The announcement that the BBC is bringing back Gladiators has us feeling nostalgic. With its lycra-clad lookers, computer graphics and tubthumping soundtrack, the competitive sports show was peak 90s entertainment. In the true spirit of the 90s, it was also incredibly and blatantly unsafe – as demonstrated by numerous injuries over the years.
As a result – and definitely not in place of doing actual work – we’ve been trawling through YouTube footage for some of the original’s most unsafe events. Here are the four Gladiators events we’ve picked out that we think you couldn’t get away with today – and some wonderfully low-res footage to demonstrate why.
Suspension Bridge
Light entertainment shows today have fewer beatings than they used to. Nothing perhaps epitomised the actual gladiatorial inspirations behind Gladiators as much as Suspension Bridge, a game where the object was to beat your opponent into submission. The contestant would be tasked with crossing a bridge, but this involved getting past the gladiator in front of them.
Each competitor had a padded ‘hammerhead’ weapon, and would proceed to batter the other person as a means of knocking them to the ground or off the bridge, before dashing for the platform beyond them. More so than Duel – another famous event – there was no separation distance between the competitors, so both could simply hit each other wherever they liked, and as much as possible, in order to win the round.
Suspension Bridge perhaps lacked the drama and visual appeal of Duel, but posed an extra risk, both because of the full-on nature of the fights, and the fact that it was much rarer for it to end in a draw. Someone almost always got knocked off the bridge onto the crash mats, and knowing how helpful those crash mats could be (i.e. not very), it was a miracle no-one was seriously injured.
Pole-Axe
One of the scariest sounding events in Gladiators was also one of the most dangerous. In Pole-Axe, the competitors each climbed a thick metal pole with a helix of pegs around the outside. Whoever reached the top first would press a button which would retract the pegs on the opponent’s pole, causing them to suddenly plunge to the ground.
If the safety aspect of this wasn’t immediately obvious, you can also throw in the fact that the pole was rotating the entire time. If your pegs retracted, you would suddenly be in freefall, potentially falling at an awkward angle. If you simply slipped and fell, you might end up ploughing into metal pegs and bouncing off at an even worse one.
Pole-Axe never caused any dramatic injuries on the show in the way some other events did, but it was a frequent cause of minor injuries for contestants and gladiators. Gladiator Zodiac would only make two appearances in series five due to an injury suffered while training on Pole-Axe, and would retire the following year. The event was withdrawn for a year following this and brought back with safety harnesses, before being put out to pasture in 1998.
Tilt
You should never wait for injuries to declare something unsafe, but they certainly prove a point. One of the most notorious injuries happened on one of Gladiators’ most infamous stages: Tilt. A health and safety nightmare from the get-go, Tilt involved the gladiator and contestant conducting a tug of war on raised, tilting stages. The gladiator was slightly higher than the contestant, giving them an apparent advantage.
The gladiators famously hated this stage due to the propensity for injuries, both to them and the contestants. The tilting platforms made it easy to fall awkwardly, and the gladiators’ platform being so much higher meant they had farther to fall. The tug of war element also meant that someone releasing the rope as the other person was pulling hard would launch them off the platform, again raising the risk of injuries.
Tilt was responsible for two of the most infamous injuries on the show. Gladiator Panther was the first, sliding forwards off the platform and landing doubled over, seriously injuring her back and neck. Panther recovered after five gruelling months and continued to compete, before retiring to open a fashion shop two years later.
Unfortunately, there would be one more traumatic injury before the event was shelved completely. In its final ever appearance, gladiator Nightshade suffered a serious injury when her fallen opponent’s rope went slack, and she was tipped backwards off the platform, landing heavily on her neck. She recovered to appear later in the series, but retired soon after, and the event was retired with her.
Pyramid
Mention Gladiators to anyone old enough to have watched it, and you’ll get two names back: Wolf and Jet. While professional wind-up merchant Wolf stole the show, Jet was perhaps more notable for bucking 90s beauty standards. At a time when ‘heroin chic’ was in and catwalk models were rail thin, Jet became famous for her incredible physique – something that would go on to save her life.
While always a fierce competitor, Jet would normally play it safe on the riskier rounds, preferring to knock people off high obstacles rather than grapple with them. On one fateful occasion in 1996, however, she went for it. Grappling with a contestant on the steps of the giant Pyramid stage – only a little smaller than the Glastonbury one – both hurtled to the crash mats below, with Jet unable to stop herself from landing on her head.
The near vertical fall compressed her spinal cord, but thanks to her extreme fitness and flexibility, she didn’t break her neck. Had the contestant landed similarly, they might have suffered a ‘hangman’s fracture’, with paralysis or death a likely outcome. The performance at Wembley Stadium was Jet’s last, as she retired from the show – thankfully with her health intact.
The Pyramid wasn’t just risky for 2022, it was risky for the time. Following the accident, the event was pulled until the following year, where the steps were reduced in size, and any contestant reaching the upper echelons could no longer be tackled. These necessary safety changes failed to thrill crowds, and the reworked event was scrapped after just a single series.
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Rebooting Gladiators presents an interesting challenge in terms of spectacle, and how to make something seem dangerous and high-stakes without actually putting people at risk. Part of the joy of Gladiators (and similar shows like Takeshi’s Castle) was the pratfalls and collisions, and shows such as Wipeout and Ninja Warrior don’t quite scratch the same itch.
Can Gladiators work in today’s world? We’ll find out when the new show launches next year. But in a world dominated by 80s and 90s nostalgia, and at a time when we’re all looking for comfort viewing, it has the potential to be another mega hit. Let’s just make sure nobody has to sacrifice their health this time to do it.
Got an idea for another classic we could review for its dodgy health & safety policies? Get in touch – we’d love to hear from you!