And apparently, he wore the suit often, including the very first day that the original gladiator Gemini showed up on set. Johnny showed up at Gemini’s trailer with “the hair, the jewels, the whole big coif, everything.”

As Gemini recalls: “Horse manure everywhere. You step out the trailer, BOOM!”

Bill Garnet, who directed the pilot, came up with a game while watching Late Night when David Letterman did one of his regular bits involving a velcro suit. Garnet’s idea: The Velcro Joust. Both the gladiator and the contestant were hung by bungee cords and the contestants — outfitted in full velcro — tried to evade the gladiators who were tasked with pushing the contestants into a velcro-covered wall. It did not work because the contestants were too heavy to stick to the wall.

It’s like that scene in Jury Duty, but with 100% more foam shapes.

This roller derby show was shopped around at the same time as American Gladiators and had all of the buzz — as well as a pit full of alligators. RollerGames didn’t make it past 13 episodes.

Nitro’s audition involved stopping a 150-pound college student from getting a football past him. The result? “Bam! Picked the guy up. Slammed him on the concrete. He goes unconscious.” The producer’s response: You’re hired!

That’s because the producer already had a poster of Zap hanging up in his garage.

Luckily this morbid and bizarre concept went in the trash along with the foam pieces and velcro suit.

Season 1 gladiator/surfer dude Malibu didn’t make it past the initial 13-episode order due to one gnarly round of Human Cannonball. In the event, a contestant swings and collides with a gladiator who’s stationed atop an elevated platform. The contestant connected with Malibu with both legs, knocking Malibu literally head over heels. Malibu landed on the mat below headfirst, his knee crashing into his head and splitting it open. He also suffered two broken ribs, a broken thumb, a concussion, a torn bicep muscle, and needed plastic surgery to repair his face. That was how Malibu’s run ended.

The two of them met during the NFL strike in 1987 when they were replacement players for the Rams. They hit it off, became roommates, and essentially lived the life of a late ’80s buddy sitcom. The two of them lived off of the money Laser got from the settlement for his NFL injury, worked as background extras, and one time they put on speedos and wrestled for $250.

’nuff said.

Rodney Mitchell, a.k.a. Sarge, was also a drill instructor who specialized in hand-to-hand combat. At first, Sarge mainly focused on training the contestants and would show them tricks that he wouldn’t show the gladiators. Hoping to become the best at the joust, Blaze traveled out to San Diego to train one-on-one with Sarge. Blaze wanted to joust, but Sarge thought Blaze wanted a date. Fast-forward to today and these two have been married for 30 years.

After having a couple drinks, Nitro and Zap headed back to his apartment. Nitro playfully asked Zap if he could give her a piggyback ride to his building, so Zap hopped on and wrapped her legs around his waist. Nitro says Zap whispered in his ear, “Do you wanna see how strong I am?” and then proceeded to squeeze the air out of Nitro until he blacked out. Zap’s take on this event: “It’s a bunch of bullshit.”

During Human Cannonball, a contestant swung elbow-first into Titan and caught the gladiator under his jaw. Titan did not agree with how the referee ruled… so Titan charged at the ref. According to Nitro, it took three gladiators to hold Titan back.

A number of gladiators admit to doing steroids during the show’s run. Nitro bought steroids in Mexico, and Laser says he did them during the off-season. Ice used steroids in her bodybuilding days, but she, Diamond, and Zap all claim that the women weren’t using on the show. Zap did use supplements and growth hormone, which don’t show up when you’re tested for steroids. However, Blaze does claim that some women got boob jobs to counteract the effects of increased testosterone due to steroid usage.

And on the flip side, Nitro says that his increased estrogen levels, which his body generated to counteract the testosterone, caused him to start to grow breasts — and he had breast reduction surgery.

