Speaker A
A lot of people are like, "Oh, the show's great." But then all of a sudden seem like, "Oh, it's not what it used to be." What are you talking about, dude?
Inside look at American Gladiator Arena with elitefts athletes discussing training, competition, and behind-the-scenes truths.
Key Takeaways
- American Gladiator features highly skilled and physically diverse athletes.
- Training for the show is intense and requires specialized focus, such as arm workouts.
- The show remains popular and competitive despite changes in format or perception.
- Athlete profiles often include exaggerated stats for entertainment purposes.
- Personal stories and backgrounds add depth to the competitors beyond the arena.
Summary
- Discussion about the changing perception of the American Gladiator show over time.
- Athletes share insights on their intense arm training sessions and physical preparation.
- The show’s popularity as a top unscripted competition series is highlighted.
- Contestants’ profiles and physical stats are discussed, including exaggerations in weight and athletic achievements.
- The panel emphasizes the high caliber of athletes involved, including D1 wrestlers and football players.
- Personal anecdotes about athletes’ backgrounds, including wrestling, Big Brother reality TV, and family life.
- Comments on the physical challenges faced by heavier competitors in the arena.
- Humorous and candid banter about training, appearance, and competition mindset.
- Mentions of the show’s episode release schedule and how it affected viewer experience.
- Reflections on the dedication and competitive spirit required to participate in American Gladiators.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
You're looking at it from your eyes when you were eight, nine, ten. Somebody says something to him or somebody says something to me. Whoever gets their hands on that next contender, like, we will headhunt you for a fact. We
Speaker A
have your competitive life throughout this series in our hands. It's time to sit down, keep it real, and cut the [ __ ]. Welcome to Table Talk.
Speaker A
All right, first question for you guys to be able to jump out because you wanted to train arms first. So, we just had a three-hour, three and I think three and a half hour arm session because you wanted the pump. Now, I
Speaker A
didn't have the heart to tell you guys that the pump doesn't last for two hours.
Speaker A
It's gone already. So, you're going to have to tell me that. Yeah. So, my polo is already... It's like a big dress. I a poncho.
Speaker A
Yes. The trick is tighter shirts, guys. Tighter shirts. Is that the thing? Tighter underwear always makes you look better.
Speaker A
So, we wanted to—I had Eric scheduled and then you guys jumped on because of the gladiators, right? And it's trending right now. It's number one in what?
Speaker A
Competition series and some other thing as well. Unscripted television. Yeah, unscripted television. So, it's doing well.
Speaker A
And then number five overall. Yeah, number five overall. And the last few episodes were launched. Was it this weekend? I think I asked you about that earlier.
Speaker A
May 1st. Yep. Yeah. Because it kind of screwed me up because I started watching it last week.
Speaker A
Friday, right? So, I'm watching it on Friday. I'm like, man, what, there's like six.
Speaker A
Yeah. Like what's like who won? You got to wait another week, right? And then I'm like, now screw it. I guess this is all the research I got to do. And then, uh, Sunday I'm like, you know what? I better
Speaker A
go back and check. Yeah. Because he said something about you getting disqualified. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker A
And I'm like, I didn't see that. So, I better go check. And then boom, there are all these whole series, the 10 episodes.
Speaker A
Yes. Wow. Well, I skipped through a lot of it, dude. Okay. Well, I skipped through a lot. I mean, well, the here—No, no, no. True story. The first time I watched it on Friday, I'm just watching you, right? Because I want to
Speaker A
know what you did. You're like, "Hey, by the way, you know, Jesse wants to come and, you know, Mike, is it right? Mike, Matt, and what, what Fang? Now I know just these stupid screen names." Look at his banana. He's a terrible
Speaker A
banana. Just all black bananas. Yeah. So then I'm like, now I got to go see what they did.
Speaker A
He's an edible. You see that? Now I got to go see what they did. And that's that was that. Then as I'm watching this thing, you know, my heart's going out to you guys because the rings, you know, and stuff like that. But
Speaker A
you're over 240 lbs, man. You're screwed. Then it shows your bio, your profile. They add like 10 pounds to all you guys, by the way, you know. So you're like 220.
Speaker A
Hey, I can attest I was a solid 205. I was—I got on the scale. Everybody saw. I was still—I was 205 when we weighed in for the physical. I was 205 there.
Speaker A
You don't tell them what you— you tell them what your best is. It's like when someone asks you how much you've benched, you don't tell them what you currently bench, you tell them the best you've ever—like high school football where they add
Speaker A
10 lbs to everything. Yeah. Well, I mean, you had this 800 lb behind the back deadlift.
Speaker A
I've done—Well, by the way, this is the story of my life. WWE booked me at 230 lb when I was 293.
Speaker A
That's—So, the 800 lb behind the back, you know, cool. It doesn't matter, but I've done 888. Okay. So, you can statistics. That's basically another plate thrown on there.
Speaker A
Also, this is—Also, can I just say one thing? They also said D1 football and stuff for everyone. Where's D1 wrestling for me?
Speaker A
That wasn't on there. And I'm not complaining. I'm just—I would because you were actually good.
Speaker A
That's what I'm saying. Like, why does Rowan state champion folk style, state champ freestyle, All-American? You know what I'm saying?
Speaker A
Where's that? Where's, um, scholarship student athlete of the month at University of Wisconsin?
Speaker A
I mean, come on. That's amazing. I try to tell people like these guys were cut bigger and better than ever before. This guy was a D1—yeah,
Speaker A
out of Wisconsin wrestler. And we had Mayhem who is a what? Chattanooga State, I believe.
Speaker A
Lightning was over there at San Diego State and, uh, you had Neon who also was D1 softball.
Speaker A
Oh yeah. Like, like these people. I mean, the rugby that Voltage was doing, the athlete—I mean, Striker was 6'4 and 3/4 or 15, 16th by the end of the show. Like, I mean a tower of a woman that's
Speaker A
like, yeah, these—the everybody, everybody. We had like five guys, five American Gladiators that were over 6'4, 6'3 legit. No, that's flat foot. Like this is no joke. Like, yeah, absolutely. Where it's my senior year I was voted best hair.
Speaker A
Yeah, best hair. Senior hair. I just—You got to throw the—you got to try the stick.
Speaker A
You're kind of taking pride in that dreamy. You going to hear the sarcasm in that all these Division One athletes. I'm like, well, the best I had the best hair, right? So, he sent me your profile first, then
Speaker A
he sent me yours, right? So, then I clicked through the Instagram and I'm like, man, this dude looks familiar. Uh oh. And it's like then it's—oh, it was Big Brother when I actually used to
Speaker A
watch it. Wow. Right. Because it's like season 10 or 11. Yeah. Reality. Holy. It was a long time ago, man.
Speaker A
Almost two decades. I might have been still competing at that. Yeah. Was it MTV or something? No. CBS. My guy. Come on. Now I watch CBS.
Speaker A
No. This is network television. This is prime time. Spring break. That's a Big Brother dude doing American Gladiators. Yeah, I was watching, right?
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. But then there's some wrestling background in there too, right? Yep. Like between Big Brother and—Yeah. For 17 years now. Since 2000, 2009.
Speaker A
That's why you're here. Yeah. Yeah. So, so what is that? What's which part?
Speaker A
The in between, the in between from Big Brother. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was—Yeah.
Speaker A
I mean, outside of having like a billion kids, right? It was—We got seven kids now.
Speaker A
Why? Yeah. Half of a baker's dozen, you—What's the oldest? The oldest is nine. He'll be nine. Yep.
Speaker A
Think about that. Yep. Seven kids. Seven kids. The oldest. I started when I was 31. So, you can do the math on it. I won't tell you. But, so I have an 8-year-old that's about to be nine, a seven-year-old,
Speaker A
a 5-year-old, just back to back. A 2-year-old that's about to be three, a one-year-old that just turned one, and a one-year-old that just turned one.
Speaker A
Poor woman. Hey, poor lady. She's—She should be an American Gladiator, too. So you're welcome America. We are out here for America.
Speaker A
America first. It's like it's—And then we had twins just three weeks ago going on four. So congratulations. So how did—'Cause I already spoke to him last time on how you got invited.
Speaker A
You know how it all came. Did we talk about—I don't think we talked about—I don't think we last time I was here when we had an amazing arm workout. By the way, we're having a trend here. Every time I go
Speaker A
it's arms. I—I watched that on the way over and it—I was—I'm not—I not much gets me too, too rattled when it comes especially training arms. I feel like both Fang and myself can hold our own. But what you
Speaker A
two did I'm just like, well, we better strap up and lace up the old Nikes a little bit tighter. You guys, you guys went for broke and it was just you two. But this rotation was a little
Speaker A
bit, a little bit more unorthodox. Lucky I did—I did legs with Dave.
Speaker A
That was the last arm day I've ever had. Was that really? Yeah. I can tell that you're a powerlifter, too, 'cause we did triceps for every three hours of it.
Speaker A
Biceps for 30 minutes. So, I'm like modifying powerlifting movements to feed an arm day.
Speaker A
Yeah. Last time I was here was like N
Speaker A
have to do this. So, I messaged like the casting director or whatever. I didn't get like a in how do you even find them?
Speaker A
I don't know. I can't remember a Google search. I mean, what do you do?
Speaker A
Like American Gladiators casting director.com. Yeah. Enter now. Uh apply now. I think uh I think a lot of people in AEW were knew about it or something like that and freakbeast told me about it and I was like what? So Nick Camarado he's
Speaker A
the one that and then I I asked him like well I mean how can I get in on this? I think he might have given me the email address, but I basically just I just emailed the person like, "Hey, here's
Speaker A
me. I sent some videos of horsecock and weights and stuff like that." And I was like, "No, I want to know what this email read." I could probably find it.
Speaker A
Probably says, "Hi, my name is Eric. I have 22 inch arms. I'm close to 300 lb depending upon if I weigh myself in the morning or at night. I can deadlift 888 pounds behind my back." Yeah, here's my YouTube channel with
Speaker A
it. It was something along those lines. I can't remember. But then shortly after it's like, well, yeah, it's like we'll set you up with a Zoom call. So, I did the Zoom call and I thought it was freaking grand slam home run. But then
Speaker A
they told us the trajectory of it. It was going to be okay this a month later you're going to come for medical, a month later you're going to do u practice and then you'll film the following month. So then a month goes
Speaker A
by, I'm like, you know, maybe because I'm like, I there's no way I'm not going to get hired for this.
Speaker A
So there's a Zoom call, then after that there's a medical exam. Yeah. Like if they hire you, they got to see if the combine first.
Speaker A
Oh, the com. Yeah, the physical. But I didn't know that. They didn't I didn't wasn't aware of that. So um my point is a month went by or two month and I just like my heart was broken. I was like,
Speaker A
man, I just lost I lost the knack. I don't have it. So I was thinking cuz I live in Oh, wait a minute. What did you have to do? like what's interview just like uh promos and stuff.
Speaker A
Cut a promo like what would your character be? Yeah. I mean that's fine. They ask you questions.
Speaker A
That's you. That's you being you. Yeah. So I wore a singlet. I wore a singlet of course like the skimpy committed.
Speaker A
I had a I had a track suit on. I like cut the promo. So I was wearing the tracks. I took it off and I had this like 1970s like USA singlet. But it was it was he just went into his own closet and
Speaker A
grabbed everything needed to legitimately be an American gladiator on the show today. Like the whole ' 70s tracksuit jumpsuit.
Speaker A
You know what's funny? Well, I wore this yesterday. I It's like a perfect fit.
Speaker A
Just go look at my YouTube. Look at his face. Story. I was at the combine feeling very confident about myself.
Speaker A
I still don't understand this combine thing. So you do this interview and then but this was a year later. That's my point. So, a year later went by and I'm like, I can't believe I had to get hired.
Speaker A
I was devastated. And then So, didn't they pull you guys together or you got to do this by yourself?
Speaker A
No, it's a combine. They flew us all out to LA. Yeah. And there was a whole group of people and there was multiple of these, but we just happened to be at the same one.
Speaker A
Yeah, that was crazy. So, what is part of the combine? What do you got to do?
Speaker A
Well, real quick, I'm in the lobby getting ready for the combine. I'm like, I'm the biggest dude here. This I'm in.
Speaker A
Ding. The elevator doors open and this dude walks out like he's in the Olympics.
Speaker A
USA singlet track. Yeah, USA. And I was familiar with who he was. And did he have the fanny pack?
Speaker A
100% dude. The whole garb. Full dude. You would have thought they told him what to wear.
Speaker A
I just felt myself deplete. I was just like, damn. Him of all people. And then of course him and I were paired up together at the combine. They paired you up with like the same person you were closest in age, size, whatever.
Speaker A
So, yeah, it was me and him running neck to neck at the combine. But it was what?
Speaker A
We had to do as many push-ups as push-ups in a minute. Sit-ups. How many push-ups did you do in a minute?
Speaker A
100? I DID 111. DID YOU? OH, YOU KNOW, CUZ I won the first session, but you were after. You were the second one cuz they told me I was in the lead. 11.
Speaker A
Yeah, they put it on the show. I know, but I didn't believe it when I saw that. I was like, show.
Speaker A
Are you kidding me? It was on the show. It was on the show. It was on the show. It was one of my fun facts. Theirs was like, "Hey, we like basket weaving and underwater." Yeah. What was it? I forget.
Speaker A
Random. I love So, you guys had the same Zoom type thing? Yeah. Yep. And then a medical. I'm going to cut you off real fast. I made this video after I did my audition or whatever cuz I was
Speaker A
like I was feeling all fired the freak. Oh, can't do that. Sorry. Right. Turn that off. U. So, this is the singlet just to show you how cool the singlet was. So, I tossed the dummy. Got the flat. You know what I'm saying? See
Speaker A
that? Nice. This is no different than any of your other Exactly. Yeah. You got the handlebar mustache, I think.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. This is great. But then I also had a nice track. Oh, you got the slow-mo going.
Speaker A
Y there's my dog. All right. Y Oh, no. Sorry. So, the physical it just like go to the doctor and EKG blood work.
Speaker A
Full physical. Yeah. All right. So, then you go to the combine, you got to do push-ups and sit-ups.
Speaker A
Push-ups. Pull-ups. How many pull-ups did you do? Like 36. 46. Did you really? Yeah.
Speaker A
46. Yeah. Beat you there, too. You had And you had a minute, I think, right? It wasn't in a minute. As many as you could do. So, you crank up, shake it.
Speaker A
Yeah. And then there was the tire flip. Yeah. That was not dumb. That it was the lightest tire.
Speaker A
I thought I was hoping it be 1,000 lbs. Well, they had the big boy tire. They did. They had 1,000 lb one. Can we get that? They're like, I don't think you'd be able to lift it. We're like, bet.
Speaker A
Yeah. And then we had the rope. Climb the rope. Yeah. Twice. You had to climb it, touch it, come down.
Speaker A
Call rope, too. per time, I assume. Yeah. And then uh the little pushing out of the Yeah, it was kind of like wrestling circle wrestling.
Speaker A
Okay. Well, and then we had to do the collision mimicking, right? Where That's right. Yeah.
Speaker A
Oh, yeah. Oh, that's where you got me good. Juked you. It was like the funniest. I was just walking up to him and he's like, you just get a little juke. I was like, son of a [ __ ]
Speaker A
Oh no. Oh no. We We're seeing it. Get it on camera. You got to do it over here. I was right here.
Speaker A
I don't know if Can you see him? Yeah, we should be able to. I can't see it.
Speaker A
There it was. Okay, I can turn the camera real quick. Yeah. See, I didn't even get it.
Speaker A
Yeah. Kyle did that to Neon and I and uh made us Wait, we got to get this before he does it again and gets hurt.
Speaker A
Seriously, go slow. Oh, we're getting the whole thing. Get up there. Oh my gosh. You guys are getting something. You guys are getting a treat.
Speaker A
And uh I think it was like probably like here and here. It was pretty narrow.
Speaker A
You went all the way to that like this is the edge. Use these eggs.
Speaker A
Yeah. So, I had to eat and I'm like, you know like I was like, what is All right. He's coming up to his left side. Oh, little spin move. What in the world? He spun and went the same
Speaker A
direction. You didn't even come back the other way. Something like that. You bid on that move.
Speaker A
Something like that. Wow. I did a I did a 360 spin, guys. You You're giving away that easy.
Speaker A
But you're giving away the trade secrets. Like, that's what it took. Hey, there's footage there's footage of us practicing where I jked you out as well doing that same slow juke.
Speaker A
Are you saying when we were practicing? Yeah. Yeah, I think I was going tenth of a speed.
Speaker A
I was going 10% too, but I still got you. So, how many people are there? Like a hundred?
Speaker A
Uh, not that many, but what was there? Probably 40 or so, but there's multiple trials.
Speaker A
Yeah. So, we were in like the first heat of them and anybody that was there could have definitely been a gladiator. Like, you're there for a reason. like these are professionals in whatever respected sport they are. Everybody you still got to fit the mold for
Speaker A
whatever they're looking for because obviously I'm not six foot I mean six but but they they have certain avatars I assume they're absolutely well and after the physical side we all individually back with a camera and did the speaking
Speaker A
part. Yeah. All right. Is there like some psycham? Not for this but that's a good that's a great question. It's not like any of the other reality TV shows cuz yeah, it can be some there's definitely trauma bond
Speaker A
from the show but no there's no psych you're crazy send it even better for the show.
Speaker A
Well, I'm just wondering because if it's uh even in college combine, you know, there's some interview type thing and the military there's an interview type thing there. So, that's kind of already covered.
