Battle Dome

If you're looking for fair competition between gladiators and normal guys, this is not the place. And it shouldn't be. BattleDome pits juiced up thugs against guys who do not stand a chance, just so we as viewers get to watch some butt get kicked.

Honestly, there's nothing like watching Bubba King kick some poor sap repeatedly in the head, and nothing's sexier than Karen Ko making kissyface for the camera.

But what makes this show head and shoulders above anything similar, besides the extreme competition that resulted in a warrior's leg being broken LIVE ON TV, are the commentators. Scott Farrell is simply brilliant. His absurdist observations and commentary is unbelievably entertaining. Take this classic one-liner that Farrell spouted during an event, "I was going to order some spaghetti, and then my foot fell asleep." You'd think he was Samuel Beckett.

BattleDome is beautiful women, fierce beat-downs, and cartoonish plots all rolled into one television extravaganza.

Be warned, however: the first season beats the second hands down. During the second season, they virtually eliminated the pro wrestling-like antics in favor of a more American Gladiators-styled approach. They also tamed down the events due to all of the injuries in the first season. Don't waste your time with the second season.

"American Gladiators" was one of my favorite shows of the '90s, so when the promos started airing for "Battle Dome," I thought, hey, an updated "Gladiators!" Oh, good grief. Sometimes, this show makes me long for even "Knights and Warriors," that "AG" knock-off that had a couple of seasons before it ended.

All the warriors have personas to match their nicknames, like "gangsta" T-Money, Jamaican brawler Cuda (who I actually find least objectionable of all of the warriors), narcissistic so-called golden boy O'Dell, Italian caricature Johnny Rocco, and imperious warhorse Commander. "Battle Dome" is a strictly boys' club, as there are no competitions for the women as there were with "AG" and "Knights"; the only place for women in "Battle Dome" is as busty valets and arm charms for the overhyped warriors. And what's this in the second season with assigning a Perfect 10 girl to hang all over each of the competitors?

The games seem to unfairly favor the warriors; I honestly believe that there is a maximum weight/height restriction that they put on the competitors! The American Gladiators would take on all comers, as long as they passed the physical. What are the Battle Dome warriors scared of? Afraid that they'll look like wusses in their own house by getting beaten by guys bigger than they are? The warriors only look like bullies beating up on guys smaller than themselves, especially the 6' 10" Bubba King.

And I don't know about you, but the storylines and the premises behind some of the characters are just plain stupid. Bobbi Haven, the secretary for the never-seen Chairman, always trying to lure O'Dell into her arms... Jake Fury playing pranks on half the warrior roster and getting the tables turned on him... the T-Money-O'Dell feud (which I see only as a racial thing anyway)... even wrestlers from the WCW coming to bash heads with the Battle Dome warriors... puh-leeze! Leave the storylines to the wrestlers. Not even at their hokiest were "AG" and "Knights" this cheesy.

All right, I admit that some of the games look like fun... I wouldn't mind having the Battle Hoop in my living room to give me a good workout, as long as I knew that Snake, Johnny Rocco, Cuda, Baby Blue, or whoever else wouldn't be trying to knock the crap out of me as I tried to dive through the thing. Interceptor (the game where the warrior are suspended from the ceiling) looks like a lot of fun, too. Other than that, send the whole lot of these guys back to the showers!

The show has all that you could possibly want from something of the Gladiator genre: Hot, sweaty, male on male competition as well as flesh baring stripper-like hot girls. It also has Damon of "Friday After Next" fame playing a pimped out superstar. The show's campiness is off the charts, I say. It left me as fulfilled as a Duke student in a San Francisco bathhouse.

I think this show is great. I think it is action-packed. There is a lot of good points of the show. 1. There are many unusual matches like trying beat a guy up before he pushes you into fire 2. There are many different fighters who are great and 3. There are different champions everytime. If you have the time watch the whole. It will be worthwhile to.

the show has elements of pro wrestling and american gladiator but it does neither elements well.

the wrestling "storyline" element of the show are lame, plain stupid and goes no where.

the competition part basically pits contestants (normal people competing) again the "dome warriors" (the paid actors) pretty much the same way american gladiators did. except for one little thing: it's UNFAIR AS HELL!!! one example is the even in which both a contestant and a dome warrior have to hang by their hands from a metal grid suspended in the air while trying to kick each other down, but the grid always tilts down towards the contestants making it hard for them to move towards the dome warrior, but the dome warriors have an easy access to kick the contestant's arms to knock them down.

that's just one example of unfair cheap advantage crap that they do, if they would've leveled the playing field at least the competition part would be watchable.