American Gladiators

After discovering the show sometime around '94, I watched every episode, including the reruns that were on at the time. The varied competitions made it something of an athletic game show, and it was always entertaining. My favorite was always the Eliminator.

Some people have expressed uncertainty as to why this show left the air. Well, watching the reruns you will never realize it, but the big problem with the show was that near the end new episodes became something of a rarity. The "International Gladiators" specials became more and more common, which eroded their mystique and made them somewhat dull. But in the end it seemed like every week (and I mean EVERY week) was a rerun--especially of the episode with Dean Cain, which must have shown at least twenty times. (An exaggeration perhaps, but not much of one.) So yes, the show was canceled without much fanfare, but that's because most viewers thought the show was already over. One new episode every couple of months isn't enough to hold viewers--I don't care how popular the show is.

I was just thinking about the show the other day and how neat it would be to have a traveling version of Gladiators that would work similarly to American Idol. Perhaps it's just nostalgia on my part, but I think it would be quite cool.

Contestant Rico Constantino, winner of an American Gladiator series went on to work for the WWE under his own name. As of the beginning of 2004, Rico has performed as the fashion designer/manager of Chuck and Billy, two later-shown-to-be-false homosexual wrestlers, and is now wrestling on his own as a flamboyant wrestler of questionable sexual orientation. He is managed by Jackie Gayda.

I used to get so hype off of "American Gladiators." You had a couple of athletic contestants who had to do various competitions such as jousting or the ball shoot and they'd have to deal with these larger-than-life bodybuilders. I was always rooting for the contestants just because they were such underdogs. It was a fun game show.

I remember this show very well. When I was around 12, I watched this almost every Saturday night. It was a very amazing show. The events were great, it couldn't bore you, it was a very high-technical show. To me, it was almost olympic like. I don't think there will ever be anything close to it.

I'll admit that as a person who does not count themselves a sports fan and who shies away from almost all shows involving actual real physical activity, the American Gladiator show pulled me in from nearly the beginning.

I think that the part I truly enjoyed was all of the interesting contests and the changes to the contests that made it different from everything else out there. I mean, anyone can watch a group of football players who have been training and practicing for this one sport since they were children, but the gladiator contestants were every day people who had no idea what specific events they were going to have to do when they joined.

The fun names of the players, the interesting and yet fairly safe events, and the excitement of seeing the person you've rooted for take home the prize. Yes, I would very much like to see the show on the air again, or even on DVD.