Speaker A
Well, they probably got that if we're psychos or not from the first initial Zoom one and then the because they asked a lot of questions for the promo, right? It wasn't just cut a promo. No.
Speaker A
Yeah, but they're they're Yeah, I know what you're psychation questions. Yeah, because they don't want to get somebody in there then all I assume they're doing a back. How long was it between the combine to when they started
Speaker A
filming? I thought the physical chopped it up after the combine. Yeah, that I assume that's the last that's where they're going to make the decision right?
Speaker A
No, because then there was another one after ours and that's when Eagle got booked. Remember? He was in that last one and I think Supernova as well from that last uh try out.
Speaker A
I got a call the week after the try out. See, but even waiting a week, it seemed like a call that you were going to be on a week after.
Speaker A
Yeah, I got hired. Yeah. Okay. All right. Cuz I assuming they're doing background checks.
Speaker A
Yeah, I'm sure you they would have to because they don't want to get somebody on there find out later that, hey, this guy go through all your social medias.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah, that was I submitted that stuff like two years ago. Yeah, that was the beginning.
Speaker A
That was one of the first things you had to give them all your social.
Speaker A
Yeah. Before the first Zoom call, it was I think it was all background stuff.
Speaker A
Mhm. Yeah. So then it's what, a year? I don't think for everyone. For me it was.
Speaker A
Yeah. For me it was. Mhm. Cuz I just remember getting to the point where I was just like this isn't happening.
Speaker A
Same. Yeah. All right. So then when they call How long? TV baby. Yeah. I know.
Speaker A
From the call to the try out. Well, no, no, no. From the call when they say okay, you're selected, right? Then the call of you got to be here. Is it like you got to be here in 2
Speaker A
days or it's like no months? Yeah. I was going to When did we sign those contracts? Yeah.
Speaker A
I remember everything. I got beginning of March. The medical was May and then flying and doing all the stuff was June.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. I got the call end of March or middle of March. So they gave you enough time.
Speaker A
April time April basically to Yeah. We had one month after the physical. All right. Because if somebody's got a job and stuff like that, they got to figure out what they're going to do. How long were you gone then?
Speaker A
A month. Yep. That's not too bad. It's not too bad. It doesn't seem bad. But was that not the longest month of our lives?
Speaker A
It's a lot of pressure. Yeah. A lot of pressure. I'm just thinking as as an outsider looking in if somebody had to take a month off work. Yeah.
Speaker A
You know, you know, it is a big ask, but it's doable. Yeah. Like six weeks, you know, that's not too doable. Why do you think it lasted? Why did it feel like it lasted forever?
Speaker A
The days were very long. They were long. It was like not It was like 8:00 a.m.
Speaker A
until like you film me stuff. 8, brother. Sometimes you got back to the hotel at 10:00.
Speaker A
Yeah, it's the entire day, six days a week. But I was in a lot of physical pain and I was sleeping zero.
Speaker A
I didn't sleep that whole month. I was miserable. But I I'll talk about it because it's out there. Um, I was training for the rings and I really wanted to do that event and I do what we always do. We
Speaker A
overtrain though, man. Yeah. Yeah. I was training like I was going to the Olympics and I was training out of the rings one day and it was a week before flying out and bam, popped my bicep full tear one week
Speaker A
before going and I just decided I had to still do it. Did it Did it bleed out? I mean, did it bruise bad or did it just Oh, the whole week. The that first week we were there, I wore a long sleeve
Speaker A
shirt because it was just bruised top to bottom. And I obviously didn't want to tell.
Speaker A
Well, it was a tendon rupture, so it's really not that big of a deal. It's just cosmetic. But you had to hide it, right?
Speaker A
Yeah. And then I was just throwing tanner on it as dark as I could to kind of blend in.
Speaker A
So, how long did you have to hide it? A week, maybe? Week and a half.
Speaker A
A couple weeks. And then it kind of you couldn't really tell. It was on the inside and with the tan.
Speaker A
Yeah. I got away with it. I finally told them afterwards. Well, did you I I know I have never ruptured my bicep.
Speaker A
I know millions of people that have You never have. Wow, that's remarkable. No, I tore everything else, but I never to say, you know, I kind of wanted to. Uh you were trying today.
Speaker A
Yeah, but it it was one of those things that was really never a big deal, you know, at least in the powerlifting sphere.
Speaker A
Bodybuilding, yeah, you need to get fixed, but powerlifting, like whatever. just keep training for the meat because it really didn't impact anything. But you're doing things to where did it impact it?
Speaker A
Dude, the first day we went on the rock wall and were like racing up it and I grabbed and it felt like lightning struck through my body. I was in so much pain and I don't like taking pain pills.
Speaker A
Looking back, I wish I would have. Yeah. But I didn't take anything the whole time I was there. So, I just was in misery.
Speaker A
But, uh, yeah, it sucked. I mean, because you lose 10 to 15% strength, which whatever. I'm still strong. But, it was just, it hurt so bad cuz it was so fresh.
Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
Now, when you get there or before you get there, do you know what the events are? No.
Speaker A
Right. So, you got to because you can't even train for it, right? Oh, no. Going into it, we knew, but I said no to the fact that like day by day, you're kind of just like, "All right, no, but you know, there's rings and
Speaker A
there's like a joust." Yeah. Yeah, we had awesome trainers. And just to give him kudos, like talk about somebody that literally earned his stripes as an American gladiator. This dude is a just a warrior. And that's why I say every
Speaker A
single time I'll talk to anybody. I'll put these guys over to the moon. There's not one person that didn't go there with something, but this dude, you would never know that he had anything going on. And that was something that he
Speaker A
decided to do and as a man and to it's giving me the chills now cuz like what he was able to do and continue to put on a show for everybody and have fun with that guy over there like it was it was
Speaker A
beautiful. Well, at the same time though he doesn't want to make it known cuz he doesn't want to be sent but you wouldn't know like nobody if he didn't tell you like he did everything that he needed to do and you
Speaker A
wouldn't know the wiser of it. Yeah. You know, it's cool that he's able to open up and talk about it now. And it's it's pretty remarkable.
Speaker A
No, I mean, it sucks, but it's kind of good that it was just the bicep. I mean, if it was a pack or something else, man, it would have been fast fast forward.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It would have been a big Well, yeah, because you did that later right?
Speaker A
That would have been an issue. So then, how do you go about training for these things, right? Because you you don't do rings.
Speaker A
Yeah. You know, I tried as well. I'll just say that. And it's it's you need you need shoulder mobility which I don't have any of and it takes you know tendons and stuff they need the time to adapt. So like for me
Speaker A
too it's just like so when I was there I was like yeah I can't uh I can't do that event either but like we're doing it again like I'm going to train now I know how hard it is for a 280 plus pound
Speaker A
person to do the ring. It's just like hey it's not that it's impossible. You just got like anything else. You can't You didn't think it was hard from the getgo?
Speaker A
No, dude. You know how hard we train? Yeah, but like doing chin sucks pull-ups 36 37 pull-ups combine. No, it's just it's so different. Like it's just it's not even like the single arm.
Speaker A
I probably got some good pit stains by the way, but it's not I can see the reflection of the TV. It's like this mo shoulder mobility deal, you know?
Speaker A
Cool. For myself, I can't speak for anybody else. No, I'm taking it. I appreciate it though. for myself like I'm pretty agile and I have pretty decent, you know, dex flexibility and everything and just natural like movement of muscle and
Speaker A
stuff. So they gave us when Stuart said, "Hey, like here's something that you can do." I tried to work on my feet to make sure that I was still being able to keep up with people cuz that's speed kills
Speaker A
and when push comes to shove, you got to be able to touch somebody or they're they're going to score points and as Gladiators, we got one job.
Speaker A
Don't let the contender score points. don't look bad, you know, and and if anything, turn them into a highlight reel, right? And and look good doing it.
Speaker A
That's all I was considered or even took into consideration. Did my training change a little bit? I tried to work on my grip strength and I'm watching his videos and all the things he was doing too, just like
Speaker A
before anything like I'd see what he was doing, but I also kind of just understood that like rock climbing was going to be my thing. My back was by far probably one of the most other than my pecs being spectacular, right? I don't
Speaker A
know if you guys, but I just knew that I was going to probably do the wall, possibly hang tough and maybe a couple other utility things as like a utility guy.
Speaker A
So, that's what I wanted to make sure that I could do, you know, dead hangs for trying to get to two minutes, one minute with just on one arm type stuff.
Speaker A
And like I never have any problems with any anything like that. And that was all. But once you start to incorporate more specific training, you start to pull away from also what got you to the show, right? because I
Speaker A
didn't want to lose the way I looked. I I hired a nutritionist, Tyler Garson, like helped me with the way I looked and stuff. And luckily enough, I could hold my own against these guys that are 6'2, 6' 3, 6' 5, you know, when I'm
Speaker A
Yeah. and having fun. Selfish. Sorry, brother. And cuz you needed to prepare yourself, right? Cuz you're going to be on national television again. And uh I wanted to make sure that I brought like a total package and didn't embarrass
Speaker A
myself or my Can I get some of those egg whites? Like, hook him up, brother.
Speaker A
Fair enough. He just chugged them. But I got some hard-boiled eggs. Yeah, that's okay.
Speaker A
Smoking beets. No, don't worry about it. Yeah, he's he's good with the eggs. That makes sense.
Speaker A
There's a reason. There's a story behind this. All right. What's the story? When we were filming Mhm.
Speaker A
our main diet, they every morning had a giant bowl. Well, it wasn't giant at first. It was like a just it was like a bowl of like eight eggs.
Speaker A
They're like, "Oh, this will like help somebody out." But like whatever. Here's 880. So, we're all like really we all have like Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then like, "Hey, we need more eggs." So, that it turned into like a a bigger bowl. And
Speaker A
then it eventually turned into the the bucket. Yeah. A cauldron. Sulfur watered soaked eggs.
Speaker A
So, you're living on the hard-boiled eggs. That was our breakfast every morning. Snack. Snack.
Speaker A
The nitrogen farts. Those The filming days are so long though. So, what better snack and eggs?
Speaker A
Yeah. Light, easy to digest. the targetgo which we can talk about. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I don't see any of these events being an issue for you.
Speaker A
I really don't, you know, but I'm thinking about him. I appre like I you have such a eye for functional Yeah.
Speaker A
you know, moving and like just how these guys at 280 and holding himself up and doing the same kind of thing that somebody that's 160, 170 lb, 180 maybe. Like, yeah, it's awesome when you put them up there on
Speaker A
the joust. like you're losing 100 pounds to this guy, you know, or either one of them. But when you start going up on there, it's an equalizer. And even that maze thing, right? Right. A bigger dude just know. No, I'm good.
Speaker A
It's got that red beat cracking around. I'm not having that. It's actually not bad. I can pop some of those. Yeah. Gross.
Speaker A
That's not bad. But to to be able to move on that, you know. Well, the funny thing about that is that kind of sways and that sways a bit. Yeah. Let me say some of the stuff like the joust.
Speaker A
Yeah. He's taking people out on that thing. Which one? Which part are you talking about?
Speaker A
With that maze thing, whatever that thing, what's it called? Edge. So, it moves and you can't Yeah.
Speaker A
People can't see that on camera, which it does a disservice because like when we tried it out at first, too, it's like, oh yeah, just balance, whatever.
Speaker A
But like it it sways a bit, which is what makes it freaky. Also for the first I had to kick off the joust on that show which is humiliating because I was like thinking wrestling I'm thinking low of
Speaker A
course but here's the thing leave it to Dave started you got to learn I started out wrestling I was a 14 18 wrestler in high school my freshman year stay low you do the worst thing really yeah because when you're low and you and
Speaker A
the the board wobbles too. They made it not wobble after that. It did cuz I did that event again later.
Speaker A
It did. At first it was very wobbly. So when you're low and you just get on top like wrestling I'm very good at being low. You know what I'm saying? But also with wrestling you touch the ground. You
Speaker A
know what I mean? So instant DQ. Well I'll tell you what I learned. I'm like hey let's do the opposite and just stand upright way easier. Well, the the one thing that I noticed which with the joust with you
Speaker A
which was actually the most real part of the entire show was when you slid off of it.
Speaker A
Oh yeah. Like I'm not jumping down. Yeah. That that should get on your belly and down.
Speaker A
Yeah. I'm like that's the big wisdom. But they pan back to Roxy and Mike and you just see you worm down. You just worm down.
Speaker A
Dude, that thing's like dead right in the air. You just worm down like a jump snake in the Disney movie.
Speaker A
I would do a 280 lb death jump. You are very observant. That's hilarious cuz we talk about this stuff of like our little you know our little pow house like our inside conversations.
Speaker A
These bigger dudes just falling off any of those things like falling off that edge thing. You land wrong. You're 100% when you're 280 you're decided not to do it because a lot of times too it's not even just falling. It's you're going to fall
Speaker A
someone else. So depending on how if they fall on Well, yeah. I mean, he's like I said, he's taking people out, you know. Yeah.
Speaker A
If I were you, I'd just shoulder them off. Yeah. That's the smart thing to do to just give them a heave. Absolutely. I had to go for broke cuz they're, you know, a half a step ahead of me and
Speaker A
stuff, but yeah, if these guys went down, it's just like wrestling. You don't want that double bump. And I think Neon got that double bump with one of those guys and shot him up and like did a backflip over him.
Speaker A
Well, that one towards the end, you dove like five yards to take this dude out.
Speaker A
Yeah. And it's good thing you hit him cuz you would have missed that. Oh yeah. I I would have went straight into the poll cuz I was full full fully committed and I had to be right dude. That was one of the two all like
Speaker A
the most badass highlights. So watch it prime video. Go back when he dove on the edge and when he dove on the rings.
Speaker A
Yeah. The the rings. No. So when you guys went back to watch it, was it what you thought? We were so I for myself personally I was so invested when we were watching it live and like you still
Speaker A
had you know maybe like some adrenaline like when these guys were up or when anybody when any gladiators up was up like you still had that in the pit of your heart right and you could feel it.
Speaker A
So, we were so invested when we were watching it. When it came back, it was still there and like watching it, you know, from home and with the family and stuff, it was easy to kind of get back
Speaker A
into it and feel that, but it it was pretty intense for me watching it when we were doing it live cuz we were watching it live and the the feelings were still like all-time high. So, now when you're filming it live, do you
Speaker A
know the background stories of the competitors? A little bit. A little bit. Like I knew the one guy was like a bull rider or something like that because remember they gave you a tip like fuel for if you
Speaker A
had to cut a pill. He got hurt though, right? Yeah. Yeah. That concussion. Yeah. There was I didn't want to know anything, right?
Speaker A
Just kill them all. I didn't want to know anything. And then I realized why when I watched the finale the other day, that poor Kyle guy, the dude I just beat to death on the joust. And then he's like, I have a kid
Speaker A
and all. I'm like, oh my god. I'm like, if I would have known this, I would have let him hit me one time and I would have just fallen off the jealous, you know.
Speaker A
No, you would not. No, I wouldn't. I would have known. No, you're being too You're being you're doing a disservice. The thing is the No, you're going to get up there. It's going to click.
Speaker A
Let me say let me No, let me You're doing a disservice to it. The I can speak from experience. This when you are humiliated or whatever like brother, there's one thing like in that.
Speaker A
OH GOD. WHAT? DAMON, who needs enemies when you got a friend like Dave? No, but he keeps it from experience.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. I can't just leave this open. You can uh like in a sport or something, wrestling for instance, like collegiate wrestling, whatever. You lose, you got 37 matches that season, you know what I mean? For this show, it's like this is
Speaker A
season, this is season one. How many events are you going to do? You know what I mean? So, if you something h like there's a lot of pressure, you know what I mean? So, like you're saying, like you're so invested in all
Speaker A
that, it's pretty intense and you watch the show and you're like, "Oh, it's like this is a fun feel-good show." But when you're actually in it and it's like you have to win or you know what I'm saying?
Speaker A
Like it's um it's beyond just like Yeah, but you guys aren't the ones that are actually competing.
Speaker A
True. But we are. But we'll get it. So personal like you take when you lose, you get down on yourself. It's just like anything else like when you and to touch base on wrestling like it's only yourself. You got nobody else to blame.
Speaker A
It's not a team sport. It's just you. If you lose in something where all eyes all 44 cameras are on you and and you botch something and you come back, everybody's Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're just like you don't want to hear it. You want to
Speaker A
you want to do your job. Bull could lose a rock paper scissor match and not sleep for a couple hours, right? I mean, so when he humiliated himself on the joust, are you giving him [ __ ] in the back? No, I'm not going to
Speaker A
give a 300lb man any kind of garbage. Honestly, the reason the three of us are doing this today is because of the the relationship we built there and how much we actually the moral support and how much we would build each other up is how
Speaker A
we all got so tight. Now, was that with all you guys? Just us three specifically. I mean, everybody was Yeah, everybody was supportive. Everybody, but the three of us just had this weird bond.
Speaker A
100. I mean, there's finding like-minded people and like talk about birds of a feather. Like, I've gone I've went from, you know, natural bodybuilding, moved to California, was on a bunch of reality TV shows, did professional res wrestling
Speaker A
for 17 years, which I'm still in the in the mix of doing like these guys have had their tenure in uh professional wrestling. Obviously, he's still getting ready to whoop some tail, but you it's pretty far and few between. you find
Speaker A
somebody that you can actually relate to almost 100%. Like he's about as strict as it comes down to it. He doesn't want to do anything other than eat and go to the gym and feel a pump and and be with
Speaker A
his family, which we can respect and he can do his own thing, but then we can meet back up. Like this is one of the first times like I would drive eight hours to come hang out with these guys
Speaker A
without a shadow of a doubt. We were going to plan a trip to go down to Florida just to surprise him and stuff.
