Former WWE and current TNA Wrestling star Matt Morgan is joining the cast of American Gladiators next week as a character called “The Beast”. With Morgan reaching almost 7ft in height, and clocking in at 318 lbs – its not hard to see why they call him that.

American Gladiators continues to be a favorite around my house, although we have been watching it less this season than last.

Still, as the semi finals heat up, its a mainstay of our DVR. Check it out on Monday nights.

On the June 9th episode of “American Gladiators” viewers will be treated to some serious cross promotion as the theme for the episode is all things “Hulk”.

“The Incredible Hulk” hits theaters this summer, and to help promote the film, the original Hulk, Lou Ferrigno, will join Hulk Hogan and Lela Ali as a guest host for the show, and we’ve seen Gladiator Titan decked out with green skin in all of the American Gladiator teaser promos.

Will there be any other Hulk-related surprises in store? Who knows? Maybe we’ll get a new trailer or something during the commercials.

Man, NBC moved fast on this one.

Just one week after the debut of the American Gladiators reboot, the Peacock swooped in to greenlight the show for a second season. It seems like a no-brainer for the network, as the show had the largest premiere audience in the 18-49 demographic of any other show this season, and actually went up from there.

The announcement was made this morning on the Today Show by a couple of the contestants on the show.

Tonight Jeff Chapman and Adonis Lockett were the male competitors tonight, and they started things off in the Gauntlet. There was some controversy when Gladiator Justice held Adonis down after he passed through Justice’s scoring zone. After a dispute with the ref, Adonis was awarded the 2 addition points he would have scored if Justice hadn’t pinned him down.

Christie Philips and Siene Silva were the female competitors and also started things off in the Gauntlet.

The men next competed in The Wall, where Jeff came back, scored 10 points, and Adonis was shut out after being pulled off the wall.

The women then competed in the Joust, where Christie was knocked off the platform in 15 seconds, Siene didn’t fare much better, lasting 20 seconds after Gladiator Crush mercilessly smacked her in the head over and over again.

After that the men competed in Earthquake. Jeff “Big Country” Chapman continued to reinforce Southern stereotypes by talking about mud wrestling contests back home, however, when it was over “Big Country” scored another 10 points after knocking the Gladiator off the platform. Of course, after that was over, he then made a “hog wrestling” comment. Yee-Haw.

Adonis again failed to score any points, after trying to pants Gladiator Militia and falling off the platform.

The women then took on Gladiator Venom in Hang Tough. Christie got shut out again, but Siene, a former gymnast, made quick work of the rings and scored 10 points.

In the final event before the Eliminator, the men took their chances in Hang Tough as well. Adonis was up first, taking on Gladiator Wolf, and he finally gets back on the score board, making it to the platform and getting 10 points. “Big Country” didn’t fair as well, getting tossed into the water just inches away from the platform.

The women’s events were wrapped with Assualt, which still feels “off” to me with the contenders having to load and find the ammo during the event. Christie was quickly shot, scoring only 1 point. Siena didn’t do much better, only scoring 2 points before being taken out.

In the Eliminator, “Big Country” lost his commanding lead after a few hiccups during the obstacle course. It all came down to Adonis and Jeff on the Travelator. Neither man could get up the incline (and I really think this part of the Eliminator needs to be changed – it’s just terrible to watch, and seriously anti-climactic). Adonis eventually gets his footing a few seconds before Big Country, and taking the win.

It should be no surprise that Siene cleared the Eliminator very quickly – making the thing look easy.

So there is only one slot left for the semi-finals.

The current contenders are:

Men:
Anthony
Molivann
Adonis

Women:
Shanay
Siene
Venus

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