American Gladiators

[shardian]

i cant believe the ratings are good for this show.  its gotta be staged, and even if it isnt, they totally botched the show.  all they needed to do was to take the old formula, get a new set, throw in some new events and boom...done.  id season pass on my dvr, and be totally content.  but NO....they had to make it all dramatic and crap. 

I agree that some of the new events are weak ( earthquake, and the glass bridge with big bean bags), but the highlights of the show is Wolf doing his thing, and Crush totally beating down people in Joust. I could watch a whole hour of Crush I tell ya.

[shardian]

Bumping this up because me and the wife still watch it. The new season started with the episodes being 1.5 hours long. There wouldn't even be an event until they bull-crapped about the contestants life stories for the first 20 minutes or so. Apparently the realized that noone cared and have cut the episodes back to 1 hour. Since they had already filmed the whole season, that meant they had to cut already filmed events and chatter. Now, the events start fairly quickly into the show. They also cut the two most boring events from the original longer format and just recap them. The result is a much tighter show...but still too long on crappy interviews and fed lines.

I do have a funny story from watching last week:

I basically watch every week just to see Crush kick ass. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't even watch. I totally have the hots for her...but more for her skills than her looks (Don't get me wrong, she is still very good looking and I wouldn't be near as interested if she looked like a man). My wife asked me if I thought she was pretty and I said "not really". She of course did the whole "you're lying and you have a thing for her" diatribe. I started to try and wiggle my way out of it and she said "are you attracted to her?", and I said yes...but... and then she interrupted and said "...because she is tough and kicks ass?" and I said "Hell YES!". Then she let it go and was totally cool with it! I can only guess it was because she could tell I was telling the truth. I personally think that Crush turns her on too. 

And just to show how all-out this girl goes, here is a clip from last week in which Crush annihilates some 52 year old granny that shouldn't have even been on the show. Props to granny though for taking her beating and still moving on. I dare you to hold a drink of pop in your mouth and not spit it everywhere while watching.

[ChadTower]

I wonder why the Tivo didn't get that.  I'll have to check.

I love how the granny lands on her feet after a 10' high sunset flip.   

[hypernova]

Crush is the only thing that keeps that show alive, I would bet.

Wolf is fun to watch as well, but I'm fairly certain he's not bringing the "sexy" to the women viewers.

I taped one episode a few months ago, on a VCR.  Even manually FFing, I finished it in less than 15 minutes, just watching events.  Which means they should cut out ALL the interviewing, (they could save on the host salaries!) and just have one person do it, then all events, all the time.  One line of smack here and there could be fitted in as well.  This would all fit in one HALF HOUR show!

[hypernova]

Just watched tonight's episode for once...

Unveiled a new Gladiator, called Beast.  7' tall, over 300 lbs (318?)  He played Joust.  Against two people not even half his size.

I wonder...If someone like him just took that giant Q-tip, and swung it like a baseball bat.  He needs to try that.  Prior to the start of the fight, just take a batter's stance, and swing for the fences as soon as the whistle blows.  Not sure if a rule states that two hands must be on the stick at all times, so that could mean no follow-through, but I don't think that would change much in terms of sheer force being applied.

Is Crush still undefeated in Joust?

[Namco]

I watch the show for Crush (Gina Carano). She is by far the most badass person on the show. Go on youtube or bittorrent and watch her fights, she's awesome. She just had a spread in Muscle & Fitness that was really good. I also like Siren (Valarie Waugaman), she's a competing bodybuilder, just because she's so smoking hot. Gone are the days of flat chested female bodybuilders. Thank god for Silicone
... also she's great on Hang Tough (the swingy ring event).

For the dudes, get a load of Justice. His real name's actually Justice Smith. The guy's as big as a house 6'8" 300something with arms as long as long as redwoods. His profession? Kickboxer! Man, I'd hate to step in the ring with that dude.

As far as the competition, I like the events but there's no penalty for not scoring points. 2 weeks ago one chick scored 0 points then won the eliminator because she only had a few seconds penalty. The thing I hate the most is that the eliminator punishes you if you're big. All the climbing is hard for a bigger person because it's proportionally more work to move that body up nets, ropes, pyramids and ramps than for a little person.... so we have last week where a 150 pound annoying twig sets a record on the eliminator and advances to the next round and the bigger guys are huffing and puffing trying to outrun speedy gonzalez. What they need to do is put a few strength obstacles in place. Put Titan with a baseball bat and shield at the bottom of the treadmil ramp and let's see those little squirts push past that in record time