Speaker A
And I don't know if you have that in in your life, but trying to have somebody like that, it's it's taken me this long to try and find some people. And like I I have tip my hat to both of these guys.
Speaker A
And when I You think it's the wrestling that pulled you together? There's a there's a bunch element for I mean, if we just did bodybuilding or I think we would be able to do it. The fact that we've also had,
Speaker A
you know, everybody had careers through professional wrestling. We also know like, hey, these should be our people, but they're not because they're everybody's jockeying for camera time.
Speaker A
Everybody will maybe do something a little bit sideways, you know, when it comes down to it with politics and stuff like that.
Speaker A
Whatever the case may be, it was awesome. And it was like almost instantaneous of us like kind of building this bond together and being able to hang out and stuff.
Speaker A
And I didn't really like each other at first. It was like classic like like step brothers where it's like, "Ah, I don't like you. You're too much like me." And then it's like, "Yeah, no, we're the same person. We're Did we just
Speaker A
become best friends?" like we had that whole moment while we were filming cuz we're we're so used to just being our in our own little cubby having our own little space and doing our own thing because nobody can relate, you know,
Speaker A
when it comes to this when it comes to this elite level of what you have to do to look the way we I'm not trying to be braggadocious, but it's like you got to start to cut a lot of stuff out of your
Speaker A
life, you know, when it comes to Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's on TV, you know, it's you know, it's it's part of what gets you on there to begin with.
Speaker A
Are are they giving you scripts or is it all you? No, no, it was just us.
Speaker A
They might give you like um again they might give you insight on like who the contender is or something and maybe feed you some ideas, but really everything you see on there is uh brother there was so much material we
Speaker A
shot too. So it's a lot of it's post-prouction. So like for me as you know like I I was wild. I cut long promos and you go and you watch it.
Speaker A
It's like the last sentence. So, you pretty much have free reign, you know, to be able to which is great.
Speaker A
I think it's just you give just give them as much as you can and they'll just pick out the gold.
Speaker A
Yeah. Is there anything that for you that you wish they would have put in that they 100% after the joust? Because that was like, you know what I mean? Like I'm like I'm such a competitive person and that I
Speaker A
didn't practice the joust because it's so high. I and you know like you were saying how I got off the thing. I'm like well if I practice this and I fall Yeah.
Speaker A
that's going to end my gladiator run before it even begins. So I'm like I'll just see what happens out there. So obviously that technique that I chose back but then the beautiful thing is afterwards came back from it afterwards
Speaker A
I do. Yes. And just big things to come. Okay. Yeah. I mean you learn but uh Yeah. Exactly. And that's honestly that's what makes things interesting anyways. Everybody loves an American gladiator hero hero.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. I I had the same thing. I lost on the edge and I'm just like, well, here comes my hero.
Speaker A
Oh, that's right. Right. Cuz it was like eight. I'm glad we didn't touch base. Let me uh There's a couple different ways I'm going with this. After that joust, man, I think something happened because this is this looks very physical. Like you're
Speaker A
watching again. It's it's it's fun. You know what I mean? It's a great family show, but man, people there's injuries.
Speaker A
So, um, after that happened, I was like, "You got to throw me in the atmosphere." I'm like, "Please." I was begging. I was like, "Please throw me in that. I have to redeem myself." And I did. I didn't
Speaker A
let that guy score any points. I freaking I went psycho in that ball. You know, the steel cage.
Speaker A
Yeah, it was. I can't remember. But that was the same episode. I think that was the Bull Rider guy again.
Speaker A
Yeah, it's a spectator. I didn't like watching that. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, it's I can see that, but it's not visually It's And there's some technique. You had to use your brain a little bit.
Speaker A
Absolutely dude. It's like a chess match. It's like you're pressing it, but you also are single. You're lunging it. But then if you're changing directions, you got to throw your body in it, too. So, you're just in a laundry in a dryer.
Speaker A
Tumble dry. Oh, that happened to you, didn't it? That when we did a practice run. Yeah.
Speaker A
They were like, "Stop." It was starting to Well, it was coming apart. Anyways, that pin came.
Speaker A
My point was after that, like it it lit a fight. It's how I was always how I was in competitive wrestling, too. when I was I would always lose the first round of a tournament and it lights the fire
Speaker A
kick in the ars. You're like I'm never losing again. Um but yeah, after that funny enough that you said you wish something would have included after that joust dude I cut the promo of a lifetime. You know I
Speaker A
talked about how I was raised my family you know how I grew up I because my parents own a print shop so they're working every day of the week all day.
Speaker A
So I'm just watching American Gladiators as a kid. These are the icons that I'm raised with and now I get an opportunity to do this myself and I have big shoes to fill and I'm letting down the people
Speaker A
that are watching this show to see the physical superiority of the American Gladiators and I'm this is unacceptable.
Speaker A
American Gladiators brings the best. You came to the show to see the best and I dropped the ball. So I am going to come back with a fire in my belly. You know, I'm saying all this and then uh because
Speaker A
they're like, "Hey, what happened out there, bull?" And uh you know, I'm like, "Ah, and this guy, I could tell I could see in his eyes he wanted he was hungry." And then I cut all that huge promo, but in the episode they just
Speaker A
like, "Yeah, I could see he was hungry. He wanted it." Yeah. And then Yeah. Like he was better than me. I lost.
Speaker A
I was like, "What about my huge hero arc, bro?" The the dynamic of this show is is crazy because in professional wrestling, there's good guys and bad guys. in American Gladiators if there's some people that like the Gladiators and want us to destroy the
Speaker A
contenders, but then there's people that obviously want the contenders to score some points and get over on us and stuff, too. So, we still have to be liked by everybody. And I think the production did a phenomenal job of
Speaker A
showcasing us in the best light because to his credit, he and his team, there's a lot of people that said some pretty awesome stuff. So they had to cherrypick what what was actually going to still keep us in the best light to make sure
Speaker A
that people were still attracted to the show and we weren't coming off as you know trying to hold ourselves down.
Speaker A
That's how I kind of took the post production at the end of the day.
Speaker A
They're not trying to outshine the contender. Yeah. Nobody's bigger than the show and like everybody has their role, right?
Speaker A
You can't be like, "All right, they want to see that gladiator win. They got to cheer the contenders." So it makes sense.
Speaker A
Well, they didn't make you guys look like villains. Exactly. You know, exactly. good editing to be honest with you because yeah you you would think that you'd want to there was a lot of there was some stuff not included
Speaker A
well but then there's also lines from the contenders when they started to get chippy like I'm like there's like one of the girls said I'm going to kill you right before the gauntlet and like we all kind of perked up cuz if somebody
Speaker A
says something to him or somebody says something to me whoever gets their hands on that next contender like you're not doing yourself any favors like we will headhunt you for a fact like we we we have your literal
Speaker A
competitive life throughout this series in our hands. I've been training for over four decades now and keeping track of all my training metrics has always been a big part of that. It wasn't until later on that I realized that keeping track of your
Speaker A
internal metrics are just as important, if not more important the longer you're in this game. Most primary care physicians, if you go in for any type of issue, they'll look for what's off, but they're not necessarily looking for how
Speaker A
to optimize where your labs are for where you want to go. That's where Merrick Health comes in. Merrick Health does advanced blood work with medical providers around the world and a health coach who helps build a plan around your
Speaker A
goals. I worked with Merrick to build a custom lab panel for this show. They have guided optimizations that can help you set you up with a health coach to be able to work through what your goals are from the prescriptions to supplements,
Speaker A
just the whole deal. Don't have to do that. You can just do the lab panels.
Speaker A
It's they they have options. You can find this at mealth.com/table talk for 10% off your first order. One of the best decisions that I ever made was to partner with Merrick. So, I highly suggest you head over to
Speaker A
mehealth.com/table talk and get started today. So, just just know that like I don't know how you felt when you were going up there.
Speaker A
Well, that one the remember the little guy said yelled from the stands, "I'm going to break your neck." Yeah. They were saying like, "I'm going to be a gladiator." And then coincidentally, I almost broke his neck.
Speaker A
Yeah. I think I had him scooped and it was like a pile driver DDT type thing. I didn't realize he landed right on his head. Was that Michael? Mike?
Speaker A
No, the the dude the other dude the long frizzy hair. He was a sight. Remember he was like saying all sorts of crazy stuff to us?
Speaker A
There there was a handful. He he knows. No, I think I think I know what you're talking about. It was the um wrestling thing at the Oh god, the polyamorous.
Speaker A
Yeah, that I thought that was Michael, but he I think he was the dude before.
Speaker A
Yeah, I think Ben had like hair that was cut. He was like always kept taking his shirt off and stuff. Pretty jacked.
Speaker A
Yeah, that was Ben. Yeah, because I do remember the guys saying that they they were gonna take your job. Yeah.
Speaker A
And I'm like, you don't want their job. Like, you want to win 100 grand.
Speaker A
What's great is how do you want their job? Yeah. The miz the miz set the the commentary from Chris Rose. And obviously like you couldn't be more neutral cuz they called a spade a spade whether you won loser or lost or draw.
Speaker A
Like they they would tell you kind of like what you're doing to us now and busting our chops about potentially losing on some stuff. I don't ever remember losing anything. I don't know if you remember anything, but uh
Speaker A
well, eight points on the Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Rewind. I was I was taking a tinkle.
Speaker A
Yeah. So, what I was getting at was like he said he didn't lose anything.
Speaker A
Well, listen, his show business the other day, too. So, even if you lose, you can still win.
Speaker A
Yeah, exactly. As long as you look good and you redeem yourself and you cut a hell of a promo.
Speaker A
There's ways to turn a loss into But Roxy would say like, "Oh, what happened there?" And just completely cut your legs out from under you. You're like, "Ah." So, or Liz would say the same stuff or you could hear it from
Speaker A
Chris Rose cuz he was kind of up in a a little bird's tower bird's eye view of like what the action was going on and stuff. So, but yeah, when those guys started getting chippy and whatnot, it was it kind of that was like the first
Speaker A
couple days. Oh, dude, day one everyone was out for blood. They were getting us all rahrh and the contenders too. So it was just like after day one like people these guys need to survive like they are the show.
Speaker A
He kind of had to like okay we got to re-evaluate this approach. What kind of uh how hard were you allowed to go like touching them? Like was there like a limit to where you're like yeah you can mess you can mess them
Speaker A
up but you can't like break them. Yeah it was they they had to pull back the range for sure.
Speaker A
When I got my hands on them I Yeah. I'm You finally got one, right? It's like catching a chicken. and you're like, "Got one now." All right. Well, it's my turn.
Speaker A
Let me just say though, cuz the world needs to hear this. Steel cut. Some of the greatest promos I've ever heard and I didn't see them on the show. It breaks my heart. But again, it's cuz you you got to elevate the
Speaker A
contenders, too. Yeah. These promos I was I was watching cuz we're watching this, you know, we're watching this on the monitors. It's all going. I'm like, "This is going to be the greatest show in television." CUZ IT WAS LIKE IT IS. It was. It is. It is.
Speaker A
No, it is. No, it's great and it's perfect what it is. But like we're watching this. I'm like this is like the greatest elements of reality meets like early 2000s pro wrestling and stuff. I'm like this is wild.
Speaker A
If we can get the extended uncut. Yeah. It was director's cut cuz you got contenders. Everyone's just bad mouthing each other. Like the physicality was so high.
Speaker A
It was crazy. The fact the banter back and forth between the gladiators and the contestants was pure gold.
Speaker A
Oh, really? Is there anything they cut for you that you wish? A lot. What's one thing that you wish that you didn't cut?
Speaker A
Well, honestly, kind of like the bull. I had a really nice positive cuz I was like the quiet angry, you know, character and at one point said this really heartfelt speech that was just totally cut.
Speaker A
Babyfaced. Oh, my thing. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They did that for you as well. Yeah. Uh, which is fine.
Speaker A
Yeah. You know what I They had to portray you in the light that makes sense for your character.
Speaker A
I got a little too physical and it backfired. It kind of costed me some stuff.
Speaker A
But they most definitely kept Bull and I caged like literally 100%. That's I feel like that's why Joust. Oh, he's on a balance beam. You can't hurt and throw him in a steel cage ball.
Speaker A
Yeah. Put him in a cage. Put them on the joust power ball and stuff. I'm like it's just salivating to do that stuff. anything they cut from that you would have wanted to keep in there?
Speaker A
Uh, it it's all just a blur. Like, yeah, I mean, there's some heartfelt stuff in there that you I to be honest with you, I gave them kind of different levels.
Speaker A
Like when I ripped off um Ben's shirt, coincidentally enough, like when I was down there, um I started with just like kind of wiping my nose with it, obviously doing like some other stuff. I wore it as a bandana. That that stuff
Speaker A
didn't even make it. Like when I said daddy's home, that's after I had um his shirt wrapped around my head like Rambo and I'm sitting there talking with Roxy, you know, and I'm saying daddy's home cuz I just finally beat somebody up
Speaker A
there on the edge, you know, and face my own fears for crying out loud. But I think everybody was shown in a phenomenal light, right? So like I can't like I gave them range, right? Like, hey, there's this level. I turned it up,
Speaker A
turned it up, turned it up. And I think everybody did that. And there's a lot of people that kind of turn to us like, hey, what should I say? What should I do? It's like you got to kind of come
Speaker A
into your own. You got to know your own stick, your own gimmick. Yeah. I mean, that's the pro wrestling experience. So, for sure, which we weren't trying to do either.
Speaker A
No, no, no. But this is competition, which I love. That's what I hated about pro wrestling. But this is a competition. And then it's also character and but the the purest form of competition.
Speaker A
They wanted us to hold ourselves at like an Olympic level of sportsmanship, right? So, when we got done, if we got be like bested, hey, good job. Like, by you beating me, like you beat somebody.
Speaker A
when you hear my name, you should kind of like deflate a little bit like, "Oh no, I got to go against this person." So when all the fans of Steel are watching because we're all made of steel, right?
Speaker A
Okay. There's a little part of everybody. And then if they can beat me, as far as I'm concerned, it's like you earned it and you earned every mile, every inch of that mile. Um, but then to put a microphone right up into our face
Speaker A
after your adrenaline peaked right after the event. That's I mean after a fight like Joe Rogan's coming up to somebody and putting a microphone like, "Hey, what are you thinking? How are you feeling? For the contestants, for the
Speaker A
contenders, it's a little bit different cuz they're so laser focused on $100,000 in literally a span of potentially a week and coming and going against us a handful of times uh before they go into the eliminator and have to kind of show
Speaker A
up and show out. You get the most purest, raw like dialogue or whatever they're thinking and their thoughts and ideas.
Speaker A
But from us, like we're still all hopped up and on cloud9, right? And when it comes to television, the time that it starts to actually start something is a little bit different from when the timing from after an actual event and then going and
Speaker A
talking with Mike and Roxy at the end of it. It's it's way closer. So like you're still on that high and you're getting the most pure work right after.
Speaker A
Yeah. Beforehand you could be standing up on the joust for 20 minutes. So they're setting up cameras and like this and then it lasts for 30 or 60 seconds and it's over. I mean and then for eagle it
Speaker A
lasts 5 seconds and he hits him one time, right? And then he's just going down there and he didn't even break a sweat on one of them, which is crazy in and of itself. But do they have to re-shoot any events?
Speaker A
No, you can't. No, it wouldn't be authentic then. Well, it's what you see is what you get.
Speaker A
Yeah, but it's competition and people are competing for $100,000. So, if you have to reshoot any, it wouldn't be fair to the other contestants if you got to redo something again. So, everything's just in its raw state. Hence why the
Speaker A
freaking joust, for instance, I touch the It's like, well, that's it there. and and the rules are it's kind of like and I just attribute it back to like baseball like you might not like the rules but they're there for a reason
Speaker A
and through the whole season you kind of see different um highlights of the rules being enforced between Thomas Mike Sedera and then Robin as well and those guys did great and they were kind of telling us even I think the biggest
Speaker A
input I always heard was doing the atmosphere balls when you were going around like hey break or hey you can go and stuff like that but then there's other things um like letting them up like they were trying to be vocal during
Speaker A
Powerball but they make it as legitimate as they possibly can cuz for them it's $100,000 and there's a legal team of like I think three or four lawyers that were following us around. We had uh rules meetings right before we went out
Speaker A
there every single event that we all had to listen to and we made sure that we listened. Everybody was listening.
Speaker A
Everybody was listening and uh it kept uh getting just instilled to make sure that we played by the letter of the law.
Speaker A
Hey guys, I just wanted to take a moment because we do read the comments and one of them that keeps popping up more frequently than not is, "I can't believe this video doesn't get more views." Take a minute to subscribe, leave a comment,
Speaker A
and share. It really does help. So, how with you you're out there more than any of the competitors, right? If if you think it all through.
Speaker A
Yeah. Right. So the competitors if for instance towards the towards the end two of them were had to be brought back in because other people were injured. Right. So do do they go home and then have to bring
Speaker A
them back or are they there the whole time? If the competitor gets hurt they're so they're in the holding like in a holding room.
Speaker A
Yeah. Like they they were still there hanging out after being injured. They had all their alternates there.
