastgreat lifters. When the audience and lifter come into that auditorium, theywill be brainwashed with the heroes of yesterday, men long gone andforgotten. However, we will always remember. My goal is to include theold Legends in our meets so we can honor our past as we strive forward.What is old is new again. In the end, all the lifter in any level wants is to berecognized for all of the sacrifice they have made to lift big and their effortswere never in vain.There are many more stories like a young lady that put off shoulder surgeryto lift in the lightweights after a major car wreck. She won first place. ShaneHammock pulled over 800 to make that five deads over 800 pounds! ThePitbull, Jason Coker, a 220 squatted 950 and benched 850. When I placed amic in front of him he spit on it. Super Ninja, Marc Tejero from Detroit,flies in late Friday night and wins the lightweights with a 1785 total at 165.

Hoff squats then pukes. Benches then pukes. Deadlifts and pukes. I havenever seen a blatant display of wasting food in my life!!Sponsors like Louie Simmons contributing nearly 10,000 of his own moneyto make sure the best lifters could afford to be there. Chris Mason ofAtLarge contributing one of the overall Belts and the 3 coefficient lifts at a 1000 a piece. Mark and Ellen Chaillet securing York Barbell and helpingrun a smooth meet. John Inzer of Inzer Advanced Designs, sending us meett-shirts and supplying the best gear in the world. Bill and Caity Henniger,owners of Rogue Fitness for believing in us and giving us the prize moneyfor the athletes not in just a few divisions, but all six divisions!!!Thank you to all of them.There has been a lot of talk on the internet about the judging and inparticular, Hoff’s squat. One question, were you there? I happened to filmHoff’s 1210 squat from the scorers table. I will post it with his interview.When you watch it, you will see that he cracks parallel. He did not sink it tohis ankles, but he did just enough to convince the side judges that the creaseof his hips had a negative value when measured to the top of his knees. Youmay not want to see that but it is what it is. Facts; Hoff’s squat looks aboveparallel on the vids posted by the audience on YouTube. Fact; most of youjudged him based on cell phone video’s. Called him names, belittled him,trashed the meet and ranted how your legit and Hoff and company is not.Truth; the side judges, Mark Chaillet and Jay Picarillo had their faceplastered on Hoff’s hips. They saw the dip and judged convincingly so.They will stand by that call whether you like it or not.Those that were at the meet never questioned his attempt. Not until the meetwas over and done, back at the hotel, did we know that the internet made abig deal out of the cell phone filming. I invited all of you to come. All ofyou! You were too busy and it cost too much to leave your home andwitness one of the greatest meets of all time! There were a few calls thatwere questionable, but I have to say that Hoff’s squat lost to the facts andwon with the truth.It is hard to remember all my meets, but I recall everyone bashing the WPOfor its judging. The 18 year old teen who beat Mark Henry’s long standingTexas High School Powerlifting Record this year just pulled 705 to thedeafening roar of the people there. Goes home and the internet demons werecriticizing him, denying his lifts and saying he was not legit, he is a joke andhis records do not count. Sound familiar? Defending Mark Henry the twomeet wonder?When meets like this take place, I encourage you to come to the meet andwitness it for yourself. Then go to other top meets and watch the lifters