American Gladiators hold a special place in my heart. It was a show that brought my brother and I together. He was into “real sports” and I was into “sports entertainment” (that’s prowrestling for those of you not familiar with the term). American Gladiators was a perfect marriage of the two, and created a show we could both love.

So you can imagine, I have had high hopes for the 2008 incarnation of American Gladiators would be as great as its predecessor, and I’m happy to say, for the most part, it holds up pretty well.

Most of the original events are unchanged (with the notable exceptions of ‘Assault’ and the new ‘Eliminator’), and the new events like ‘Hit and Run’ are great additions to the competition. While some of the old events have minor changes, like falling into water instead of on mats, and the smaller surface area of the ‘Joust’ platforms, those changes seem to work well. The only two complaints I have are the changes to ‘Assault’ that require you to hunt and find your ammo. It also seemed like the contenders didn’t know how to operate the weapons, which seem like something they should be briefed on.

The ‘Eliminator’ is another story. It really needs some tweaking. It’s build to be SO tough that the contenders are barely able to move when its over, and the ending of both hours of this premiere were anti-climactic. There is also no Gladiator involvement in the ‘Eliminator’ which seems like a mistake to me.

The biggest problem with this show is how much time they spend talking to the contenders. I’m not interested in hearing their life stories or smack-talking to the Gladitors – thankfully, I have a DVR – so I can just fast forward through that. So, if you ARE into hearing them talk on and on – then you go for it, I’ll pass.

All in all – this is a great update to the American Gladiators franchise, and I sincerely hope the show is a big success.

Grade: A