Speaker A
All right. So the competitors are there the basically this the whole time you are. Yep. Yep.
Speaker A
From even if they're eliminated the first day. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, they become what? The crowd.
Speaker A
Yeah. I'm assuming. Well, there's they were in a section of their own. All right. So, were you guys mingling with them or are they not? We weren't allowed to. They kept us separated.
Speaker A
They like really kept were strict about that. Yeah. One of the contenders now afterwards has kind of been pretty vocal about it. Like they were just like we were like untouchable like don't talk to them, you know, type of thing. that we
Speaker A
walked down the hallway, they kind of shut the door and kept shuttled them into.
Speaker A
They would tell us, "Oh, not not yet. Wait, wait. Okay, now you can go." Because if there was a contender out in the hallway and there was what, eight total?
Speaker A
Oh, there's many four of them. No, no, no, no. The gladiators total 16. Six. 16. So, eight each.
Speaker A
So, you guys are basically living with each other and that's it. That's all you're seeing.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. Outside of going out and buying Well, no, they're bringing the eggs to you.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. No. Right. So you're you're like in in like gladiator lockdown. Mhm. Yes.
Speaker A
You know, so literally gladiator lockdown. That was Yeah. Yeah. So what part of that was cuz you said it was it was rough, you know, because you were hurt, but when you're basically gladiator lockdown for how long again?
Speaker A
A month. A month. Yeah. Right. So what's going through your head? Get through it. I was super happy to have these two guys, which the Gladiators were all great, but again, honestly, I think that's why this is such a good idea.
Speaker A
The reason I'm asking is because this is weird, right? Because you you go out there, there's high adrenaline.
Speaker A
Yeah. Oh, and it's for a long time, 10 hours or whatever, and then you got to go back to your room and there's nobody, right?
Speaker A
If I want to go back to your room, it's you got to go to bed.
Speaker A
Yeah. You got to try to unwind cuz you're getting up early. Yeah. It's late.
Speaker A
To go to bed. Yeah. We were there all day every day. the the adrenaline dumps and you'd get two or three of them a day potentially sometimes depending upon how many events you would do.
Speaker A
You get a pump, you go out, do the Oh, dude. Getting the pump was the hardest part. You're doing three events a day. You got to PUMP UP EACH.
Speaker A
NOW YOU'RE GETTING IT. YES. Pumps a day. Multip same same muscles, same same lateral raises with the bands, same same bicep pumps, same tricep pumps. You're not I mean yeah we're doing we're doing everything under the sun to keep a pump
Speaker A
and just I'm just slamming Vargo like guys you got to be doing this. I'm not complaining by the way but do you guys remember lunch and then it was like oh 5 minutes after lunch you're on event one like okay well I'm just not
Speaker A
going to eat lunch cuz I'm not going to fill up. I did not cuz the meals were timed or whatever like lunch and dinner but lunch brother was you had zero down time to digest your food. This is a 300lb man that would
Speaker A
come back with one plate of fish and like a half a potato or something.
Speaker A
I think that's what it was. Yeah. One piece of fish and one potato. I'm like I'm like I'm like what are you doing?
Speaker A
Like how are you looking like that and going out there? You can't get a pump with no food.
Speaker A
I know. But you also don't want to have a full tally when you're running a steel cage ball, you know.
Speaker A
So you couldn't get him on the vertaro. Oh, I was on it. That's what I lived off of. Yeah, I lived off that hard-boiled eggs in preworkout. Good.
Speaker A
But Vargo, I mean, was a godsend. Shout out to Bernie. Thank you, Bernie and Vargo.
Speaker A
Yeah. Going to what we were talking about earlier about that because I think it's important for people to hear.
Speaker A
Absolutely. So, when I first started bodybuilding, obviously everybody just thinks that you should when I turn pro, I'm like, "No, I should be able to get sponsored by somebody at this point in my career, right? I'm millions." Yeah. Exactly.
Speaker A
Luckily enough, um, I reached out to a handful of people, one of which was Vitargo, and I'm talking like the legitimate patent and they only one at the time, right?
Speaker A
Correct. Yeah. They they bought it from Art Atwood. I think he might have been serving some time or something like that. He might have got into a little bit of trouble or something. He I don't know. Yeah, I don't know the specifics of it, but
Speaker A
Anthony Almada had it and Bernie was a part of the the company and I was with them for years. Um, throughout everything, all the TV shows that I've done, all the bodybuilding shows, and then through wrestling. Um, but yeah,
Speaker A
Vitargo is something where it can go into your stomach, into your small intestines, and actually being utilized within what you would you say like 10, 15, 20 minutes. But that's universally proven. So, this is them drawing your blood before, drawing your blood
Speaker A
afterwards. And you can attest like there's there's only a couple of things that can go into your system and actually be utilized in that short amount of time.
Speaker A
Well, it's the higher molecular weight that drops it, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and this is this isn't the waxy maze. This isn't malttodextrin.
Speaker A
This isn't dextrose. This is this is the targetgo, right? Um and I've been I could I've sworn by it since like what 2008. So when you when you were bodybuilding and you were using it, what was the intra dose that you would use
Speaker A
based upon your weight? So I would always take a full serving before, a full serving during, and then a full serving after. So that's I think 200.
Speaker A
Yeah, I was going to say I think you're giving me like four servings of workout.
Speaker A
Yeah. Just like what a 200 gram of parts. Well, four So every one is 70. So that'd be 280, right? Wouldn't it 70 grams is a scoop is?
Speaker A
No. No. So there's two scoops in a serving. So 70 grams. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So if it's four, it' be 140, right? No. No. Two. No. So the four servings.
Speaker A
Yeah. I was living off of a target. Yeah. Cuz I mean, you're you're eating you're eating the food for you to actually use like right then. And I mean, you have to be pumped up. You need to be full. Like you need to be
Speaker A
hydrated. Like there's a lot of stuff that we're trying to do out there and there's nothing better for me. Like I mean I brought enough for everybody that wanted to have it like packets and this that and the other thing. Bernie hooked
Speaker A
it up again. Thank you, Bernie. because I knew that that's what worked for my entire life when it came to professional or like when I was bodybuilding and stuff like yeah like coming up into a show like I would switch off from a
Speaker A
carbohydrate being sweet potatoes and then the targetgo sweet potatoes and the targetgo like going into an actual show to step on stage when I was carbing back up um when I was competing.
Speaker A
But for this like it was completely different, right? Eat as clean as you possibly can while you're in a foreign place, you know, in just a different spot other than your home. And then I knew that the target would be able to
Speaker A
fill my muscles out, get pumped up, and go out there. So, you're trying to get these guys to to eat somewhat because this dude lives on bagels and peanut butter.
Speaker A
Yeah, sure. Well, I mean, allegedly, what's his name? Nick Walker can have what three food groups, you know, when it comes down to turkey. Uh, what was it? Some sort of uh what's that? Grit.
Speaker A
Cream of rice. Cream of rice. And then food. Okay. Well, I'm saying like to me it makes sense, but I was just trying to say, "Hey, like I know I know that you need carbs.
Speaker A
I know that you need carbs. This will work. It's worked my entire life. Like, try it." And you already tried Varago before like we were out there, right?
Speaker A
Uh, probably not much. Carbolin was what? Well, what's the difference? Let's set the set straight. Yeah. I mean, I'm not trying to knock any company because I've been a huge fan of carbolin for a long time, but I feel like maybe it's I had
Speaker A
so much of it, but I always I used to when I was bulking hard figs and uh what would have been probably 200 grams of carbon, 800 calories, and it does make you feel kind of bloated, you know what
Speaker A
I mean? Yeah. But I don't know. I'm not going to like I'm don't look at me as the pro, but I will say he was forcefeeding me a targetgo and I did get a 21in arm pump at one point. So
Speaker A
you you hung out with these guys for a month. You didn't tell them about the cat food.
Speaker A
No. No. You got a lot of lore. You don't know about me. Yeah. So the cat food was when I was in college. I wanted to I was trying to bulk. I was trying to bulk.
Speaker A
But I wanted but I was super like um on a budget like college budget. LIKE WHAT ARE YOU TALKING SCHOLARSHIP?
Speaker A
NO. Kind of. But it's wrestling. You know there's nothing. Yeah. But they give you food.
Speaker A
Uh no they don't actually. You gota you got to cut weight. No. Wow. No. You're thinking of football.
Speaker A
Football, man. They got the They got the freaking coupons for, you know what I mean? The buffet or whatever.
Speaker A
Division one wrestling at Wisconsin and they don't give you a meal ticket. No, they like pay for Yeah, they uh I think they just What is it? I mean, I had to earn that. I was a walk-on. I was
Speaker A
a state champion. Going to Big 10 school. Like if you're a one time state champion, you're nothing.
Speaker A
But I earned that scholarship. I dig it. Um but yeah, they cover your books and then they What's that? Yeah. Fantasy piece like scratching.
Speaker A
No, I got I got the best cat food. I went to the pet store and I said like what's the highest quality cat food you have in college?
Speaker A
Yeah. I mean, well, because I was super like I was all about clean eating then, you know, I was trying to bowl. So, the funny thing was I was eating pizza and chocolate milk, but then I was like, "Oh, but cuz I was
Speaker A
so worried about my conditioning in during the wrestling season, I was like, I can't eat junk." So I was eating alfalfa sprouts and then I was like I got to get I got to get some good clean easy energy. So I got cat food and I was
Speaker A
like if I eat this if I like eat this kibble through class it's good you know salmon blueberries. Yeah it was hard.
Speaker A
It was the hard food. Yeah. Okay. It's really hard though for your teeth gets stuck in your teeth and stuff.
Speaker A
What was the nutritional facts on this? It's pretty good. I mean the ingredients are just like blueberries.
Speaker A
Does it even say on the container? I it just says like crude protein and stuff percentages which is just the proprietary blend of like chicken feet grinded into a pulp and just every hoof imaginable. Worse than probably a hot
Speaker A
dog if I had to guess. It's the leftover [ __ ] from 100% still with fertilizer in it that's in there. Just just the bottom scrape of the the brilliant at the time. But yeah.
Speaker A
How long did you eat this for? For trying to get through like the whole bake.
Speaker A
Eventually I gave it to my cat. I was like I can't do this. I mixed it with uh I tried different ways to eat it though.
Speaker A
I cat sandwiches cat pasta. I tried to soften it up because it was so hard. So I dumped pinto beans I dumped pinto beans on it with sour cream and cheese cooked it. Yeah. Try I actually pulled up some facts about cat
Speaker A
food here. Oh no. Some of the macros. Yeah. What are the macros of cat food?
Speaker A
It says average cat food macros, uh, protein 30 to 45%, fat 15 to 25%, carbs 0 to 10%. Wet food closer to natural diet is 50% protein, 25% fat, and 1 to 5% carbs. Dry is more processed, so 35
Speaker A
to 45% protein, 15 to 20% fat, and 30 to 40% carbs. And it sounds like a superfood. No, it literally sounds like there's still 5 to 25% that you have no idea what it actually is. I feel like all those
Speaker A
numbers are very low when it comes to protein, carbs, and fat. I don't think any of those actually totaled 100%. So, you're never going to know until you try it. You know what I mean? It's just like I'm never going to try it. I'll I'll
Speaker A
stick to my vitargo. That should have been part of the podcast. We all open.
Speaker A
Oh, cat food. Yeah. Well, you can't crack them open. This be a bag. Dog food.
Speaker A
Dog food's No, it's not lower quality, I think. Really? Yeah. You grew up in the country, right?
Speaker A
Kind of country is kind of. Yeah. So, you didn't have like horse supply stores?
Speaker A
No. No. Well, I probably could have. I didn't know any better back then. Otherwise, Yeah. I probably would have done the horse oils and stuff.
Speaker A
Yeah. I can't rip on them too much because we used to go to the horse supply shop and I mean way back then you could buy aqua, but you could go to the horse supply shop and buy B12. And the
Speaker A
linament was a big thing, you know, because if it's good for a million-dollar racehorse, it's got to be great for me, right?
Speaker A
Yeah. So, it's I would walk up and down the aisles and there was a bulking phase and it's the I would get the maladextra in there cuz it was cheap. You get a big [ __ ] 50 lb bag for like 10 bucks,
Speaker A
right? And you just mix it with lemonade and you just It's amazing. Lemonade. Yeah. Just it was it was gross no matter what it was, but it was it's calories, right? And it was way cheaper than Ultra Fuel. remember the Ultrafuel and the the
Speaker A
bottles okay? You know, the Twin Labs Ultra Fuel, which I used to pound that [ __ ] But I'd walk up and down and I started seeing these containers and there was this [ __ ] called Fat Cat, right? And I'm like,
Speaker A
"What is this?" And I look at it and the protein counts high. It's got like 600 calories and you mix it in the oats for the horses. Yeah. You know, for them to gain weight and I'm like, "Fuck, I can
Speaker A
mix this [ __ ] in with my oats, you know, and it will help." It tasted terrible, man. And it was the worst [ __ ] And did you get the original bucket?
Speaker A
No. No. I took like three bites and I'm like, there's got to be another way. I just get rid of that. Put chocolate syrup on it. But the the horse supply stores were gold, man.
Speaker A
I never thought about that in my bodybuilding. Million dollar horse. Never. Oh yeah. Do you ever remember Russian Bear 5000?
Speaker A
That was as that was as far as I went. That's it. Russian bear. I think it was on like bodybuilding.com.
Speaker A
Yeah. Funny enough, tasted like like deer antlers. I think that was one of the actual ingredients and it just tasted like chalk. That was about it. I need to gain weight there five times.
Speaker A
I did the mass scanners a lot and funny enough as I got older I was like and I got a little more like wise to like increase something. I guess it's just all malttodextrin. So I did a serious
Speaker A
mass experiment where I went through the whole bag of it and it turned me pre-diabetic.
Speaker A
Man, some of it would just tear your stomach up, man. You had to be My blood sugar in the morning started from like 80. It was like 135 was Jesus.
Speaker A
I'm saying fasted blood sugar. I'm not saying after the shake. How old were you?
Speaker A
This is only a few years ago. Oh jeez. Yeah. Like last week. Yeah. But dude, let me say when you were a kid. I THOUGHT YOU I THOUGHT through the years you've gotten more wiser.
Speaker A
You've honed your nutrition. But no no I didn't know you were It was exper I love experimenting. Wow.
Speaker A
Yeah. But the thing is it was better than uh coffee or pre-workout. the energy you got from the calories, thousand calories of pure sugar.
Speaker A
It was I would drink it pre-workout and just be flying cuz it was just so You ever do heavy whipping cream either?
Speaker A
Yeah, of course. I couldn't digest it. That was just crazy. Wow. Delicious. I was close to 300 lb.
Speaker A
I would just man protein shakes. Oh, drink them all day. The closest thing I've gotten to any of those is when like the E EVO, the extra virgin olive oil if I calories because like you can just take shots of that and that's about it.
Speaker A
Have you guys done the GMAD the gallon over 10 years? I mean I I figured you did but everyone go a gallon of milk a day.
Speaker A
Like whole milk. Oh milk. Oh a gallon a day. It's not hard. Everyone thinks it's so easy. If you drink a gallon of water a day, just switch it out with milk.
Speaker A
I did that just the other day in New York City. It's very easy postworkout.
Speaker A
Yeah. I will say I don't do it. If you're on the road though and you get in flights and you get in late, nothing's open. Every gas station like so it's like a it's like a dire straits.
Speaker A
It was a great meal. I post-workout I was in a hurry. I just got raw honey, a banana, and a gallon of milk.
Speaker A
I love honey. It was so good. You got 3,000 calories right there. Like I love milk, so I feel like if I do want to like blow up, I might consider it. I don't know if I have the finances
Speaker A
though for that, but like I don't know. I love it's cheaper than cat food.
Speaker A
I mean, a gallon of milk a day is going to add money on the good stuff.
Speaker A
I mean, a gallon of milk cost what? 250 $3. But I just that much dairy. I just I tried it once and I I got through day one.
Speaker A
Yeah. Because I'm like I didn't buy all of it cuz I'm got to try it. So, I bought the first gallon. I went to the store the second day to buy the second gallon.
Speaker A
Then as I'm in the grocery store, I'm like "Oh shit." [ __ ] through his screen.
Speaker A
Oh [ __ ] And I blew that bathroom apart and I'm like, I can't do this.
Speaker A
Yeah. I don't have that issue. Yeah. Stomach a stone over here. I mean, he can eat cat food for trying to Well, exactly. Exactly. So, I'm like, there's got to be a better way. So, I go back to the horse supply [ __ ] you know,
Speaker A
figure out what I can find there. You know, it's leaving here and going straight to the horse supply store. This It's not the same, man. They've done because it's there was they've pulled it back.
Speaker A
Yeah. I come from the I come from the darker, more anabolic side, right? So, I'm not going to [ __ ] anybody.
Speaker A
I just want to take a moment to let you know about our crew. What our crew is, it allows the show to stay independent, and it's the reason why the podcast is still here. Now, the podcast is free to
Speaker A
listen to, but it's not free to produce. It keeps going because of the sales through Elite FTS, our show sponsors, but more importantly, our crew members.
Speaker A
The reason I love this is for many reasons is it keeps the show independent. So I can pick who I want to speak to. I can pick what topics I want to speak to and I don't have to be
Speaker A
accountable to anybody. I just go off what the crew members want and what the audience wants and I don't have to deal with all the other bull crap that's associated with the podcast world. In return, what you get with the crew is
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Speaker A
So getting back, you know, to this gladiator thing, the the with the contestants as it kind of moved through, did you find that you were rooting for anybody?