The self-proclaimed dirtiest competitor in American Gladiators history, Elden Kidd deserves his own 5-part docuseries. The gist is: Elden Kidd was a 36-year-old father of five who only tried out for the show to please his father and earn cash. During his tryout, a producer — presumably jokingly — told him that if he made someone bleed he’d be on the show… so he gave his opponent an elbow to the nose, drew blood (“I was sorry, somewhat”), and got cast. On the show, Kidd refused to play nice or even shake anyone’s hand. During Human Cannonball, Kidd slammed into Laser and Nitro forearm first. He said it wasn’t intentional at the time (“I lied. That was a lie”). When it came down to the Eliminator, Kidd’s lead all but assured victory — but off-camera, Kidd says that he told the producers that he was not willing to turn around and immediately do a whole new competition against a previous winner, what with him being physically drained and the other guy totally rested up. Kidd says that because of this, the producers manufactured a win for the other guy.

It’s okay, though. Kidd went on to make a living smuggling people across the border from Mexico. He served two years in a Mexican prison but, since the prisoners recognized him from American Gladiators, they knew not to mess with him. It all worked out!

It was Diamond, of course — the gladiator with the presence of a jacked Marilyn Monroe.

Nitro was listening to Sir Mix-a-Lot’s ode to prominent posteriors while driving in his Jeep. Laser made the mistake of changing the station to country, a no-no since he was the passenger. Nitro changed it back to “Baby Got Back,” Laser flipped it back to country, Nitro slapped Laser, Laser slapped Nitro — it got so heated that they pulled over to settle this. The two then got into a brawl that culminated with Laser full-on biting Nitro on the face. This caused them to come to their senses, and Nitro offered Laser a hand to pull him up. Then Nitro was like, “Nah, dude bit me on the face” and turned that open palm into a closed fist and punched Laser right in the eye.

Other A-list fans included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kevin Costner, Gene Simmons, Steve Martin, Dennis Rodman, and President Clinton.

The American Gladiators arena tour put a lot of wear and tear on the gladiators, thus necessitating a lot of new recruits. The show would recruit gladiators by scouting out the local gyms and, in the case of Tower and Sky, that led to full-time, on-camera work as gladiators even after the tour was axed.

He played one of ageless beauty Isabella Rossellini’s boytoys in the camp classic Death Becomes Her, but sadly his only line was cut.

Any road tour is gonna come with lots of hookups. During their stop in Chicago, there was a hot contestant who caught the attention of all the gladiators. All the guys started placing bets on who would get the girl, Nitro or Ice. Ice thought this was stupid, called the guys losers, and walked away. Nitro and Tower invited the contestant to go out with them later, but she never showed. The next morning while waiting for the buses to pick them up, who walks through the lobby? Ice, with the hot contestant on her arm.

With inflation, that’s roughly $1,100 per show in 2023. American Gladiators did 26 episodes a season, which comes to an annual salary of $13,000 in 1991 and $28,600 adjusted for inflation. That is madness.

At this point, it had become clear to the gladiators that they were expendable and could go at any moment for any reason. So yeah, Zap’s daughter was in her belly while she did Breakthrough and Conquer. “I don’t think that was the thing to do but, she turned out perfect, so…”

After seeing all of the merchandise bearing their likenesses, including their own action figures from Mattel, the gladiators decided to band together and demand more pay and a cut of the merchandise. For some reason, though, Nitro and Gemini seemed to only confer with the most prominent gladiators instead of trying to get everyone to stick together. Laser said no, so that left just Ice, Zap, Gemini, and Nitro to negotiate — which Samuel Goldwyn Jr. refused to do because his father, the legendary film producer, never negotiated. All four gladiators were fired — and the show also gave Diamond and Blaze the chop just because. 

Zap thought her job on the naval legal show would be a regular one, but she didn’t last past the pilot.

After the show was unceremoniously canceled in 1996, the producers tried to keep the franchise alive with a dinner theater show in Orlando. The gladiators performed a number of events against the same competitors every night while the audience had dinner. This was not a success.

As Sky describes her channel, “Do you have any idea how many men love big feet? Especially big American Gladiator feet? Sexy big American Gladiator feet?” The 6’3″ former gladiator gets requests to paint her toenails red, white, and blue, or to squeeze a tennis ball between her feet. “I love men. They’re so entertaining. So many hobbies, so little time.” Werk, Sky.