American Gladiators returns to our lives (again!) via Prime Video and a ten-episode series reboot, hosted by Mike “The Miz” Mizanin, co-hosted by Rocsi Diaz, and including Chris Rose as a kind of play-by-play commentator. The format survives from the 1980s primetime series, as well as NBC’s 2008 primetime reboot (hosted by the late Hulk Hogan). “Contenders,” everyday athletic people, face “Gladiators,” super-fit types with resumes including college football, professional wrestling, CrossFit, and gymnastics, in arena-style games with a few wild bells and whistles. Who has the upper hand in something like Atlasphere, which features players rolling around in metal balls and banging into each other? We’ll find out as the new AmGlad makes its shouty presence known.
Opening Shot: “Kick the tires, light the fires, and hold onto your foam fingers, America!” Somebody set American Gladiators host The Miz on ‘hyper.’ “The greatest games on Earth are back and bigger than ever!”
The Gist: Alright, stuff like Whiplash, Powerball, and Joust probably aren’t the greatest games on the planet. But they do represent the pedigree established by the original American Gladiators back in 1989. The first is a two-way tug-of-war in a wrestling circle. The second involves players avoiding gladiator hip checks to slam balls into pods. And the third is a battle with pugil sticks atop two platforms. The new AmGlad acknowledges this competition-forward past, then pours the gasoline of professional wrestling all over everything.
“Steeeeel! Huntressssss! BLAAAAAAZE. MAAY-hem!” And some guy named Fang? Who descends a climbing wall while trying to be scary? In AmGlad, the gladiator intros, ceaselessly loud and WWE-coded, play against lifestyle cutaways for competitors in a style more typical of today’s reality competitions. So in the women’s heat, Francheska overcame a serious childhood injury, while on the men’s side, 43-year-old Tavares was inspired by the original show. In the first Whiplash matchup, 5’5” Francheska throws the 5’11” Hurricane, aka professional wrestler Kailey Latimer, right out of the circle.
24 competitors will begin this American Gladiators. 12 men, 12 women, with the top six from each category advancing, then the top 3, until one man and one woman remain, who will compete for $100,000 and “American Gladiator glory.” There are also 16 gladiators trying to stop the off the street regulars. The aforementioned, plus branded, musclebound, and stars-and-stripes lycra’d personas like Crush, Empire, Neon, and Eagle. While not direct character reboots themselves, the gladiators are presented in the original style, pro wrestling spice added.
Each episode of American Gladiators will include women’s and men’s heats, with contenders acquiring points for strong finishes and gladiator throwdowns. But winners also accrue valuable seconds on the clock, applied toward the episode-ending Eliminator. It’s an obstacle course, comparable to American Ninja Warrior, with another out-of-the-past tweak: after the hurdles, rope hang, cargo net, and zip line, players must face the “Travelator,” which is like a flat escalator running without an off switch.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Well, the legacy of American Gladiators lives on in the reality competitions of today. That’s the biggest reason why this reboot feels inevitable, when it’s not screaming too loudly in your ear. Ninja Warrior, of course, but also something like Beast Games, which featured pugil stick platform battles in its second season.
The American Gladiators legacy also took the documentary scene by storm. Back in 2023, Muscles and Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators and an ESPN 30 for 30 doc about the series appeared within weeks of one another.
Our Take: Contender ready! Gladiator ready! Viewer ready! So, are you ready? The inertia of the reality industry, combined with the recent charge toward competition in reality spaces, made this reboot of an eager, if more fondly-remembered than it was actually good 80s property, a certainty. The original American Gladiators often felt more like Battle of the Network Stars than the physically fit reality comps of today. It had an inherent cheeziness that played well off the games at its center. And while this new version seems to understand that, we feel like it’s far too drenched in pro wrestling-style histrionics. There is nothing wrong with that stuff as a style. But it’s an awkward fit against the competition portions, which feature officials calling fouls and looking at VAR. And then you’ve got Miz and Rocsi, shouting and gesticulating wildly. And Chris Rose, whose play call and voice-y drop-ins feel like they’re playing on a loop in an arcade somewhere. It all feels very incongruous and harsh, like bad lighting jury rigged to an amplifier.
And yet, we cheered. We were rooting for Tavares, the oldest guy in the competition, to show up the gladiators and their big talk. We had Francheska’s back as she took on opponents twice her size. The new AmGlad is packed with tacky effects, canned “In yo’ face!” responses, and a bent toward store bought patriotism. But at its core are individuals who just want to compete. We like believing in their spirit against the oversized blather of the show they’re in.
Performance Worth Watching: The regular people “contenders” are the true heroes of this American Gladiators. Each after-game interview is just them trying to be normal while the gladiators showboat and the hosts scream their faces off.
Sex and Skin: Nah, but bulging biceps, triceps, quadriceps – all the ‘ceps, and they’re all bulging.
Parting Shot: Miz and Rosi hype the upcoming American Gladiators season. The hits, we are assured, will be harder. Whether there will be more yelling, we don’t have to wonder
Sleeper Star: The AmGlad reboot does a pretty good job cutting in highlights from the original American Gladiators. They work to set the historical precedent. But there’s also some visual pop, whenever these little windows into 1980s TV open over the new show’s food court in a video game production design.
Most Pilot-y Line: “The game face is onnnnn,” “Someone’s stuck in neutral!”, “This is peak America, folks”: Chris Rose’s commentator drop-ins are a mixture of Nintendo-coded soundbite and bizarre pep rally outtake.
Our Call: We’re gonna give Prime Video’s American Gladiators reboot a STREAM IT. Not because we like being shouted at by Mike “The Miz” Mizanin, and not because we think its wrestling-style taunting is clever, but because of its competitors, who as regular folks off the street have lots of chances to show off their skills, take out gladiators, and walk with the cash.
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Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.
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