By Steven Luker
The Story of the American Gladiators
Recently ESPN did a 30 for 30 on the American Gladiators and it was the history of the show and the whole American Gladiators and how it all started from back then.
The people they didn’t have for the 30 for 30 are Turbo (Galen Tomlinson), Sabre (Lynn Williams), Siren (Shelley Beattie) and Hawk (Lee Reherman). These are some of the people who didn’t take part of the 30 for 30 this is according to a write up from fanbuzz.com.
The list of the people that are on the 30 for 30 are Johnny Ferraro, Deron McBee (‘Malibu’), Michael Horton (‘Gemini’), Lynn ‘Red’ Williams (‘Sabre’), William Billy Smith (‘Thunder’) and finally and Salina Bartunek (‘Elektra’). These are all the people that took part in this 30 for 30.
The 30 for 30 is based on the history and what was the American Gladiators and was told by many of the Gladiators and Johnny Ferraro himself. Let’s talk first about who Johnny Ferraro is. He was an Elvis impersonator and one of the people that started American Gladiators.
In the second part we got introduced to Dann Carr the other co-founder of American Gladiators and how Johnny ran with the idea and made a contract that stated Johnny was the original creator. In the credits of the tv show if you didn’t know it only stated Johnny Ferraro as the creator the documentary highlights.
The reason we didn’t see Turbo,Sabre,Siren and Hawk was not in it. They had issues probably with Johnny and they didn’t want to talk about or nor did they get an invite but you will hear messages from them left on let say a answering machine of some sort.
The people they had that were on the 30 for 30 shared their story and their working environment. As you heard that during the show the Gladiators had to do their assigned game injured and some of the cast reported that if they didn’t show up or participate they might be axed and not be on the show. So they felt not safe and couldn’t also see their family it seems like.
During the 30 for 30 you each of the people tell their story about the show and Johnny Ferraro as well and his mother in part 2 and when you looked at Johnny Ferraro setting it was like in a living room projected behind him and he was the only one that had a backdrop in his interview.
The other people during it had either their house or be outside for the interview. You might be wondering how William Billy Smith (Thunder) was in it and it was 2023. It looks like it was filmed in 2021 or 2020 before William Billy Smith (Thunder) passed away.
The stories they told became some of the most interesting things that happened during the show. Another thing you will hear is about how towards the end of the show airing for the first time you hear some of the Gladiators did steroids to stay healthy. The next question people might ask is whether it is worth watching. The answer is yes it is worth watching if you like learning about the history of the American Gladiators and learn what really happened with the show and learn the history of it.
Another thing is that the show gives you a couple of scenes of Florida and a revamp of it with Hulk Hogan with it. There another thing about the show is that American Gladiators is that is the show was a syndication show so people can watch it on any channel that the show was on. Overall to me it was a great documentary. Let me know your thoughts on it. Did you like it or did you not like it?
https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2016/07/01/american-gladiators-now-and-then#