Spreading the Word at the 2015 Arnold Sports Festival

By Joe Pietaro
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Updated: March 10, 2015

For a weekend that had auspicious beginnings, things turned out just fine for us at the 2015 Arnold Sports Festival. Managing Editor Gregg Valentino and myself were scheduled to fly out to Columbus on Thursday, March 5 and appear on RX Muscle’s “Heavy Muscle TV” with Dave Palumbo, but a snowstorm hit the New York area and our flight was cancelled.

Gregg and I were rescheduled and left the following day, finally arriving in Ohio on Friday evening. So what we had planned work-wise had to be condensed into half the original time. Difficult, yes, but certainly not impossible for two men on a mission to never pussy out on a difficult challenge.

For a weekend that had auspicious beginnings, things turned out just fine for us at the 2015 Arnold Sports Festival. Managing Editor Gregg Valentino and myself were scheduled to fly out to Columbus on Thursday, March 5 and appear on RX Muscle’s “Heavy Muscle TV” with Dave Palumbo, but a snowstorm hit the New York area and our flight was cancelled.

Catching up with many old friends – and making a number of new ones – was on tap that first night in town at the two main hotel restaurant/bars – the Hyatt and Hilton. In attendance were Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, WWE superstars Hulk Hogan and Mark Henry, UFC legend Randy Couture, former NFL Pro Bowl WR Javon Walker and others. (And on the other end of the spectrum, Brand X’s elite A-Team was also spotted, seeming quite surprised to see that ‘the Phoenix has risen from the ashes.’)

Our first – and only day – at the Expo began early in the morning and lasted the entire day, as we finally walked out after every booth was emptied out with angry glares from security personnel wanting to punch out and go home.

But between those long hours, we were able to get the job done and visit each and every booth, meet the people behind the tables, hand out copies of our Winter 2015 issue and exchange business cards.

If you have ever tried walking through a place like this with Gregg, it is impossible to get more than 10 feet without someone stopping him and asking for a photograph. Gracious as always, he was more than happy to chat with the attendees and let them know where they can now read his column, along with many other familiar names from the industry such as Lee Priest, Dave Palumbo, Vic Richards, Robbie Durand, Bob Bonham, Kirk Radomski, Eric the Trainer and more.

MuscleSport Magazine issues and postcards were handed out in droves and fans of “The Ramblin’ Freak” were happy to hear that there will still be a column by Gregg that they have come to love reading every month the past 14 years in Brand X’s publication, but one that will now have NO restrictions that were previously put in place by his/our former employer.

We also got to hang out and chat with the likes of Rich Piana (who had the expo’s largest crowd at his 5% Nutrition booth, which was definitely the place to be with the rock concert look and feel and a PA system blasting heavy metal music), Denise Masino, Jon De La Rosa and Andy Haman.

Every year the same thing is said over and over: “This place is more crowded than it was last time,” and that seemed to ring true once again. Some aisles were virtually impossible to navigate on Saturday and we had to wait until the crowd thinned out even a small percentage to fully make the rounds.

The WWE had a regulation-sized wrestling ring and bleachers set up where their NXT division put on a great show.

Supplement samples had to make do for breakfast and lunch, as there was no time to take a break and have a meal. For two guys that are middle aged, our legs and back were killing us by the time 6 PM arrived.

All in a day’s work, which had to take the place of a weekend’s worth. But we wouldn’t have had it any other way. We set out to let everyone know that MuscleSport Magazine is a big player in the industry and are forming an army that will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.