Athleticon – What happened to Dwayne Johnson’s big event?
Bodybuilding fans and competitors occasionally still mention Athleticon, Dwayne Johnson’s mega event.
When Athleticon was first launched in 2019, Dwayne Johnson and his partner Dany Garcia, promoted this event as the biggest fitness and entertainment expo to ever be organized.
The event was originally scheduled to take place 9-11 October, 2020.
Every type of fitness and sport event was to be included at Athleticon, including bodybuilding and fitness.
Focusing on bodybuilding, an amateur and pro event was included in the long list of events at Athleticon.
Pro and Amateur Events
When the amateur event was first revealed, it did not get the positive reaction that the organizers expected.
The NPC Worldwide International Championships was expected to be the biggest amateur event on the NPC competition calendar, but some of the rules shocked the American competitors.
The NPC Worldwide International Championships was not open to athletes residing in the USA. This rule was allegedly put into place to protect Jim Manion’s NPC National championships.
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak and the NPC Worldwide International Championships would have suffered heavily with athletes restricted from leaving their countries due to the pandemic.
With the American athletes restricted from competing at the amateur event, the event would have been a complete disaster.
The professional event, the Icon World Classic, was set to become a 2020 Olympia Weekend qualifier. The Olympia Weekend was rescheduled to 17-20 December, 2020. With Athleticon originally planned for 9-11 October, 2020, this would have been a great opportunity for athletes to qualify for the Olympia Weekend.
Some professional athletes are on record confirming that they were allegedly contacted by Athleticon’s promoters to compete at their event.
Athleticon rescheduled to 9-10 October, 2021
With problems all over the world due to Covid-19 in 2020, even Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson could not stop this pandemic from destroying his plans to organize the event.
The Athleticon organizers published a press release confirming that Athleticon was rescheduled to a new date, 9-10 October, 2021.
The bodybuilding and fitness world were still excited about this big event and were ready to wait another year.
As the Covid-19 pandemic continued to cause problems all over the world in 2021, bodybuilding events were either cancelled or postponed.
Athleticon’s problems were not over, as bodybuilding’s biggest competition was also scheduled to take place on the same weekend in 2021.
The Athleticon organizers had set the date for their 2021 event on May 2020, while the Olympia Weekend organizers confirmed their date on February 2021.
With both events scheduled on the same weekend, amateur and pro athletes were faced with a problem. Do they compete at the prestigious Olympia Weekend, or try their luck at the new Athleticon event?
Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia were first to announce the date for their event, but they had to again postpone the event for 2022, to make way for the 2021 Olympia Weekend and not cause confusion.
Will Athleticon take place in 2022?
Immediately after the news was confirmed that Athleticon would not take place in 2021, a new date was allegedly made for 2022 by the organizers.
According to Muscular Development’s Ron Harris, former Olympia Weekend promoter, Robin Chang, allegedly confirmed that the event was to take place on April 2022.
Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and even Robin Chang, never confirmed the 2022 date on their official social media pages, as they did for 2020 and 2021.
As usual, other bodybuilding media used Ron Harris’ story as the official confirmation, and the news spread like wildfire.
Since February 2021, there has absolutely been no new updates about Athleticon’s event.
All Athleticon’s official social media have been cleaned, with posts indicating previous dates removed.
At the time of publishing this article, Athleticon’s social media pages are at a bare minimum, with no indication of any future events.
To organize such a big event such as Athleticon, promotion and news about all events and ticket sales would have started approximately a year before, just as the Olympia Weekend and Arnold Classic organizers have done.
It is already mid-January 2022 and absolutely no news about the event has been reveled.
Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and Robin Chang are completely silent.
It is impossible to organize such an event in three and a half months, with the alleged date being April 2022.
As it looks, Athleticon will not be organized in 2022 and be postponed for 2023.
The worse case scenario could be, that Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia decided to shelve this massive event once and for all.
Before Athleticon was born, sources close to Evolutionofbodybuilding.net alleged that Dwayne Johnson was interested in purchasing the Olympia Weekend event from AMI’s David Pecker.
It was also alleged, that Johnson and Pecker did not agree on the price, and talks eventually came to an end. Not long after, Jake Wood would become the new owner, after he purchased the Olympia brand from David Pecker.
Sources close to this site have also alleged, that after Dwayne Johnson failed to purchase the Olympia brand, he wanted to create a bigger and better event, which would be Athleticon.
Not long after, Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia, hired former Olympia Weekend promoter, Robin Chang, to run the show. It was looking as there would be a rivalry between the Olympia Weekend and Athleticon events.
Bodybuilding not a mainstream sport
Another problem that Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia surely faced is securing TV contracts for this event.
With Dwayne Johnson involved, it was obvious that the goal was to get as much coverage to this event as possible. The organizers might have managed to strike deals for the majority of sport activities, but with bodybuilding being a major part of it, the situation was more difficult.
It is no secret that when bodybuilding is mentioned, the subject of steroids is always brought in the conversation. This is one of the main reasons bodybuilding was never a mainstream sport.
With the The Rock being a Hollywood star and also is allegedly planning to run for President of the United states, would he want to be associated with such a controversial sport?
Major bodybuilding events are never shown on the popular TV channels, the best solution is now pay per view on the internet.
Another problem would be securing major sponsorship for Athleticon. The big companies that usually support mainstream sport events, will think twice about investing their money in a sport that has so much controversy.
With such a large mountain top climb, the Athleticon organizers might have not estimated all these factors.
The athletes and fans deserve to know the truth about Athleticon, it’s about time the organizers speak up and put an end to all the speculation.
With the date of April 2022 being out of the question, it is looking more and more likely that Athleticon will never take place.
The first promo for the Athleticon event that was to be organized in 2020.
The promotion for the 2021 Athleticon event. This event would also be postponed.