Speaker A
Oh, yeah. Yeah, we had some some I personally did have some favorites and stuff. Yeah, it it's always easier to root for somebody that you beat. So that's that's pretty that's that's my two cents on I don't know how you guys
Speaker A
feel about I would think it's the opposite that beat you. Yeah, cuz then it makes No, not I mean, no, not for me.
Speaker A
Yeah. I kind of just like towards the end of it. At first it was like just destroy them and then after a while after a little bit it's like let's just cheer these guys on. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker A
Yeah. It's like uh it's such a long grueling day for everybody and at the end of the day like they all have their story. I mean everyone's got a story but still like everyone's gone through some [ __ ]
Speaker A
and stuff and and uh you can compete and I think that's kind of the show what they wanted. It's like compete and compete hard, but be a freaking gentleman, you know what I mean? On both sides. And uh
Speaker A
like I will just say like I know a lot of um well I don't cuz I don't talk to anyone, but my wife talks to a lot of people and she says that the kids all love it. I'm just saying I'm antisocial.
Speaker A
That's what I'm trying to say. That's so not true. I ran not true. That's not true.
Speaker A
Antisocial. Yes. He's got a YouTube channel to me. That's different. Yeah. Because he's still alone.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. It's not that. It's just very hard to get me out of my cave.
Speaker A
Every Sunday I would I would drive to the city and I would just spend the whole day, relax, eat as much as possible.
Speaker A
Um and he joined me a couple times. Yeah. And we would eat good and walk around and and he would sit in his room.
Speaker A
I lay bad and go to the gym. Yeah. Yeah. can respect that. Were you cheering for any of the contenders?
Speaker A
Well, I met I ran into one of the contenders pairings outside of the show really because like outside of the venue there was like a grocery store you could run grab some stuff, snacks or whatever.
Speaker A
And they're like, "Are you're one of the gladiators?" I was like, "Yeah." And it was this dude's parents and they were so sweet. They were so sweet. And just after I had that conversation with them, I'm like, "Oh, I hope their son wins."
Speaker A
Now, after you watch the show, you you I assume you know their stories now more.
Speaker A
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I didn't know why that's so I didn't realize. No. Yeah. So, looking back, is there somebody that you would root for differently now?
Speaker A
For me, it was the Kyle dude. Yeah. With his son, he kind of just seems standoffish. I'll be honest, Kyle, if you're watching, a lot of times like, "Yeah, brother." And he just like he just wasn't very talkative. But to be fair, I mean, he
Speaker A
probably had a lot on the line and a lot of pressure as we all did. But I kind of as the filming went on, I'm like, "Let me I'll just try to be cool with these guys when I can when we see them cuz
Speaker A
they kept us separated." But you would see them like as you're both got your equipment on and stuff, you're going to go out, you're just looking at each other.
Speaker A
Mhm. They're the enemy. I was like, "We'll freaking put on a show brother." Yeah. You did a great job of vocalizing that. They they let a lot of tidbits in there, you know, when we were up on the
Speaker A
thing. It was just like pumping somebody else up and whatnot. But yeah, there's there's a handful of people that whoever got chippy in the beginning, like they unfortunately got head-h hunted, but they kind of made their own bed and they
Speaker A
got to sleep in it when it was our time to kind of show them why we're gladiators and stuff. But then there was other people that, yeah, like you have a heart for them, right? But they're still public enemy number one. Um, when it
Speaker A
comes down to the people, they had a lot more on the line. So like their demeanor when it came down to those interviews, there's some that could articulate their feelings really well. And then there's other ones that were like so in their in their feelings
Speaker A
and so laser focused on the end goal of just getting through that eliminator and just winning and then maybe they'd be able to open up. Um but it all kind of came out in the wash when they were
Speaker A
doing a lot of the the background stories for him. And again, that's this a testament to the the production team that edited it just masterfully, right?
Speaker A
Because they helped everybody get invested. There's somebody that broke their back. There's somebody that that one of the girls had tons of surgeries, you know, and they were trying to battle that throughout the entire thing because like once those eliminators come up,
Speaker A
you find out where you're weak, right? Because you're doing stuff where you have to have the conditioning for it.
Speaker A
You got to climb up the the the cargo net and slide down the thing. It's like you you get fully taxed. I mean, you're going for broke at the end of that. And there's some people such as Ben that
Speaker A
could do that in his sleep, right? But then when you go up against somebody that's 250 lbs and was a tight end for uh you know a D1 school there's there's an equalizer. So there's different things that get put
Speaker A
out there that kind of humble a lot of people too and they don't see it coming and yeah you feel for them but that's the way the tree gets shaken and that's once the apple falls.
Speaker A
Yeah. But when you're watching it now you it's you're in a different mindset 100%.
Speaker A
Absolutely. I didn't know like that. I mean, one of the guys was fighting potentially, you know, having I think diabetes or like the doctor literally said like if you don't lose weight, you're gonna die and he took that into
Speaker A
here. There's other people um that wanted to be on the show for 17 years and tried out for the second time and got on it this time. You know, it stories are pretty cool.
Speaker A
Nice stories. Then there were some that and like some of the guys they were just trying to become superstars.
Speaker A
Yeah. Like they were trying to be the [ __ ] Yeah. That's there's a couple that are pretty obvious.
Speaker A
Yeah. At least from what I you know what it's that's why I'm asking this, right?
Speaker A
Because what do I know? You know, I'm watching something that's been edited down into what 45 minutes in an episode and you're like, man, this guy's just trying to like use this to build a YouTube channel or whatever it's going to be.
Speaker A
Absolutely. I mean, television is like that now. That's the world we live in. Every Let me just say real fast. You're you're talking about Michael. That guy's a stud. You should check out his YouTube channel, though. I'll put him over.
Speaker A
No, he is a stud. He's a stud, dude. I I know because like I think he followed me during the filming and I was like, "Oh, it's that contender or whatever." And I looked at his page and he did a a 500 pound
Speaker A
deadlift, which we can all be like, "Well, I mean, that's not that much." But he ran a sub five minute mile right after it.
Speaker A
Yeah, that's crazy. It's like that's hybrid peak. And then he's done just a lot of stuff like that where it's just like he's strong, respectably strong, but on top of it, like the Did you happen to look at his subs
Speaker A
before? What's that? Did you look at his subscriber count before? I'm wondering what this is gonna do for us. He's done a great job of being able to cultivate some sort of community on the contender side and draw him in, do
Speaker A
like live chats, break down different um audio stuff, put up different, you know, visuals of of us against him, stuff like that.
Speaker A
Good for him. He's working on we didn't realize this, but like a lot of them I I don't know too much about um everyone, but like I didn't know about Ben either that he's like a world class grip
Speaker A
strength specimen and stuff too. You know what I'm saying? Even the contenders. Yeah, the contenders are they're no joke. It's not just like, oh, we grabbed this guy from the office, right? Which was the olden version, which I thought we were going in like
Speaker A
CPAs, librarians, like, hey, this guy's a dog walker. Yeah. Teacher like, okay, cool. Let's go against a Steve. He's a part-time student teacher up the street.
Speaker A
You know, it's just like, no, this dude just did a 500 lb deadlift in a fiveminute mile. But there was a guy who went to shake his hand and he like did and then did a back flip or
Speaker A
something. I'm like, "All right, well, I'm going to end your life here and wait a chance." And then everybody's like, "Oh, he's such a great guy." I'm like, "Not to me." Yeah, he is a hell of an athlete.
Speaker A
He fell off. He got knocked off the joust and did a flip. Cool. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I know.
Speaker A
You're a little sour on it, but I'm just saying like Yeah. I mean, they're all respectable athletes in their own right. Very much so. and the women too. Like there's like it's it it's literally a 2026 version of
Speaker A
American Gladiators. Like it does. Yes, we're elite American Gladiator. Yeah. Well, obviously it's a 2026.
Speaker A
When I say that though, like protein, like we're not having to go to, you know, Tractor Supply to get these people order it off of, you know, Amazon.
Speaker A
Point taken. Yeah. Everybody's like crazy. No, it was average Joe's right back in the day, which what we were anticipating.
Speaker A
That's what I'm saying. These people have like CrossFit backgrounds, a very well-rounded average like like do everything background and that guy like I'm getting piggyback ride across, you know, a steel beam 30t 40T in the air, you know, and not understanding why this
Speaker A
guy isn't going down. I don't know. His background is deadlifting and he's like stout from the hips down, right?
Speaker A
So, I'm just trying to push him off of this new playground that I have. So, but now do are you guys in the same hotel as the women gladiators? I mean, is there any camaraderie there? Is not the contenders though.
Speaker A
Yeah. What's that? Not the contenders. Not the contenders. Obviously that. We all shuttle to and from the same.
Speaker A
Yeah, cuz some of them were athletes too. Absolutely. Every single one of them. Yeah.
Speaker A
Every single one of them. Yeah. Oh gosh. What is it? Huntress. How much could she Funny story about that? We were at the gym and this is before I knew anything about her or whatever. She was deadlifting four plates for reps
Speaker A
and I saw that and I can respect deadlifting and I'm not I'm not um super well-rounded on women's deadlift strength but I was like that's I mean to do that before just a day at the gym before filming.
Speaker A
I'm like that's I'm like you got to be world class. I can't remember what she said. She's like oh I'm a world champion or something like that. Yes. I figured I could Danny that would wake up, go to the gym.
Speaker A
Then we would get to the building, she would show up, eat, and then she would go into the little weight room, do a whole fullblown workout. She didn't stop working out. It was nuts.
Speaker A
Wow. And she won Titan games, too, I believe. But then, I mean, uh, Danny Voltage, um, she was like a rugby player, obviously, striker. I think um uh Bla1 was just more in like bodybuilding and stuff, but then you know Hurricane just
Speaker A
has I mean Hurricane was just a freaking nature. She's D1 softball. Yeah. Like absolute.
Speaker A
So were you guys still training during this time? Yeah. No. Well, here that's that's Well, that's the thing that's tricky here Dave.
Speaker A
How much it sounds like the women are like destroying. Well, they all go like going two a day getting their meals in first. We're like, and then we're waiting to see who's going to talk.
Speaker A
No, we lift it every day. We did. The thing that made it tricky, though, is for, you know, we got to get a pump. You got to get a pump for [ __ ] No, I get that.
Speaker A
So, you're doing that three times a day, but then I mean also like we just love going to the gym, too. So, but it's such a fine balance because it's like for TV it was like if you go to the gym, the
Speaker A
shuttle will take you at 500 a.m. It's like I'm not doing that. So, we would have to hold our last event or end Yeah. If it ended early enough, you could go to the gym if you had time.
Speaker A
I mean, sometimes you're not getting back to the hotel till 10:30. So, or your event is until the last event, so you got time right now to run out the back.
Speaker A
Sounds like the women had no problem getting their training in. I'm just making an observation here.
Speaker A
But yeah, we really were working out multiple times a day realistically, every time we needed to get a pump. So, so, so my takeaway is because they're not worried about getting a pump the whole time during the show that you're
Speaker A
actually getting more training in. We got more overall volume. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Volume. Yeah. There volume.
Speaker A
Right. Which you probably did. 100%. Yeah. Absolutely. We had one day where he he took me to the gym and had me doing some really heavy the back pulls.
Speaker A
Yeah. Rack pulls. What are you thinking, man? See there? Like you're there shooting and you're you decide you're going to go do rack pull heavy.
Speaker A
Well, not for his biceps. Not for me. We only went up to like mid600s. It wasn't for filming the show. It was more than we should.
Speaker A
Was that a day off? Or was that after that was after the photos? Yeah. I don't know, man. Why not?
Speaker A
We also didn't really know what to expect either, right? So, like I'm like still doing a full swing bodybuilder, you know, one body part a day type thing. And then in my mind, it's just like anything else. You're like, "Oh,
Speaker A
well, I really don't want this to be sore if I do this event, so maybe I'll just do Yeah, it was a learning process.
Speaker A
I think I think if we do it again, you know, hopefully uh there's just it's like with anything else, you get started, you get savvy to the whole process and like, okay, now I know how it works. I can structure." But like at
Speaker A
the time, we had no idea. Do you guys feel like you would be 10 times more confident filming than other like you would just walk in know? You don't know until you know.
Speaker A
And I don't know how much truth there is to this, but you know, even professional athletes in football, they're not doing their PRs when it's actual Yeah.
Speaker A
season during football. They're just trying to stay as flexible as they possibly can, stay as strong as they can, keep their footwork going, then get into the season and just make it through, then recover, and then try to go back to their training that keeps
Speaker A
them keeps them in the dance. That's what I tried to do, like full transparency. And like we were getting pumped up however many times a day, trying to do what we could to look as great as we could on television and not
Speaker A
I mean I if we're if we're to go down the periodization rabbit hole. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? If if you're if you're peaked for this thing and you're doing these maintenance stuff throughout, you're not
Speaker A
going to lose much in a month. Yeah. Actually, you'll probably it'll probably be better.
Speaker A
Yeah. Tighten up for you, right? Because except for tearing your bicep off, right? Because it's kind of like a de lo in a way.
Speaker A
Well, funny enough that you say that cuz when I did get back from filming, I felt great and I I was hitting PRs then because I I finally forced myself to stop lifting so heavy for that whole month
Speaker A
because periodization works. You don't have to go heavy every day. Yeah. Funny when you rest your body.
Speaker A
Yeah. What happened? Oh, yeah. Well, you weren't resting, but you're resting. Yeah. Oh, so I see where this is going now.
Speaker A
Yeah. So, your your content in the next few months is going to be about three days.
Speaker A
You need to periodize your program. You need to make sure you got a science B.
Speaker A
Oh, yeah. That's that's definitely the Ronald stuff. Just biceps and shoulders. Three days. That's going to be We were trying to work whatever muscles we could.
Speaker A
Yeah. When we were in the gym and just look in the mirror and be like, "All right, we still got it." That was it.
Speaker A
When you were in the gym, were you noticed? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we Yeah.
Speaker A
Well, the reason I ask is because that can be that can be an issue, too.
Speaker A
Mhm. Right. Because if you're if you only have an hour to be there, you got to get in. You can't do a three-hour arm workout, right?
Speaker A
You you also you got to be polite. You know what I'm saying? You can't be a dick. Yeah. Right. Because there could fans could be there, but you got to get your work done, right? So, it can be was it an
Speaker A
overwhelming thing or was that not so much at the other gym, but remember the first gym we were going to before we learned about the other gyms in the area that people started like showing off or whatever because they like got wind of what was
Speaker A
happening. That was a bit distracting and that gym was very busy. So, that those workouts kind of sucked. Yeah. But once we like got learned the lay of the land, it's like anything else. once you get experience like, okay, oh, if we go
Speaker A
to this one, no one's at that gym or we go to this one that day. So, cuz we also had we all ran into people that recognized us from our other ventures, from wrestling and from his YouTube. Like, we actually had people
Speaker A
coming up like wanting to take pictures with us completely outside of the Gladiator world obviously.
Speaker A
Yeah. But that's going to be well, it's going to be bigger now, you know, because of the Gladiators where you're going to run into I don't want to say it's an issue per se, right? Actually, you've gone through probably ups and
Speaker A
downs of that, right? Where Yeah, we've all kind of experienced that because of wrestling.
Speaker A
Yeah. So, how much different was this than the attention that you get with the wrestling? You already said the filming's obviously different, right?
Speaker A
But the the wrestling as far as cutting the promos and all those other kind of things. It's every week, right? I mean, for for some TV once a week. Yeah. So, that's how that's so much How often are you guys wrestling or were
Speaker A
you wrestling? How how long were you gone? Oh, like on the road? Yeah, I was on the road six days a week at my peak.
Speaker A
Yeah. Well, for for myself on the impact uh schedule, like we would get everything knocked out in like three, four days, five days for the whole month and then they would just air them in sequential order of the
Speaker A
Yeah, that's a lot better than Yeah. Yeah. That was yours. AWS's the best wrestling company in the world. So, we have such a beautiful schedule. We wrestle on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and we get the rest of the time at home.
Speaker A
Yeah. But that you can be flying across the country. We do. Yeah. I mean, yeah, you have a couple just Wednesday and Saturday, but it's Tuesday.
Speaker A
Sometimes Sometimes you're Wednesday and Saturday, but you could just be Wednesday, you could just be Saturday.
Speaker A
Okay. Um Yeah. I mean, AW Thank you, Tony Khan. He he treats us so well and he gives us proper time off and to heal and he takes care of us.
Speaker A
I mean I would like that schedule. I don't know about so yeah to go from you know wrestling once a week or maybe two shows a week to all day.
Speaker A
All day every day six days a week morning to night it was it was a big difference.
Speaker A
I will say that I'm a creature of habit. It got easier as we Yeah. It at first it was rough but then you just you know it's like we also made it ended up we would make it fun.
Speaker A
Yeah. We would pop each if one of us was down the other two would you boost them boost because there's such a trauma bond right like we go through stuff and and you know if if you go through something
Speaker A
pretty heavy it makes you together real quick. So yeah. Well with with you guys with the wrestling it's I mean you were in the WWE for a little bit. I mean you can still go to certain gyms.
Speaker A
Yeah. And people aren't gonna really know who the [ __ ] you are. Oh, come on. You're not giving me enough credit brother.
Speaker A
You know what? You know what I'm talking about, right? But with YouTube, I mean, it's it's more now than it was before.
