NBC’s two hour premiere of American Gladiators aired last night and did not disappoint. Although the dialogue from Hulk Hogan, Laila Ali, and the contestants seemed overdone, the events completely made up for it and there was some really good head to head action during the course of the show.

The first thing that came to mind while watching the contest was how awesomely huge the Gladiators were. The guys in particular were not only muscled down to the toe, but were all physically gifted in height, speed, and agility. Standing an average of 6′3 and over 200 pounds (based on their stats aired last night), these guys were definitely not your average Joes.

The girls were also freakishly huge and unfortunately unattractive, but I guess thats what is to be expected from a show of this nature. Out of the six women, Siren and Crush were the better looking ones, while Helga reminded me of one of those German bartenders who would beat you up and spit you out if you even looked at her in the wrong way.

As for the arena events themselves, they all looked very promising. I was particularly happy about the fact that they brought back Assault and Hang Tough. Those were my two favorite events along with Atlasphere (not in the current event lineup) and they are still very exciting to watch. The new events called Earthquake and Pyramid also were entertaining, and hopefully some of these new contestants will come up with a strategy to conquer them because they definitely did not look easy.

The final event the Eliminator is back and better than ever. The contenders absolutely look exhausted after this event and it is definitely not a walk in the park as it seemed in the original show. The most exciting portion from last nights show occurred during the closing minutes of the first female Eliminator and I could not believe the outcome. This eliminator is truly a test of stamina and will power.

The show definitely had a promising start. If all the contestants are as exciting as the first five (one female had to be replaced) have been, this will definitely be added to my weekly television schedule.