International Gladiators 2
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International Gladiators 2 (IG2) was filmed in the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham during 1995 and was broadcast on ITV in 1996. Unlike the previous International Gladiators 1, this series featured six countries and around forty Gladiators.
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[edit] Gladiators
[edit] UK Gladiators
The entire team of UK Gladiators from the 1995 season appeared during the show with the exception of Amazon, Nightshade and Saracen who had all received injuries prior to this series. Nightshade did appear in some of the Time Out segments.
[edit] Australia
Delta
Real Name: Karen Alley Height: 5' 8 Weight: 136 lbs
One of the most popular Gladiators from the first Ashes series, Delta returned to the UK to appear in the second Ashes series in 1996. She later married a contender from the Australian series.
Flame
Real Name: Linda Byrnes Height: 5' 9 Weight: 161 lbs
Renowned in Australia for her undefeated reign on Duel, Flame finally met her match against contender Peggy Odita in the final. She held the IFBB Miss Australia Heavyweight title.
Fury
Real Name: Julie Saunders Height: 5' 7 Weight: 132 lbs
Like Delta, Fury also returned to the UK in 1996 for the second Ashes series. After Gladiators, Fury went on to become an actress having guest roles in The Bill and Holby City as well as marrying fellow Australian Gladiator Taipan.
Hammer
Real Name: Mark McGaw Height: 6'2 Weight: 216 lbs Chest: 48
Hammer, a professional rugby player, proved so popular with UK audiences that he became a team captain for one of the teams in the junior version of Gladiators 'Train II Win'.
Storm
Real Name: Charlene Machin Height: 5'6 Weight: 123 lbs
Outside of the arena, Storm was a professional karate player having played professional since 1983 and competed in both the Australian and World Karate Championships.
Tower
Real Name: Ron Reeve Height: 6'5 Weight: 240lbs Chest: 47
The tallest of the Australian team, Tower was a keen surfer.
Vulcan
Real Name: John Seru Height: 6' 3 Weight: 253 lbs Chest: 47
Vulcan returned to the UK firstly in 1996 for the secnd Ashes series, and then as a member of the UK team in 1998 after the Australian series finished. He went on to play a bit part in the James Bond film 'The world is not enough'. He now owns a wrestling school in Sydney.
Australian Gladiator Cougar (Ashley Buck) was due to appear in IG2 and even flew to the UK but had to pull out due to harassment allegations made against him in Australia (which were later proved false)
[edit] Germany
Angel
Real Name: Verina Stuwe Height: 5' 8 Weight: 139 lbs
Flash
Real Name: Frank Scholz Height: 6'3 Weight: 207 lbs Chest: 45
Giant
Real Name: Martin Seiz Height: 6'3 Weight: 209 lbs Chest: 45
Power
Real Name: Uschi Teply Height: Weight:
Power's statistics were not shown during IG2. She mainly played Gauntlet, but (despite her size) she did make an appearance on agility based event Skytrak.
[edit] Russia
Astra
Real Name: Julia Tarasenko Height: 6'2 Weight: 175 lbs
Dynamite
Real Name: Vladimir Tourtchinsky Height: 5'10 Weight: 250 lbs Chest: 52
A popular Gladiator from IG1, Dynamite also appeared in the Australia Vs Russia Gladiators mini series. His strengths lied in the combat events such as Duel and Suspension Bridge.
Lynx
Real Name: Julia Stefanovitch Height: 5'5 Weight: 150 lbs
Lynx was one of only two Interntaional Gladiators not to have a televised interview in IG2. Despite only a small role in IG2, she went on to have a major role in the Australia Vs Russia series. Lynx went on to compete in several bodybuilding championships and competed in the 1998 and 1999 IFBB World Amateur Championships (Middleweight) coming 2nd in 1998 and 1st in 1999. However, she was stripped of her title in 1999 as she tested positive in a drugs test.[citation needed]
Titan
Real Name: Oleg Panferov Height: 6'3 Weight: 275 lbs Chest: 51
Like the Russian contenders, the majority of Titan's interviews had to be translated. He also went on to appear in the Australia Vs Russia series.
[edit] South Africa
Deliliah
Real Name: Louise Bennett Height: Weight:
Delilah's statistics were never aired on IG2, nor did she have a televised interview, although she did feature in a Time Out segment. During IG2 she only played Powerball once and a few games of Gauntlet.
Impi
Real Name: Bible Mhizha Height: 5'8 Weight: 209 lbs Chest: 47
Outside of Gladiators, Impi was a Zimbabwian born bodybuilder.
Sahara
Real Name: Christy Skoglund Height: 6'2 Weight: 154 lbs
Sahara featured heavily in IG2 trying her hand to a variety of events, albeit with relativly no success. Despite this, she returned for the Sprinbok Challenge in 1997 and then went on to become one of the most popular Gladiators in the domestic South African series, ironically being the only South African Gladiator from IG2 to become a Gladiator in the domestic series.