Speaker A
More of a YouTuber than a wrestler. Yeah. But you're know you're known from that. But it's it's not crazy. You know what I'm saying? You're not going to go I'm not The Rock. Yeah.
Speaker A
Yes. Where if we go to say with Big Brother when it was 10 and 11, that How insane did that get for you? It was crazy because I mean I'm just, you know, from Midwest, little super small town in
Speaker A
R Iowa and like you're in California being noticed by like everywhere, right? Orange County Mom. Yeah. And it it's middle of I mean it's prime time television on network television, right?
Speaker A
That we're getting between five and 10 million views. Yeah. When it was television back in 2008, 2009. But but to his credit too, like YouTube is now everybody's doing the phones, which is why Prime Video is so awesome now, too,
Speaker A
because they're a streaming service. Um, but yeah, like any you go to a theme park, uh, uh, airports across the country, just like anywhere where people are, you know, as families are coming together, like you're going to get
Speaker A
noticed for sure. Yeah. Well, where I'm going with this is that at its peak, right? I mean, when it first starts, it's like, oh, this is great, right? Then it gets to where it's like exhausting after a while, right?
Speaker A
But then it goes away. Yep. Right. The second the next season comes out and they have a whole new cast.
Speaker A
Yes. Yes. So, what's that like dealing with that when that goes away? Oh, yeah.
Speaker A
You get you get what I'm saying? Yeah. Luckily, I have Because some people get addicted to that. Yeah.
Speaker A
And then it kind of goes away. I try to tell people like if you weren't a tap dancer before, don't try to become a tap dancer after because there's people that are from the Midwest just like myself that are very big fish in a
Speaker A
small pond and then they move to California or to New York thinking like, oh, all brighteyed and bushy tailed like I'm a somebody now. It's like first and foremost, you're literally putting out scripted shows cuz it's it's reality
Speaker A
television. So that was again back in 2008 2009. So I'm putting somebody that actually has a skill of acting out of a job. So anybody that's now migrating to the east coast or to the west coast to get a job in a scripted series and try
Speaker A
to become an actor, you you're slapping them in the face. you're really from reality television like and you weren't a tap dancer before like how are you trying to go into this?
Speaker A
For me it's a little bit different. And I was a hybrid. But then again, I saw people such as The Miz like taking off during his career. And I asked Ric Flair and Gold's Jim Venice of all places like, "Hey, how do I get into
Speaker A
like which is crazy, right?" Like, so yes, Ric Flair in Gold's Gym Venice. Like, how do I get into professional wrestling after my first season of Big Brother?
Speaker A
I thought you were talking about active. No, no, no, no. Like to get into to get into professional wrestling. He's like, "If you're serious, kid, like move to F or move to Tampa, go to FCW." And that was when Steve Kern and Norman Smiley
Speaker A
were running it. Um, and that's what I did. But yeah, to to go through those ls. I actually got brought back and stuff. It's it's it's I don't know like I've had a career over the last like you know two decades now
Speaker A
of doing it all and it just all kind of builds off of one another and I don't think I would have been able like anybody really. You're not going to get to that next opportunity unless you already have a bunch in the can and you
Speaker A
have like some staying power which I don't think a lot of people understood like my whole, you know, gimmick from the beginning, which hopefully I've tried to steer away from just be being an American gladiator because when we're
Speaker A
heels like I can nobody can relate to somebody that has singledigit body fat, you know, it's it's pretty and then if I sit there and flex long enough, people are going to hate me. Yeah.
Speaker A
But it's something that I can elicit. Whereas with this, we all have to be baby faces. we all need to be liked and like it's a complete I I feel like it's a a 180 and Johnny Ferraro instilled
Speaker A
that into us saying like hey this is kind of what we need to do with this and it's going to be completely different like being liked by the kids is going to be different for me and my whole gimmick
Speaker A
you know so now with your contracts were there are things in there that you couldn't do like don't ride motorcycles and stupid [ __ ] like that I didn't read it you didn't read it I don't American Gladiator
Speaker A
but that's That's a cool I had. All right. Well, I'm going to ask the guy that's Did you read it?
Speaker A
I definitely read it. Absolutely. Yeah. I probably skipped it. I not giving myself enough credit. You know, I have ADHD, so you know, I read a couple lines, I skip or read a couple.
Speaker A
Yeah. Kind of like the Excel software that you click through. I just wanted to make sure that any other opportunity that I still got was I had a track record of like having a lot of other opportunities in reality
Speaker A
television. I wouldn't be able to get deterred or miss out on those type of things. and you and you negotiated and tried talking to him about that.
Speaker A
I think the big thing that I just I did kind of there's one thing I was looking for and that's like what we were allowed to do on our own or whatever. And it's basically I think you could do anything
Speaker A
as long as it didn't directly compete with the show. Yep. So I was like well that's all I need to hear. Great. Cuz that's huge for me. It's like if you couldn't Yeah. But how do they define that?
Speaker A
True. I think it had to be like a another competitive TV show that directly rivaled which is like what are you going to do? So, it'd be like if you tried to do Titan games or something that came back. Yeah.
Speaker A
Like with wrestling, we have a lot of freedom. But that's actually funny you say that about the motorcycle. That was a rule I made for myself because I used to have a Harley and I love riding and I miss riding so
Speaker A
much. But I promised myself no race cars and no motorcycles until I'm retired. Mhm.
Speaker A
So, he turned his daily driver into a supercharged SUV. I did supercharge my SUV.
Speaker A
You're being lied to about strength training. I know because I've been watching this happen for over 40 years, and it's gotten worse, not better. When I got online in the late '9s, the people that were being sold this crap were the
Speaker A
same people that I grew up and trained with. Serious lifters, coaches, and people who just wanted to get strong.
Speaker A
So, I started writing articles and answering questions. My wife, Tracy, set up the business, and we borrowed $1,000 to put up a website and go to work. That was 1998. Elite FTS was never about building a brand. It was about fixing a
Speaker A
problem. The equipment, the articles, the coaching, all of it exists because the people who needed the real information deserve better than what they were getting. And they still do now. If you train, if you coach, if you've ever been handed something that
Speaker A
didn't work by someone who didn't know what they were talking about, Elite FTS was built for you.
Speaker A
It's not a race car. It's a race truck. No, you guys are kind of in a weird place, right? because uh season one's doing real well, right? So, you don't know if there's going to be a season 2
Speaker A
or season 3 or whatever it's going to be, but you still got to live your life, but you still got to be able to put your life on hold to be able to do the next season if they want to do the next
Speaker A
season. So, what how do you manage that? Keep doing what we've been doing, training, going to the gym.
Speaker A
You said before, it's like what got you to the dance in the first place?
Speaker A
That's a great question, man. That's a very, you know what I'm saying? Because if if we're all faced with it, a really good opportunity comes Right.
Speaker A
Then you got to balance that out. You got to That's weird, man, because you got to balance that out with something you don't even know.
Speaker A
Yeah. Like, I don't know if I can take this because maybe this other thing might happen and I really like that, but this other thing pays.
Speaker A
Yeah. You know, it's it's a great question. I think for myself personally, I hold this American Gladiators opportunity such high regard like and it's such a huge honor. And again, just the battle tested and the fact that we've all earned our stripes
Speaker A
over there. I'm over the moon about it, right? So, like this is at the forefront of my life. I hope it lasts for 10 years. I hope.
Speaker A
That's what I was saying, dude. Get 20 seasons. Exactly. Like I'm I'm willing to I'm willing to shoot two seasons every single year for as long as I can, you know?
Speaker A
Now, is the are the producers associated in any with the original at all or is it all new?
Speaker A
The Yeah, the the guy that created it, the Ferraro is. Yeah. Okay. So, if we go back because I never really paid attention to it ever, right?
Speaker A
Maybe like one episode or whatever. With the Gladiators that they had in the past, did they stay the same or how often were they replaced?
Speaker A
Oh, that's a good question. Well, I mean, you had like Nitro and and I mean, people are going to get hurtless, so let's just assume that people get hurt or whatever.
Speaker A
Yeah, they're I would say they some of them had some staying power, but Yeah, that's a like when I watched it as a kid, I mean, I was these guys. They were the guys.
Speaker A
You know what I'm saying? And then as I kind of uh because what the show was like 80 89 to 906 I think.
Speaker A
Yeah. Something like that. I feel like a handful of them were just consist. Yeah. Of course your staples and then Yeah. Like Gemini Diamond. Um their circumstance like you're saying Thunder.
Speaker A
Yeah. I know. But as you're looking at this though, you got to start a career.
Speaker A
It's your life, right? So it's a business opportunity. I mean Big Brother or something like that. It's one season.
Speaker A
I mean, he kind of got lucky because it was two, right? But it's, you kind of know it's like one season where this, you know, it could be one, it could be four, it could be eight, or they could
Speaker A
just say, "No, we don't want you back." Yeah. We found somebody we might like better, but you don't know, right? So, you got to live in that uncertainty.
Speaker A
Yeah. So, what advice would you have for people living in uncertainty? Make decisions that you can live with. I mean, we're all grown men and I think we I mean, he made a decision to still show up even though he did what he did
Speaker A
beforehand. I that's all I've done my entire life and then go towards where the opportunity is and run towards it.
Speaker A
You know, control what you can control. Yeah. And then it's gonna be on God's time because whatever you think you should earn or whatever how however hard work and I I'd say this for maybe all of our professional wrestling careers like
Speaker A
it's the only thing that you can give it 100% and then never get the payback that you think you should have.
Speaker A
So it's on a timing and like we don't know storylines. We don't know the politics of things and you got to take the good with the bad and just be ready at all times. Um, that's what I try to
Speaker A
do and just stay as being a natural my entire life. Like it it's easy to stay consistent, you know, and whatever opportunities continue to come, like I just be ready for it.
Speaker A
Yeah. I mean, for me, wrestling is my base. Wrestling is my home. So, I only did a Gladiators because my boss Tony Khan absolutely green lit it. Gave me 100% his blessing. So, as long as whatever opportunities I get outside of
Speaker A
wrestling, it basically comes down wrestling is my main priority. But if my boss says, "Hey, this is a good opportunity not only for you, but to get new eyes on our company, it benefits everybody, you have my blessing, then
Speaker A
I'll do it. If it doesn't work out that way, or if I'm on a hot run in wrestling with timing, you know, wrestling comes first. But if we c if I'm not a champion or if you know you can do anything in
Speaker A
wrestling you can pivot storylines you know you have to because people things happen. Um so it all just depends you know I I I want to I'll be getting back to wrestling soon and then if another season pops up if my boss says hey yep
Speaker A
let's do it we think it's beneficial then I'll go do it. Mhm. Now with did you guys pick your names? No, not necessarily. I just pitch I wanted the I would pitch the max. The maximum.
Speaker A
And you end up with bowl. The the bowl. The bowl. The bull. Yeah. Which I like. I like that actually better than the max. I just wanted something that was the something with a punch like the Ohio State when they
Speaker A
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. There was like they told me like three names. Yeah. My two. Yeah.
Speaker A
I can't remember the third one. There was like beast, fang, and there was one other one which I think was my favorite one, but I now I don't remember what it was, but the fang thing I I I'm happy they chose just cuz
Speaker A
my whole gimmick with like wrestling is wolves, and I love dogs and wolves. It's like a weird thing. Um, and then in my wallet, I actually have my puppy's baby Fang.
Speaker A
It came out playing tugof-war. His little fang came out and I keep it in my wallet. and they didn't know that. So, I just thought that was kind of funny.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. If the other if another season comes, what would you do differently? I know a bull would do different.
Speaker A
I would listen as closely as possible to the rules. First and foremost, you didn't screw up that much.
Speaker A
No, I did. There's See, that that nothing terrible. Oh, so there was a lot that didn't get broadcast.
Speaker A
Well, just backstage. Bullhead. Yeah. Yeah. I just tried to make good entertainment. You can't just stop with that. He did what?
Speaker A
Well, no. Bull is a very aggressive physical, but not like a bad not like I'm not like a crazy psycho person. I just I I know good entertainment. I just pushed the lines a little bit too much about what's
Speaker A
good entertainment. So, I'm like, this is going to make great television. Yeah. If it's backstage though, it doesn't matter.
Speaker A
It wasn't backstage. No, I'm just saying the the conversations. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Of like having to tell Bull to not be so bull.
Speaker A
But that's I mean that's that's totally the Bull character anyway. But that's also what they told us.
Speaker A
Yeah. I mean I'm a mad man. They said go crazy. It's like you'll bulldoze your opponent and then uh dance with their grandma after.
Speaker A
Well, it's easier to to it's easier. It's like in training. It's easier to dial somebody back.
Speaker A
Well, that's how we to push them up. promo in WWE. That was that was like the number one thing. It's like always give more and we can pull back.
Speaker A
Yeah. You'd rather be pulled back than them have to get you to come out more.
Speaker A
When I first Yeah. started in MTV World, they're like, "Ah, that was good, but can you give us more?" So, it's like, "You got to go." I would, brother, I wouldn't I honestly wouldn't change anything other than I
Speaker A
would give myself a bit more time to practice rings because I think Are you ever going to do that, brother? I would love to do that. I this is my everything. Just so you guys know, you're like this opportunity. I'm like
Speaker A
this is I'm all in. If you were asking that question to them, you didn't give me the spotlight, brother. If I if I what do I do if I get faced with other opportunities? I would turn them down
Speaker A
because this is something I grew up watching as a kid or whatever. And it kind of morphed me like Conan the Barbarian, American Gladiators, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker A
Uh Flex Magazine. Like these this is my golden era pro wrestling. This is my ch this my childhood. So like the money stuff like if a you're saying big better opportunity paychecks here like I can I'll always find ways to make
Speaker A
money. I think that's just being kind of eccentric person or whatever. But like uh no I I I want to look back and do something that I really love versus like oh but I can't do that season because I have this
Speaker A
weird acting gigs. Like am I going to look back at that and be like frick that was awesome. this I can and I have the proof because No, I would think more let's say let's say they want to pull you back into
Speaker A
wrestling. Oh, back into w this would take the priority. 100%. Yeah, 100%. Well, the cool thing about it though too is four weeks back into wrestling.
Speaker A
It's four weeks, right? And that's the beauty of this. Like it was it was four weeks and like I don't know what the it might be two weeks this next time because we might not need the first two.
Speaker A
We don't we did not need So there's a lot of there's that's a good point.
Speaker A
Yeah. And you were touching base on that like hey what would you change differently? like we might be able to have a little bit more input like hey those first two weeks might not necessarily be necessary like let's just
Speaker A
grip it and rip it. We kind of all know what we're doing or maybe have like a one or two days beforehand and it's not necessarily a month anymore. It's like two weeks and for a wrestling schedule where you're doing something like a
Speaker A
Wednesday Thursday, you can still everything you can you can still that's the all we need is eyeballs, right? That's the currency in today's day and age. It's the reason why you're on YouTube, right? It's like because he's attracting eyeballs this show right
Speaker A
now. There's a platform for eyeballs and that's all that matters. Um how many how many people can actually tune in and actually care to watch you or pay for it, right? Because we want to be doing live events. Like I think
Speaker A
that's like the whole end is like this American Gladiator should be an experience for a family. Like that's what we want. We want the family.
Speaker A
Are you sure? Think that through. Live events. Let me get a seven-year-old up on that.
Speaker A
No, but now you're talking like one a week. Yeah, you're doing once once or twice a week like pro wrestling all of a sudden.
Speaker A
Yeah. I want to leave Dynamite Wednesday night and then fly to do Gladiators the next night.
Speaker A
And again, no, there's there's it's still like the circus, right? it's still going to be like the same kind of hey this town this town this town like two three two three nights in a row or whatever the case may be or maybe for
Speaker A
two three four months um and that's it keep us busy like and the whole point of it should be around based around like influencers and and just being a living a healthy lifestyle like that's the whole point of like trying to influence
Speaker A
today's youth to live a healthier lifestyle like seeing us be characters that are larger than life that are the epitome of what an American gladiator should be with sportsmanship and looking like $10 million.
Speaker A
That's what we need to get back to. Yeah. That's the reason why we watched Slive. It's the reason why we watched Arnold. Like, oh my god, these guys are huge. Like, how do I get like that?
Speaker A
That's the reason why we picked up magazines. That's why we we spend our whole life like our entire book of business, our entire career, eating every single meal we have, trying to go to sleep, trying to work out.
Speaker A
You're I mean, for God's sake, like look at what you two actually ate to try and just gain a little bit of muscle. Like, because you guys sacrificed your, you know, gut biome for who knows how long.
Speaker A
Yeah. There's no drugs, alcohol, going to the clubs when you are you live the way we live.
Speaker A
Yeah. And and we need to get back to that. All these kids are so young thinking it's so cool to do this stuff. And I made the same mistakes, you know. Um but growing up, how we grew up, that's why we are
Speaker A
the men we are today. And I think we need that example again with the youth.
Speaker A
Man, do you have any idea how they went? cuz you said the influencers which kind of hit me cuz you were talking about what Michael is a YouTuber.
Speaker A
Do you have any idea on how they selected the people to compete? Cuz I would think if you did pull in influencers, you know, ones with big followings, they did they did. There's there's a good thing though.
Speaker A
There's a woman that I think has like 400,000 followers. Like you said, Ben has his own. Um there's there different niche things and I think they did a great job of it because then there's still other people. I mean, even on the Gladiator
Speaker A
side, like some of the guys only have a couple thousand, but like it's a niche market that's obviously following them, but I think they did a great job of doing that.
