Gladiators 2000 - actually available somewhere other than VHS Youtube rips

 DOWNSIDES: INCOMPLETE AND NEEDS $

Amazon has a select bunch of episodes of the often forgotten American Gladiators spinoff featuring a pre Wheel of Fortune (and pre Idol) Ryan Seacrest that also was bogged down with E/I stuff as it aired on Saturday mornings.

 Now the way they have it listed on those pages over on Amazon Video, it would seem they have the full series, but not every episode is there, and like I said... it will cost money ($1.99+tax per episode in the states) 

 This spinoff, which is definitely not trying to ride the glowing coattails of GUTS, ran parallel to AG's 6th and 7th seasons (Gladiators 2000's first season had Nitro, who rejoined the Gladiator lineup in season 6) had some fan favorite events that would be kid safe, including:

• The Wall
• Snapback (as Bones, where you pass magnetic bone pieces to your teammate then that teammate places said piece on (hopefully) the right place AND orientation on a display of the human body
• The Pyramid (turned into, for obvious E/I reasons, the Food Pyramid)
• Swingshot (again, totally not taking cues from GUTS with the elastic/bungee events)
• Assault (kids at the tennis ball cannon)
• And just like American Gladiators, it always ends with a (albeit kid-friendly) Eliminator

We do get get the Gladiators acting (for the sake of teaching the E/I lessons of the day) and bonus questions on said lessons after each of the 2 main-game events (1 per team each event) as well as 4 more DURING the Eliminator run, with each question being 25 points each. 

Speaking of GUTS parallels, in the Mo spot, we have Season 5 AG Grand Champion Peggy Odita (whew, someone who actually knows about sports, competition, and the AG format...) acting as head referee for Gladiators 2000.   Guess Larry Thompson need his rest while the kids took Gladiator Arena. 

 Oh, and the Gladiators themselves?  They're coaching and encouraging the kids instead of being antagonistic like they'd be with grown up contenders on regular AG.

 Final words: I kinda find Ryan's first-season cohost Maria Sansone (yes, Sansone... not Samson) cute, in a puppy-love sorta way, However, had the show not been hit with the E/I mandate, Gladiators 2000 coulda picked up the kids sports competition torch where GUTS left off, post Global GUTS season.  Instead, it suffers the same symptoms of too much educational fluff Wheel 2000 suffered later on that decade.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B00C15HYUG/ here's the link to the first "season" listing on Amazon Prime Video