International Gladiators 2

"International Gladiators 2" (IG2) was filmed in the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham during 1995 and was broadcast on ITV in 1996. Unlike "International Gladiators 1", this series featured six countries and around forty Gladiators.

Gladiators

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.

Australia

Delta

Real Name: Karen AlleyHeight: 5' 8"Weight: 136 lb

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 ByrnesHeight: 5' 9"Weight: 200 lb

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 SaundersHeight: 5' 7"Weight: 132 lb

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 McGawHeight: 6'2"Weight: 216 lbChest: 48"

Hammer, a professional rugby league 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 MachinHeight: 5'6"Weight: 123 lb

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 ReeveHeight: 6'5"Weight: 240 lbChest: 47"

The tallest of the Australian team, Tower was a keen surfer.

Vulcan

Real Name: John SeruHeight: 6' 3"Weight: 253 lbChest: 47"

Vulcan returned to the UK firstly in 1996 for the second 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)

Germany

Angel

Real Name: Verina StuweHeight: 5' 8"Weight: 139 lb

Flash

Real Name: Frank ScholzHeight: 6'3"Weight: 207 lbChest: 45"

Giant

Real Name: Martin SeizHeight: 6'3"Weight: 209 lbChest: 45"

Power

Real Name: Uschi TeplyHeight: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.

Russia

Astra

Real Name: Julia TarasenkoHeight: 6'2"Weight: 175 lb

Dynamite

Real Name: Vladimir TourtchinskyHeight: 5'10"Weight: 250 lbChest: 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 lb

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.Fact|date=February 2007

Titan

Real Name: Oleg Panferov Height: 6'3"Weight: 275 lbChest: 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.

South Africa

Delilah

Real Name: Louise BennettHeight: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 lbChest: 47"

Outside of Gladiators, Impi was a Zimbabwean born bodybuilder.

Sahara

Real Name: Christy SkoglundHeight: 6'2"Weight: 154 lb

Sahara featured heavily in IG2 trying her hand to a variety of events, albeit with relatively 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 DahmenHeight:6'00"Weight: 224 lbChest: 46"

United States

Hawk

Real Name: Lee RehermanHeight: 6' 4"Weight: 250 lbChest: 52 "

Ice

Real Name: Lori FetrickHeight: 5' 7"Weight: 140 lb

Jazz

Real Name: Victoria GayHeight: 5' 10"Weight: 180 lb

Sabre

Real Name: Lynn Red WilliamsHeight: 6' 2"Weight: 250 lbChest: 52"

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.

Contenders

Contenders: 18 Contenders

Female Contenders

*Janet Allen: UK
*Jackie Kinsella (Replacement for Janet Allen in Semi Final 1): UK
*Peggy Odita: USA
*Lourene Bevaart: 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 Everitt: UK
*Sean Clay: UK (Replacement for Mark Everitt in Semi-Final 1)
*Pat Czismazia: USA
*Andrew Halliday: Australia
*Shane Saltmarsh: Australia (Replacement for Andrew Halliday in the final event of 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)

eason Results

Bold indicates show winner

International Gladiators 2 Champions: Peggy Odita (USA) and Pat Csizmazia (USA)

¹ Replaced Andreas Sasse in after Andreas suffered a leg injury
² Replaced Janet Allen after Janet suffered a nasty injury to the elbow in "Gauntlet"
³ Standby for Mark Everitt
⁴ Replaced Elena Lebedenko after Elena picked up an ankle injury
⁵ Replaced Andrew Halliday after a shoulder injury in "Powerball" which was further aggravated in "Hang Tough"

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. South African Gladiators presenter Glenn Hicks also made a brief appearance during the Grand Final.

John Anderson (UK), Larry Thompson (US) and John Forsyth (Aus) refereed the series whilst Andrew Norgate (UK) was official timekeeper.

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.

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 from 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 domestic 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.

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.