Speaker A
Probably a good balance of like, okay, they have a little bit of a following that'll get viewers, plus they have a a good story and a look and they can talk whatever pieces they need to put the puzzle
Speaker A
together. Now, I know he doesn't give a [ __ ] about this, but did do you did you set up different Instagram accounts for different characters? No, no. It's all still my own. Yeah. And everything that I post normally on my Instagram is like
Speaker A
on television. So, I try to keep my personal life a little bit more personal and that's about it.
Speaker A
Yeah. But you wonder if they're if they're going to search steel. Yeah. Well, you can do that cuz I think you guys did cuz you have like your handle.
Speaker A
Yeah. But then you can also have your name. That's what I did. So, I have my handle's real Wllo. So, if you look up Wllo, you'll find me. But if you look up Fang, my name is Fang on
Speaker A
there. So you kind of have you can look it up. Yeah. But see, you have different characters, right? Because you're still wrestling under one name and then you're a gladiator under another name.
Speaker A
Yeah. So mine is both. So I have like gladiators and AEW listed in my bio.
Speaker A
So it's just like I guess I would kind of put them all under like if I shot a movie and I played a character in a movie that would still all go into my main Yeah.
Speaker A
Instagram. Now, have you seen any increase in subscriber count since the things come out?
Speaker A
I've gone up some followers and stuff. It's gone up a bit. I need to start a YouTube. Actually, I'm going to talk to you about that.
Speaker A
You're going to talk to He does it with his phone. He's the best guy in the back.
Speaker A
Yeah. No, cuz that's about the effort I'm looking to put into it. But like I because these guys have families. I'm alone all the time and I'm just like I could literally be making content all day every day and I don't.
Speaker A
And it's something I feel like I need to get into. I mean, you got to do it if you were going to do it anyways. I don't think if you like try to force it, it'll ever work. You know what I'm saying? It's
Speaker A
like I like horsecocking. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to film it. I love doing it anyways. Like if it was like when it's like, "Oh, I got to make a video for the sake of a video." That's
Speaker A
when it sucks. But when I'm like just doing something, I'm like, "Ah, I'll just film this." That's like the best content. And I think it's the same thing with like we're talking about the handles and the pages and all that
Speaker A
separate in 2026. Like you are like people need people see exactly who you are. You know what I'm saying? Like your steel is not much different. They can go to your page and be like, "Oh, it's Mr.
Speaker A
Spectacular." But they're like, "This is steel. He's not playing a character." Just like for me, the bull. They go to my page and I'm going to be doing the craziest lifts. You know what I'm saying? Like, oh, that makes sense. It's
Speaker A
not like they're going to your Oh, but oh, where's his page? Oh my gosh, he's totally playing a character online. You know what I mean? I feel like it just doesn't work in today's day and age.
Speaker A
Just like people that are doing YouTube channels and they're trying to put on this facade people can see right through it. There's just too much there's too many uh different outlets of seeing who you really are in today's that's why
Speaker A
it's like reality television I mean social media is just reality television now you know it's a commercial for yourself.
Speaker A
Yeah. It's like you know there's the days of being like an actor in a sense like I don't know they're gone now. It's a new age.
Speaker A
So pretty crazy. I had to double check. If you look up Fang or Wllo, mine pops.
Speaker A
It works. Yeah. Is there anything about the show I didn't bring up that you guys think I should have brought up?
Speaker A
How awesome like DC and Sarah and Ramy was. Like I just think Yeah. The team.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. Like these guys are top tier and the fact that like they shot everything like a stunt coming out of Mission Impossible. Like the the cameras like these guys are the best of the best.
Speaker A
like there's a reason why we're on, you know, Prime Video. Who is Scott and uh Steuart Stew? Scott and Stew who like helped train us and they were awesome.
Speaker A
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Everybody that had their hand in it. Just good people, good experience.
Speaker A
What do you think your your best moment was? That's on filmed. My best moment, I mean, that's when I got a really chance to show who I am because listen, here's the deal. these events, brother. Like, I'm a wrestler.
Speaker A
You know what I'm saying? I'll hustle. I'll grapple. I'll scrap. Okay. But then you put me in like all these new elements that I'm not familiar with, not comfortable with. So, it's like it's me.
Speaker A
You're seeing me in the rawest state outside of like, oh my gosh, this is the first time experiencing a shot of water.
Speaker A
You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like, it's not like, oh, I've been doing this for years, right? It's just like first time I've done it, first time you're seeing me do it. Um, so like, yeah, that's a little out of my element, but
Speaker A
like you put you give a microphone to me to it. Now it's like now I can show you what I bring to the table. Do you know what I'm saying? Like ultimately it was all great. And I think the best
Speaker A
experience of it is the fact that like the way that we talk about American Gladiators like from growing up. Oh, I watch the show all the time. It was so awesome. I can tell that's how kids see it now. I was just in my daughter's
Speaker A
dance competition and um uh another there was like an eight-year-old kid that was just couldn't believe like he asked to meet me and that's awesome.
Speaker A
Yeah. He's what's your best bench press? Who is your who's you thought we were going to be enemies on the show? Like no, the gladiators work together. But you know what I'm saying? Like these kids are already watching this like oh
Speaker A
like how do they hate each other? Do they love each other? Like how much do they lift and stuff? You know what I mean? It's probably exactly how we saw when we were eight years old too. So, cuz I see I'll see a lot of people are
Speaker A
like, "Oh, the show's great, heartfelt, whatever." But then I also see people like, "Oh, it's not what it used to be.
Speaker A
It's not it's it used to be so much more." It's like, "What are you talking about, dude?" First of all, you're looking at it from your eyes when you were 8 n 10. Now you're this bitter [ __ ] 40-year-old. You know what I
Speaker A
mean? No offense. I'm You know what I'm saying? But like, like, you got to put yourself in these kids' shoes again. And I will say this, when I was in WWE, my daughter couldn't give a rat's patoot. She never
Speaker A
watched anything I did. Now she's asking to watch. She's watching the show with her friends and stuff. So the kids love this show. You know what I mean? So I'm like, "Oh, but I didn't look cool and tough in this moment." It's like, who
Speaker A
freaking cares? That's not the point is it's the experience that these kids like they're seeing like, "Oh, this is awesome. These got muscles and there's competition and like you know what I mean?" Like Yeah. Yeah, the 8-year-old has no idea
Speaker A
how upset we were that we lost something. We're overthinking this [ __ ] And people that watch the stuff and like the '9s are overthinking it, TOO. OH, IT'S NOT LIKE IT THE CHARACTERS BACK in the day cuz I've seen all this [ __ ] too. It's
Speaker A
like, shut up and take a step back for a second. It's engagement though, man.
Speaker A
I know. But I'm just saying. Yeah. I'm standing up on the joust for the first time. Probably more nervous than the competitor. Yeah, he had he doesn't know that. He's like, "Oh yeah." But in in my mind, I'm like terrifi I'm
Speaker A
like terrified. No, I I'm I'm sitting here thinking you guys all practice this stuff beforehand.
Speaker A
Listen, we got a chance. You got a chance. Like, hey, if you want to go feel it, do it. But like for us, like, brother, I I'm sure you guys totally agree. But I was like, I mean, I I'll
Speaker A
practice certain events to kind of feel it up. But like this one, because it's it's high up. I'm like, so what are we going to do? We're going to go at like how do you practice unless you actually
Speaker A
go all out? I don't know what it's going to feel like to actually get hit until I actually get hit and then do I want to like WHOA I DIDN'T EXPECT THAT AND I'M GOING TO FALL 10 feet and dislocate my
Speaker A
elbow or you know what I'm saying chances are these are real probabilities there is a learning curve and like even when I went up for the first time up on the edge and stuff I went up there with
Speaker A
mayhem and he was literally he box jumped the entire entire course in four jumps. So, I was up there with him and I go, "Huh, I won't be doing this." And then I just like kind of walk through it and
Speaker A
whatnot. And then lo and behold, like that was my event. I'm like, exactly like what you're saying, but now suspended 30 ft in the air. And I take the harness off and I'm like, and everybody's like, "You should be a
Speaker A
gladiator. You should." I'm like, "Have you ever been on top of a roof? That's only 10 feet." My guy, we're four times higher than that. And let me also say, let me say with the show too, it's obviously the net is there for safety,
Speaker A
but I think because I'm watching this stuff, I'm watching this for the first time with everyone else is watching this too and I'm like, man, the way that that's filmed like they do the best like man people don't understand how scary it
Speaker A
is up there cuz like oh there's a net and you see it like it doesn't but like when you're 30t brother when you see the audience and they're you know 20 feet below you like this is crazy. you you can't see
Speaker A
the net cuz it's black. Yeah, you can't see it. So, you're looking down at a floor that's like 30 ft down. It's And the thing is moving.
Speaker A
So, and then you So, all that aside, still doing it for the first time ever.
Speaker A
And then Michael goes and rips off what he does. So, I'm just like, "All right, well, whatever I was doing doesn't work, so go for broke." And that's when you know more TV, which is what you were saying, there's a couple moments in
Speaker A
there that the most beautiful thing about this is there's raw athleticism that's being captured at literally every single angle. And I appreciate baseball, I appreciate football, wrestling, everything because I've been able to dabble in it just in an amateur level,
Speaker A
right? But not like this. So hopefully there's things that get elicited from the the casual viewer. I love the fact that kids are so wrapped up into it because that's at the end of the day. We we kind of spoke about it before we like
Speaker A
kids are it. Yeah. That's the future. It's like how can we help shape them and put them in the best vehicle to succeed in life cuz life's hard enough. So like if you have some sort of uh health issue
Speaker A
when it especially comes just like food choices or or what granted we're going down a different rabbit hole, but it's like that is what inspired all of us to start even lifting the first weight we did and then like hey how do I get more muscle?
Speaker A
Okay, keep eating. Make sure you're sleeping right. Go to these competitions. And then you kind of find your groove. Um, and there's a lot of riff raff out there, which is probably why you have this podcast, too, to try
Speaker A
to shed light on things that do make sense and help people to the best of your ability, which is probably why you have the following that you do.
Speaker A
Hopefully, having us on here, like, there's going to be some younger kids that actually follow it too to listen to this. Um, we've gone on for long enough, but like that's at the end of the root of everything like helping the kids and
Speaker A
put them in the best position to succeed in this crazy crazy world. You know, the indoctrination that they're getting.
Speaker A
Not every kid, sorry, not every kid has a grows up with a dad like these guys, right?
Speaker A
I built Elite FTS in 1998, 27 years ago, with the aim to help educate as many people as I could in strength and conditioning. And the way to do that was to keep all the content complimentary.
Speaker A
The way that we've been able to do that since day one is by providing the best products possible to help your training program. If you can put the item in a gym bag or load plates on it, we have it
Speaker A
and it will work. Everything from SS yolk bars to American press bars, bands. We also have a strength equipment specialist staff that helps outfit home gyms, sport training centers, colleges that have over three decades of experience and also have spent a lot of
Speaker A
time working as coaches. So, they understand the flow of the weight room and how things actually get done. If you're serious about your training and you want to up your game and support the podcast and all the content that we
Speaker A
provide, head over to eliteft fts.com and use the code table talk at checkout to receive 10% off your orders, which your kids are so blessed. But for the kid that's got the single mom at home that doesn't have a male figure,
Speaker A
you know, for one of us to capture them and for him to go, I want to be like him. And for that to be the building block for he starts making good choices, not because he has a man at home to teach him that, but
Speaker A
because he saw one of us on TV and went, "Okay, I want to work out. I want to be healthy. I want to eat good. I want to well what is aspirational because everybody that I've spoken to in any of
Speaker A
the strength sport side of things will say the same thing it was you know Conan it was you know muscle fitness it was flex it was American gladiators you know so do you guys remember Zena warrior princess cuz I was going to say the women are
Speaker A
just as top tier too and I'm not trying to cuz I remember watching Zena too I'm like women can look like that like this is pretty gnarly like and I was a fan of too. I'm like, well, how do we somehow
Speaker A
for course ourselves to be able to court somebody like that? Like, okay, well, if Conan and all these other guys that you're saying can do that, then we can too. And because the females like do an outstanding job of it, too, and they're
Speaker A
beautiful and they're powerful. And one one of the quick videos, I'll make this super quick, like a doctor was talking about his I think his daughter was five and seven or four and seven, and they were watching it for the first time because obviously
Speaker A
the dad watched it way back when and one of the daughters was just like, man, like how do I get like that? like, "How do I become that?" Well, and he's just like, "Well, to become strong and powerful, you need to eat. You need to
Speaker A
sleep. You need to continue like training your whole life." And she goes, "All right, let's let's do that." And telling her dad that and it's giving me the chills now because that's you you can't put a price tag on that,
Speaker A
you know? And I've been faced with somebody that I've wrestled against that literally started professional wrestling because they saw me years ago as well, right? It's a surreal feeling when somebody tells you that to your face because you almost you're almost taken
Speaker A
back because like you're just trying to live your life and get through the daily struggles and yeah, you're adding all these accolades throughout life and you know just compounding interest with what you've done for your body which obviously you know like you're not the
Speaker A
same person as you were a couple years ago. You're trying to be the best version of yourself right now. So for them to tell you that and give you that boost, they almost give you just as much back when they say that as what you
Speaker A
might have given them when they first originally started out. And with this show and this platform on Prime Video, it's it's just a whole new ball game.
Speaker A
Well, it's it's I think it's bigger than what you guys realize because in I started the company in 1998, right? And the aim of the company is to live, learn, pass on. Right?
Speaker A
And the reason for that is because all the knowledge that I learned to become a better powerlifter, nobody ever charged me for, right? They were, you know, meattheads in the gym helping me out, showing me how to do these all the all
Speaker A
these things to be able to pass that on. And when we live in this digital world and the company started, you know, it was a mail order, but then it was online when and if it's TV or if it's the
Speaker A
platform that you guys are on, you don't know the difference that you make, right? Because you don't hear it, right?
Speaker A
So let's let's say you're a YouTuber for the most part or all these when I had people writing articles and all these other type of it's just you're just digitally putting content out putting content out you know trying to help
Speaker A
people the best that you can and most of what you see in the internet world is not going to be great right it's 50/50 but you're going to see the 10% that's really bad and overexaggerate all that but you don't
Speaker A
you don't see the accolades because people aren't coming up saying thank you and all this other kind of stuff but that digital footprint is impacted ing far more people than anybody ever realized, right? And that's that's that's a key takeaway because you might
Speaker A
have one person that comes up and says what the story that you said, but it actually may be a thousand.
Speaker A
Yeah. Right. But they're not going to say anything. Yeah. and and and when you're in a digital environment, it's tough, man.
Speaker A
Because I've had people that were sponsored athletes and so forth that were under the banner of the company and then they'll leave and then they'll go be a high school strength coach or something like that. And the first thing
Speaker A
that they tell me is this is the most amazing thing in the world because the kids are like, "Thank you, thank you coach. Thank you coach. Thank you coach." All this other stuff. You put stuff online, you make a video, they're
Speaker A
you're not getting thank you for making this video. It just doesn't happen, right? because the silent majority who do appreciate it on they're not going to say anything and that just has to be known. You have to have the faith that
Speaker A
that is trickling down and having that impact and the way that you have that faith is just look at your own story.
Speaker A
Look at why you were inspired, right? You didn't thank Conan. You didn't I would have if I could.
Speaker A
I No, I did. I mean, once I made this realization 30 years ago, I did go back and thank the high school coaches that made a big difference in my life. And the most profound thing about that experience with those three people, they
Speaker A
had no idea. Yeah. None. They had nobody else ever tell them either, right? And it's like, man, that's you made a I know it wasn't just me.
Speaker A
Yeah. You know, it made a difference in all these other people. But if we don't have the faith that we're actually making that difference, but let that criticism and all the other stuff like when your vein was popping out of your neck
Speaker A
talking about the people that don't understand, you know, the gladiators from He's right though. You're right. They're the most vocal.
Speaker A
Yeah. So, the the the the silent majority are the ones that matter because those are the ones that you're changing. The vocal minority doesn't matter. Actually, they do because they give you engagement which shows it to more people. But you never asked my
Speaker A
question. So, I'm going to ask answer it. So, I'm going to ask him. What was his best moment on the show that when you were watching it?
Speaker A
Two. Well, you guys I don't think you've seen the '9s little reel that we did, but he t two eggs.
Speaker A
Oh, yeah. That's not public. But the other one is when I don't know what event you two got done with, but this guy's got the toughest tough guy act of tough tough tough guys.
Speaker A
The wall. It was the wall. And out of nowhere, they're like hooping and hollering. Do one of these uh kisses and you pick him up and walk away and you're already dying laughing. I'm like, "That's it." Is I couldn't hold myself
Speaker A
in the back. I'm dying laughing. Like you came back. You're like, "Oh, there goes my tough guy act." Like I was like, "Oh my." Cuz these two I mean it's just it's magic like and he brings the best
Speaker A
out of him and like the camaraderie that we have it definitely gets showcased and there's a lot of fun stuff and like it like you were saying it everybody brings the best out of out of each other and
Speaker A
it's So what was his best? Ah it's the stuff they didn't see man. It's the No, I went the stuff that's there. Okay.
Speaker A
I think it was it was the it was the big moments cuz you cut one moment you No, I'm saying like the edge the edge the diving tactics because knowing because the main reason is because uh I can't remember exactly. Did you get just
Speaker A
absolutely destroyed on the edge at one? Well, Michael. Yeah. So, every time Well, and I wasn't getting reset. So, running back and forth like a That was your first time doing it, right?
