The following is an excerpt from the cover feature of our current issue – Volume 17, Number 1/2026 – regarding Patrick Bet-David and his past interest in owning the Mr. Olympia brand:
| Be careful what you wish for. An old saying and one that is often repeated for good reason – it comes true more times than not. Such is the case with a contingent of the bodybuilding community that feels the Olympia would have been better off in the hands of some other folks instead of Jake Wood, more specifically Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and/or Patrick Bet-David. We wholeheartedly disagree and have ‘brought the receipts’ to show exactly why. And for good measure, we pooled a number of people throughout the bodybuilding industry to ascertain their take on this, as well. |
Part of that inquiry was directly to the main person waving the pom-poms for Johnson and David, Matt Tsinkorang from the Muscle Discord podcast. Believing it is the fair way to approach an opinionated piece such as this (giving the person it was more or less directed at an opportunity to defend and simultaneously make a more convincing case for themselves), we had a dialogue with Tsinkorang and even sent him some questions that his replies would have been an integral part of this feature. But then he chose to not have any further communication with us, leaving no choice but to move ahead without his input.
David, like Johnson, is also a very successful person and although his fame and fortune wasn’t build through athletics, the talented podcast host is an admitted fan of bodybuilding. He had the likes of Shawn Ray, Ronnie Coleman, Brandon Curry, Heath and DeMilia on his show and floated some different ideas that he felt would grow the brand, some feasible and others that are not, as well as a few that were simply ridiculous.
While saying that bodybuilding needed its own Dana White type is enticing, following that up by saying that if he was “hired to be in your (Heath’s) world, here’s what I’m doing. The purse cannot be 400 grand (what it was at the time of the interview). Imagine if your first place is getting a $10 million contract and second place is $5 million. I’d go to corporate sponsors with brands like Under Armour and Nike, sit down and say here’s what we’re looking at. Why don’t (you) sponsor and increase the purse. Let’s sign a 10-year contract.
“Here’s another part,” continued David. “What if Mr. Olympia is being shown on TV?”
Seems to be a pattern there between David and Johnson, who may mean well, but just are not realistic; their mainstream appeal is much different than what the Olympia has become nowadays.
In 2023, David had Bradley Martyn on his program and expressed frustration about not being given the opportunity to buy the Olympia. He had inquired about it in late 2019 and told it wasn’t for sale, only to be disappointed to learn that Wood did in fact purchase it a few months later.
“It may not have been for sale because it may have already had a buyer,” Ray told us. “We (now) know who that buyer was (Wood), but by the time that David showed up, he was late for the party; they were probably already in escrow. No one owed him an explanation and he never made an offer. Besides, he wasn’t entitled to classified information.”
David followed that up by saying that it would have been great if Johnson and Garcia had bought it and that “bodybuilders would have much rather have The Rock buy the Mr. O.” As of this writing, none have come out and stated as such.
But the biggest difference if David did become owner is that he would have made classic physique the main event, not open bodybuilding.
“So what I wanted to do with the Mr. O was flip it,” he told Martyn. “Meaning, like you know CBum (Chris Bumstead), whose got this incredible physique, 22 million followers on Instagram and he’s a super chill likeable guy. He’s 6’1” and 235 pounds (but) doesn’t compete in the main Mr. O, he competes in the other one.”
David wants to own the Olympia but is not even aware of the names of the divisions, even asking Martyn later in the interview what the name of the category was for the open.
“What if (the) Mr. O changed the standards and it’s no longer about who’s the biggest? What if we actually used AI (Artificial Intelligence)? What if we used data and symmetry and put it on a system to see who has the best (symmetry)?” David followed that up with a comment that the prize money should be reversed with the biggest purse going to the winner of classic physique. “What if they give the $450,000 (first place at the time) to these guys and give the $50,000 (the then-current prize money for classic physique) to the other guys?”
The interview concluded with David saying, “I did all of these bodybuilding interviews and then when they didn’t sell me the Mr. O, I didn’t do any more; I don’t have any interest. I was doing it because I wanted to buy the brand. I would have loved to, but at this point I have zero interest.”
When Johnson joined David for an interview more recently, he said basically the same thing. So both ‘players’ have taken themselves out of the mix that never was and probably never will be.
Photo: Wikipedia