Sahara was actually born in Sweden but grew up in Durban South Africa, and worked as a model (and at one point a bouncer) in the US before moving back to South Africa in 1998 (three years after IG2 was filmed). She died from a brain hemorrhage in 2001 aged 33 during a gym workout.
Samson
Real Name: Bob Dahmen Height:6'00 Weight: 224 lbs Chest: 46
[edit] United States
Hawk
Real Name: Lee Reherman Height: 6' 4 Weight: 250lbs Chest: 52
Ice
Real Name: Lori Fetrick Height: 5' 7 Weight: 140 lbs
Jazz
Real Name: Victoria Gay Height: 5' 10 Weight: 180 lbs
Sabre
Real Name: Lyn Red Williams Height: 6'2 Weight: 250 lbs Chest: 52
[edit] Events
The majority of the events pool from the 1995 series were used. Unlike the previous series, each event that appeared made at least two appearances.
The following events appeared during IG2: Atlaspheres, Duel, Eliminator, Gauntlet, Hang Tough, Pendulum, Pole-Axe, Powerball, Pyramid, Skytrak, Swingshot, Suspension Bridge, The Wall.
Like the previous series, Danger Zone and Tilt did not appear, with the latter most likely not appearing due to Nightshade's injury in that event during the 1995 domestic season. Pursuit, Hit & Run and Joust did not appear despite appearing in IG1. Whiplash, which debuted in the 1995 season, also did not appear.
[edit] Contenders
Contenders: 18 Contenders
Female Contenders
- Janet Allen: UK
- Jackie Kinsella (Replacement for Janet Allen in Semi Final 1): UK
- Peggy Odita: USA
- Lourene Bevvart: Australia
- Ludmila Machenko: Russia (Replacement for Elena Lebadenka in Semi Final 2)
- Elena Lebadenka: Russia
- Leanne Lievenberg: South Africa
- Miriam Leutsch: Germany
- Claudia Lederer: Germany
Male Contenders
- Mark Everett: UK
- Sean Clay: UK (Replacement for Mark Everett in Semi Final 1)
- Pat Czismazia: USA
- Andrew Halliday: Australia
- Shane Saltmarsh: Australia (Replacement for Andrew Halliday in the Grand Final)
- Alexander Voltsov: Russia
- Yuri Volkov: Russia
- Prince Sunny: South Africa
- Peter Britts: South Africa
- Andreas Sasse: Germany
- Dennis Galli: Germany (Replacement for Andreas Sasse in Heat 2)
[edit] Hosts
Ulrika Jonsson from the British series, Mike Adamle from the American series and Kimberley Joseph from the Australian hosted the series whilst John Sachs provided commentary for the shows broadcast in the UK.
John Anderson (UK), Larry Thompson (US) and John Forsythe (Aus) refereed the series whilst Andrew Norgate (UK) was a timekeeper.
[edit] Format
The series comprised of seven episodes- 4 heats, 2 semi finals and a final. The fourth heat saw contenders from the losing countries from the first three heats face each other.
During the heats, Gladiators could not participate during a show if they were of the same nationality as one of the competing contenders. The only exception to this was in Gauntlet when five Gladiators of five different nationalities were needed. This was to reduce any of the alleged match fixing from IG1 when Gladiators faced contenders from their own countries.
[edit] Controversies and criticism
Despite having better production and a more impressive roster of countries than International Gladiators 1, the show did receive some criticism.
Some viewers and critics felt that there were too many Gladiators many of whom did not receive much screen time. The performances of the German, Russian and South African Gladiators and contenders were rather poor in comparison to the American, Australian and UK teams, with some of the matches becoming foregone conclusions.
The two UK champions form 1995 left the competition due to illness and injury, and instead of being replaced by the 1995 runners up were replaced by contenders who did not make it past the Quarter Finals in the domsetic series. With the exit of both of the UK's representatives in the first semi final, interest and viewing figures fell despite an increased presence of UK Gladiators in the final shows.
What was never revealed at the time of its original airing was that Russia, Germany and South Africa did not have their own series of Gladiators, thus resulting in their lacklustre performances.
Although this was not alluded to (in Heat 2, commentator John Sachs defends South African Gladiator Impi's poor performance in Hang Tough by stating that "they didn't play this event much in South Africa"), it was often hinted at during interviews with both Gladiators and contenders.
[edit] Further series
A third series of International Gladiators was planned to be filmed in Australia. However by this time the American series had already finished and shortly after the Australian series ceased production. A second Ashes series was filmed in the UK between the UK and Australian team.
In addition, despite them still never having filmed a domestic series, Russia took on Australia in a 3 part series. Lynx, Dynamite and Titan from IG2 competed alongside "new" Gladiators Comet (female), Viking and Goliath (both male). Astra from IG2 did not appear.
The UK faced South Africa again in 1997 in a series dubbed "The Springbok Challenge" despite them still not having a domestic team. Of the ten South African Gladiators from this series, only Sahara had appeared during IG2. Following this mini series, South Africa finally got their own domestic series.
