Helle and Margie were smaller than usual, Monique Jones got only  5th, Nikki Chartrand was 4th, but looked like a WPD athlete. This says it all

Some fans/observers do not understand how large pro women bodybuilders are in real life.  Some will keep repeating the same false talking points, trying to present false statements as fact.

Helle and Margie are HUGE. Irene Andersen is HUGE. Monique Jones is HUGE.  "Only 5th"?  IN THE WORLD?!  Do you have any idea what that actually means?  Monique Jones is amazing, but so are the women who placed ahead of her. Some folks should go to an actual bodybuilding event sometime. Not only might they enjoy themselves, but they may learn a few things, too.

@femflexusa. For you I was waiting, i knew this would be coming. You did not disappoint, but you again are completely missing the point.
Yes, Helle and Irene are big - compared to regular women. But they had to shed muscle mass and muscularity for conditionig, this is a fact you cannot deny. And yes, many fans don't like it as well as some of the fbbs themselves.
As for me , i know a number of the competitors personally and have attended fbb competitions in Europe, but I am just a fan with a personal opinion, not an insider with vested interest like you seem to be. My personal opinion is independent, and not influenced by business or other interests. I am a simple fan and probably represent many simple fans. But it is for us simple fans who help to fund the whole industry for its pay websites, webcams. It is not for nothing that an FBB like Nataliya Kuznetsova is by far the most popular fbb on the planet, while never having been anywhere close to the shreddedness of Helle and company. While I am completely aware that she is basically always offseason, I don't think that any fan wished to see her shrinked down to the rippedness that appeal to the IFBB judges who discourage big muscle masses. There should be a way for a girl like her to compete, maintining in one or another way her outrageous muscle mass. This is what simple fans like me would like to see, and yes, guys like us have their full right to express their "unprofessional" opinion as it is for guys like us to fund insiders like you 

@femflexusa. For you I was waiting, i knew this would be coming. You did not disappoint, but you again are completely missing the point.
Yes, Helle and Irene are big - compared to regular women. But they had to shed muscle mass and muscularity for conditionig, this is a fact you cannot deny. And yes, many fans don't like it as well as some of the fbbs themselves.
As for me , i know a number of the competitors personally and have attended fbb competitions in Europe, but I am just a fan with a personal opinion, not an insider with vested interest like you seem to be. My personal opinion is independent, and not influenced by business or other interests. I am a simple fan and probably represent many simple fans. But it is for us simple fans who help to fund the whole industry for its pay websites, webcams. It is not for nothing that an FBB like Nataliya Kuznetsova is by far the most popular fbb on the planet, while never having been anywhere close to the shreddedness of Helle and company. While I am completely aware that she is basically always offseason, I don't think that any fan wished to see her shrinked down to the rippedness that appeal to the IFBB judges who discourage big muscle masses. There should be a way for a girl like her to compete, maintining in one or another way her outrageous muscle mass. This is what simple fans like me would like to see, and yes, guys like us have their full right to express their "unprofessional" opinion as it is for guys like us to fund insiders like you

I agree 100%. These woman look huge in the run-up to the shows but puny by show time. I'm hoping for one of them to go rogue and come in huge with full muscle shapes but it never happens. I thought it might be Aleesha but she has downsized quite a bit, I guess winning a trophy is just more important. I have hopes for Nataliya but frankly I don't think her hearts in it. Compare her insta**** to Michaela Aycock, who lives and breathes BBing.

With regards to Nataliyas insta page, it is hard to judge. I think she uses it more and more for commercial purposes, having 500K followers, promoting lifestyle and athletic products and services. From time to time she posts pics and clips from the gym. As far as I understand she is preparing for her pro debut in Romania, so she has to be in it in one or another way, just her insta page becomes more and more commercial, in contrast to Michaela Aycock, who uses her page mainly for gym stuff, creating in impression that she is totally committed only to it.

When the biggest, most muscular women in the world are onstage with the biggest, most muscular women in the world, that completely changes the viewers' perspective. HUGE doesn't look so "huge" anymore, relative to the other women present.

The most cogent point I have read - perhaps in the other Rising Phoenix thread(?) - is that the stage background may be distracting a bit from a fair judgment of the physiques on the stage.

The intro to her coming on stage at the Rising Phoenix all but confirmed that life is not happy on the marriage front. I was very much hoping that this was just a rumour but it doesn't look like it.

I feel for Aleesha and especially young Olivia. I hope that they can patch things up. I wish them well.

yes, but then she deleted this post and posted another much more enigmatic post "true strength is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles". However, she used to have the sentence "first loving mother and wife, second fbb" on her insta page which she now deleted, so something is definitively happing, maybe she wants to keep the divorce low-profile after all the reactions to her divorce post including the ones from schmoes who could not be less considerate