Speaker A
What's going on here? So watching this live, yeah, I mean, I think that's that's what people don't understand. There's so much more to it. They're just watching like, "Oh, next, you know, episode, okay, whatever, whatever." But they're not
Speaker A
they don't grasp like the I I know, dude, when you experience like humiliating suck, you got one chance at redemption. If that happened again, and I know like you would never let that happen again because it killed you
Speaker A
probably. So watching him the second time he does it and the guy scored I can't remember if he scored once or twice or something and he just freaking go for it and just diving tackle and everyone's just like a
Speaker A
you know what I mean with the redemption and I think it was um was it the rings too it was the same thing but there's just there's just so much that people don't see that so when they see it like oh
Speaker A
that's pretty cool but like when we saw it happen live and We know everything behind the scenes and like just everything that's going on to see that a tear. That was a tear. It's just like it's just such a huge win.
Speaker A
Um obviously it's not just like OH THE GLADIATORS WIN. IT'S LIKE NO it's a huge win. Not even for Steel but for freaking Jesse. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker A
Yeah. Huge. Like Yeah. And I think you're right. I think he needs a tissue.
Speaker A
He's he's a he's a phenomenal storyteller. I appreciate So what was his best Um, I think for that one, it's another one. It's the stuff that I really liked the most was the stuff that they uh for whatever one
Speaker A
way or another. I don't know. They just didn't I think they just didn't want us to shine so much.
Speaker A
His entrance was gangster, too. Well, the entrance was cool. See how great that came out to be knowing how scary that all was. God.
Speaker A
Yeah. But you couldn't even tell. But, uh, I think it was after the joust. I think he caught a great pro like a really good heartfelt promo.
Speaker A
That was it. Which unfortunately I don't I think what what's this entrance story? Was he Yeah. So that's where he suspended from like the ceiling or walking down the wall.
Speaker A
Yeah. And like they had a they had a they were you just had one test run, right? Like oh let's try it out. It's just like And even at ONE POINT LIKE WHOA WHOA WHOA LIKE WHEN YOU WERE LIKE
Speaker A
YEAH. CUZ you're you're on the top of the rock wall and then you go completely horizontal. So if anything goes wrong, god forbid in one 270 lbs.
Speaker A
The rope went and he's watching everybody's yelling. The little guy that's on the other side probably weighs a buck 10.
Speaker A
But honestly feeding. So the best. So these are all just little moments, you know, cuz it's again it was just such a big experience that I feel like I wish the audience could truly grasp it. And I think that's the
Speaker A
reason that like WWE does their like behind the whatever it's called Unreal, whatever it is. I don't know. But like where cuz they it gives the people it opens the curtain and cuz that's where the real magic is. Obviously the show's
Speaker A
great but to see what goes into it and unlike WWE it's all scripted and stuff whatever like this is like legit like hey man you might get embarrassed and you might get embarrassed again and then you'll probably not come back and you're
Speaker A
going to embarrass your family. You know what I mean? So there's so much like it's very high stakes. So, I think for Fang, I think probably the biggest thing would have been um I think probably would have been the wall. Going off what
Speaker A
you said earlier to Dave, like when you first with that day one you had to climb the wall just lightning shooting through your arm and whatnot that when we both did that together because obviously pulling stuff at the time like it was
Speaker A
not great. You know what I mean? Like when I was at the gym I was just doing like you know light curls and whatnot, don't get hurt, whatever. Um, but for him to for us to both just pull
Speaker A
the guys like to win that thing, you know what I mean? Because it was uh you wouldn't know why, but there's more that goes into it is just in the pressure that was on it.
Speaker A
Yeah. No, it's it's it's this is all interesting for me to hear because, you know, I never watched the show before and I watched it just podcast and stuff. I I just didn't give a [ __ ] Um I had powerlifting to do.
Speaker A
Watch. I mean, you were older at the time. You missed out on that. Yeah, I was I was probably too old, you know, out of that little bubble, whatever it was.
Speaker A
89 to like 94. Yeah. And but I kind of watched it like twice, you know, now after hearing what I'm hearing, I want to go back and watch certain scenes again because there's context.
Speaker A
I didn't know, right? Like I didn't know that was all trashed. Like that makes the story way different, right? It's It's kind of interesting because they don't show the background of the Gladiators. And I get it. You don't You don't want That's bad TV. You
Speaker A
don't want to do that, right? You got to have that mystery type of thing there, you know, but it would be cool, you know, if it was like an extra or whatever it's going to be feature or whatever.
Speaker A
Yeah. From that cuz it's maybe not cuz I'm thinking through my head. No, that's dumb. Dave, they want you behind it.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. The human behind the gladiator. Yeah. But they you kind of want the person to form whatever opinion they true they crazy psych the dynamic of the show is just it's it's it's crazy that there was such success back then and
Speaker A
that it's being mirrored now which is what we hoped for right but the energy the life that gets brought into it because of um the Miz and and Chris Rose and um Roxy is it's the reason why like
Speaker A
that's filling in all the gaps you know other than when he's yelling and screaming and doing his awesome song.
Speaker A
No, I mean they did a great job because if it if I wanted to hate your character Yeah.
Speaker A
I could. Yeah. Really easy. Yeah. Right. Or if I wanted to like your character, I could.
Speaker A
Really? So, they're leaving it up to me. Yeah. Right. Which is what you kind of want to do because I'm sure you know people that watched it in the past, you guys had characters you liked and you had
Speaker A
characters you didn't like, right? And there's there's a reason for that, right? You want to let the audience form whatever that is. And if they had some behind the scenes, it's like, "Oh, man. He's 100%." Yeah.
Speaker A
He's got he's like a dad and he's got all these kids like Yeah. No, you're right. You're right.
Speaker A
It's like, I want to hate this guy, but I can't. Yeah. Say about that.
Speaker A
Well, no, just I just think we're in a day and age where people have access to such personal stuff and that's how people connect now.
Speaker A
Yeah. Well, I do feel like if they knew a little more about us personally, it would give them the opportunity to really attach on to us.
Speaker A
Well, they can. I guess I can. That's a good segue into the closing. How can people find you? We'll just go around.
Speaker A
It's on my Instagram. Mr. Spectacular. M R PC T- A L A R. In case they can't spell spectacular.
Speaker A
Spectacular. That underscore is tricky. Yeah. Well, because it's not a dash. Yeah, exactly. Mine's real wardrobe or you can type in Fang. Fang and find me that way. Um, that's good though, man. You just typed in Fang and it came up.
Speaker A
Yeah. So, you type in Fang. That's great. You got my Instagram. Um, and then Wednesday's AEW Dynamite, Saturdays, AEW Collision. It's on TNT, TBS, Ulu Prime, along with Gladiators being on Prime.
Speaker A
That's where I'm at. Yeah. I mean, social media stuff is uh I mean, freaking frick, man.
Speaker A
Freaking frick. Not the double frick. I mean, YouTube search Eric Buggenhagen. Thick as frick.
Speaker A
Yeah, thick as frick. Thick as.com. Uh, you can type the bullet, I guess. I don't know. I did. I changed that as well. I am the bull.
Speaker A
Hyphen Eric. I don't even freaking know. I question think my handle's the same. I think it's Eric, but I am the bull. Do you own that character? Let's say there's no more seasons and you wanted to continue using
Speaker A
that. You can't use that? Nope. Nope. All of our merchandise is on Amazon.com. You can go and get it. Stuff like that, too. You can just search like Steel American Gladiators, the Bull American Gladiators, Fang American Gladiators, and like
Speaker A
Well, for some reason, you can't type in Fang American Gladiator. Yeah, but how long, let's say on your YouTube, right? If you say I'm the How long are you allowed to do that?
Speaker A
I'm not sure. I mean, that's why I'm happy. I'm happy to be the bull and people like why.
Speaker A
No, I get that, but I'm just thinking from a marketing standpoint, you want to leverage the best that you can personally, right?
Speaker A
Yeah. I didn't even think of that. Yeah. I'm sure you're have to formerly known as the cow or something. I mean, they don't care now.
Speaker A
The cow iron and tooth over here. The cow iron and tooth. Yeah. Any any final thoughts from you guys? Go watch the show all the way through multiple times. Prime Video, get those numbers up. Make sure you like it.
Speaker A
Yeah, let's get it to number one. Do you like stuff on Prime? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, you can thumbs up your Put it on your thumbs up.
Speaker A
Fingers crossed. Season two. The season finale. Watch it on my TV. So, smart TV when it comes to the TV.
Speaker A
Stream it on all your tablets and your phone 24/7. Did you watch the finale?
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. So, we were there live and then I went to that event the other night and watched it.
Speaker A
I was legitimately on the edge of my seat and I knew what like Yeah, dude. The finale is so Well, it's weird, man. The the ending's weird. I don't want to spoil it.
Speaker A
There's drama. Yeah, there's drama. It's definitely But everything's real. That's the thing. That's a testament to the T like to the letter of the law when it came to the rules.
Speaker A
Mhm. Right. Not to give anything away, but it was there was a foreshadowing in the beginning and midway through the season as well, but I mean, wow, there was and now that I think about it, but keep in mind the World Series of the
Speaker A
game best of seven, a ball got lodged at the back of the um uh the warning track and got lodged under the fence and stopped the trajectory of the natural curvature of the ball once it hit and stuck. Nobody liked that, but that's
Speaker A
what happened. And you got to play it to the way it is. So, if you haven't watched it, there's a couple of juicy things in there to kind of sink your teeth into. Absolutely. And when we watched it, we're like, h, but it's
Speaker A
like, you know, it's weird, man. It's It's I didn't know what I didn't know how to feel about it for it made you feel. And it made you feel Oh, yeah. A couple ways.
Speaker A
Hey, I had to like process it. It's And I'm not just saying this [ __ ] to get people to go watch it. I mean, if anything, just go watch it all, but go watch the last one cuz like, dude, like
Speaker A
what what a finale, right? Well, if my first thought is like, is this scripted? Like, and that's what everyone Yeah, that's what that's the beauty of it.
Speaker A
Yeah, he's Yeah. And that's how sports are is. Well, the crazy thing about the scripted stuff too is when I was watching it cuz again, we've lived it, but when you watch it back like specifically the travelator, it almost
Speaker A
like we're telling you, you know, honest to God. Yeah. Honest to God, nothing is planned or scripted. So when you're watching this and like the women on the traveler and stuff and they have such a big lead and then they eat it and
Speaker A
then they eat it and then THEY EAT IT AND THE OTHER PERSON COMES. OH MY LIKE that's my seat.
Speaker A
Did you Did you try it? I Yeah. You didn't try it? I want to buy one for my house though cuz I would love to train that.
Speaker A
I thought it would have been cool to have the gladiators face off like Paris up and do the travelers.
Speaker A
I have no interest in doing that. Do you really have any interest in doing that?
Speaker A
Traveler. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah% all this stuff. But listen, that's the coolest part.
Speaker A
No, what a traveler. That looks like the most brutal part. 100%. I would know, man. This is like hill sprints.
Speaker A
Exactly. After you did all of that other stuff, I want to see how fast I can get up the net cuz that was always the thing that kicked people's ass.
Speaker A
Getting up the net and then the treadmill at the end because if I ever do have to do it, I already know what I'm going to do. So, what's at the net?
Speaker A
Yeah, he's not going to talk about it though. Yeah, but I'm not going to talk about it. So, I'm not going to give any trade secrets away. Like when Mayhem's like out there, well, you know, you got to
Speaker A
I'm just gonna pull a steel pipe out of his whack. I'll make myself a heel in this. Yeah.
Speaker A
No, no. I'm going to do it on the up and up. Speaking of mayhem, though, sorry, last thing. I know we were trying to rip uh I know we were trying to wrap up, but I'm kind of a reality TV junkie a little
Speaker A
bit. So, you're familiar? Yeah, I'm familiar with Mayhem, whose name is Fessie. How is it working with him? cuz he has kind of a reputation on the challenge. But I mean, I I think he's very entertaining. He's a beast.
Speaker A
So, I just wanted to know kind of like how was it like working with him? Is he kind of like does he put on like kind of a a facade or is he like just that's who he actually is?
Speaker A
I'll give my two cents and then you because I have a biased obviously and you guys are meeting him for the first time, I'm assuming.
Speaker A
So, first and foremost in reality television, don't trust anything that's on television. Like everybody's trying to be a gimmick. Exactly like what you were saying about Michael in any other reality television show. He would have be a standout star whether it's good or
Speaker A
bad and he's going to be brought back for the next however many seasons. I know because I have, right? Because I might not have won, but I became memorable and I continue to be a staple inside literally one of the the
Speaker A
best show in the summertime, Big Brother, for years. When it comes to Fessie, like he got put into a situation when it came to Big Brother and that wasn't those weren't his people, right? He played a game. He
Speaker A
played it the best way he could when it came to the challenge. like this dude is a freak athlete and he came in there knowing that he was a freak athlete because that's what he trained for his entire life and he just literally talked
Speaker A
about how confident he was and confidence and cocky kind of gets misconstrued but this dude is a unit you know as far as I'm concerned there was two units other than the AC inside the arena myself being one and Mayhem being
Speaker A
the other one but for him like again like we went up on the edge And this dude box jumped four times and he was on the other side like didn't even care.
Speaker A
This dude has been suspended. I don't know if it was between helicopters or on um semi-truckss with a net in between and that's how he competed or he actually did like some sort of joust and stuff. The dude was made for this.
Speaker A
Granted it helps that they're 200 lb or 160 whatever it is and he's throwing these guys around but he's been doing it. He's done slam ball, all these other things. Like everybody in their respected journey, you know, made their way to American
Speaker A
Gladiators and found their niche and and it's a thing of beauty. I was telling these guys and I'll put everybody over like I always do because I see it and I love when other people win too. Like I have no problem with it.
Speaker A
He got a bad rep over there when it comes to the challenge and whatnot. I would love to just knock people out. I never got a chance at the challenge. Not to make this about myself, but there's plenty of people that could have played
Speaker A
the challenge, right? But he went in there and now he's an American gladiator and he's being wrapped up with something that he's able to be appreciated.
Speaker A
All of us are in our own respected way. Like we found our home. We found our house. Like now we can flourish. We're getting the respect, you know, and the kudos and the flowers that we deserve to. And Miz,
Speaker A
too, like this dude is coming into his own. Not trying to make that about him, but this dude is like the Ryan Serest of today right now. And like that's what he's doing being as a trailblazer. But for for for Mayhem like this dude was
Speaker A
salivating and going over tape trying to figure out where he maybe lost a step one time and then just to make sure that it never happened again. I wouldn't I just in my mind be like well I only
Speaker A
tried apparently 98%. So now I have to go 106 and then maybe you know and that's how I kind of got through the edge and like you try to eliminate stuff. This dude was like rewinding, watching his own footwork like a NFL
Speaker A
football player cuz that's what he aspired to be and re-watched it, re-watched it, re-watched it, showed me, talked to me about it, broke it down. Like this dude was very calculated when he did stuff.
Speaker A
Um, that's my two cents on it. But I put and I'm just like, he's going to get smashed. Like any person that went up, I'm just like there's people that went up against him and that was the last
Speaker A
time they were on the show and that's how the cookie crumbled. But that that's my two cents.
Speaker A
He's a freak, man. He was a specimen. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what more, but I remember at the try out we were watching him Yeah. against the other guys that were like for wrestling type stuff. He was just [ __ ] killing them.
Speaker A
Yeah. But I didn't see anything else from him at that trial basically. No, I didn't.
Speaker A
And then once they once I saw they hired him, I I didn't know anything. I didn't watch the challenge or a big brother or anything like that. Uh but then just be going through all the events and stuff.
Speaker A
This guy's pretty athletic. and then seeing him just murder people on the show and then be like, "Oh, I didn't even know he was like a division one football player and stuff." So, I'm like, "Okay." Cuz I I've seen I think
Speaker A
when they announced it at first, you know, they announced all the Gladiators, a lot of the comments about him was like "Oh messy messy fessy messy.
Speaker A
I can't believe he's in like whatever." Cuz that's what he got painted. Yeah. Yeah. I was about to say messy fessy, but I was like, I don't know if I No, I've seen some of those comments.
Speaker A
Yeah. Oh, for sure. We all see the comments and what's I mean it's like okay what of these things is not like the other and if you put all of us up you know one by one by one they're
Speaker A
like okay he looks like a gladiator he looks like a gladiator. He had a chip on his shoulder because he didn't feel like he kind of fit in because he wasn't looking like all of us and then he had
Speaker A
something to prove and he had some settle like scores to settle and he just wanted to shut a lot of people up, right? But then so did Neon, so did the girls. Like everybody came in there with something to prove and like
Speaker A
unfortunately the the person on the other side of whatever platform or whatever uh uh event that we were on got the brunt end of it. So Well, that's the show.
Speaker A
Yeah. Um All right. I want to thank you guys for coming out. Thank you.
Speaker A
Right. It was It was a great time. Three-hour arm workout. Three hour podcast. Yeah, three-hour podcast. So, yeah, we're we're done.
Speaker A
Sorry. No, let let them guys I'm I'm not trying to button out the show.
Speaker A
I get too hyped about Fessie.
Topics:American Gladiatorseliteftsarm trainingcompetition seriesunscripted televisionathlete profilesD1 wrestlingBig Brotherphysical preparationsports entertainment
