Gladiators Ready?

I have no idea what made me think of this, but this afternoon at work, I thought about the "American Gladiators."  No, I'm not getting it confused with Russell Crowe's "Gladiator" movie; I'm talking about the first quasi-reality show.  Actually, it was part game show and part reality show.  In case you don't remember, or maybe are trying to forget, here's a little lesson about the American Gladiators.

"American Gladiators" was an hour long game show, featuring 4 contestants (2 men, 2 women) competing directly against each other for points. To prevent the contestants from getting points, of course, were the Gladiators. The two male contestants squared off against male gladiators, and the two female contestants were matched up against the female gladiators. The Gladiators were pushed as people to be hated... they were cocky, arrogant, and loved rubbing defeat into the faces of the wussy contestants. In between contests, the Gladiators would talk smack, just like pro wrestlers would, and the crowd would boo them like we used to boo the Iron Shiek back in the day. There was a small cast of roided-up Gladiators, all decked out in their red, white, and blue spandex. Each gladiator played their own 'part', much like in wrestling... in fact, certain Gladiators supposedly had 'specialty' events that they excelled in.

Powerball was one my favorite events.  This was in the day before Powerball was a lottery.  It was a football-esque competition in which the challengers tried to battle through a fleet of Gladiators and put foam balls in a garbage can.  The contestants would usually get sacked.  The tackles weren't fake like WWF; the Gladiators would slam them into the floor - men and women alike.  In fact, the female Gladiators were rougher than their male counterparts in this event.

Assault was another favorite event.  The challenger moved across the floor, hiding behind big blocks and used a crossbow, rocket launcher, and a gun to fire tennis balls at a target above one of the Gladiator's heads. At the same time, the Gladiator had a cannon that would fire tennis balls at the challenger. If the challenger made it through using the weapons without getting hit, they got one last chance to hit the target by throwing three tennis balls.  The Gladiators' aim was dead-on.  In the rare event that a challenger would hit the target, the red and white bullseye would shoot out smoke.  You don't see special effects like that on "Big Brother."

My favorite Gladiators were Nitro and Ice. They were the only two Gladiators to appear in all seven seasons.  I thought they were by far the hottest.  I also liked Hawk.  He was born and raised here in Louisville, and was the only Gladiator to have a Master's Degree. 

I did some research, and was surprised when I read that the "American Gladiators" was on the air for seven seasons, from 1989 to 1996.  Yes, the show was silly, but foks, this was about the same amount of time that "Frasier" and "Mad About You" was on the air.  The show earned its owned Nintendo 64 video game, and spawned a kid's version of the show, as well as a couple of foreign versions. 

With all of the other reunion shows that are on these days, and with the popularity of reality shows, I'm surprised that there hasn't been an "American Gladiators" reunion.  I'd even fork over the money for pay-per-view to see a show like that, just to get a look at what the buffed Gladiators look like fifteen years later.