Whenever I interview someone for Muscle Service, I love to hear where everyone’s fascination with muscles, bodybuilders, porn, and muscular handsome men came from. And we have heard everything from fictional characters like Jason the Red Power Ranger, TV heartthrobs like Joey Lawrence and John Stamos to fitness magazine covers like that of Muscular Development and FLEX. And while I have already provided a personal telling of where my obsession started I regret having missed talking about a show that had hot men flex their muscles in campy uniforms all in the name of sport and competition. I am not talking about football, but the one and only: American Gladiators.

To me, American Gladiators (AG) represented the all-American depiction of an alpha male. I mean, the American part is in the title, and the Gladiator part represents the iconic alpha male, built like a god on Earth. For the most part, the men that were cast towered over 6 feet with impressive biceps, shoulders, legs, glutes, and pecs that I could worship for ages.

I remember watching AG, for two reasons. One, I do like competition. I am not a sports fan so you will not catch me at a sports bar shouting at the screen, but I do love competition in gaming. American Gladiators was campy enough to entertain this curious gay boy. While it was a fun weekend show to enjoy during the 90s era which was full of alpha male American patriotism, you know I loved seeing the muscular men display their athleticism and muscular feats. Now I can’t sit and remember who my favorite one was, but taking a look at all these images of the men in the show makes me feel a certain happy way.

These men, with rippling muscles and chiseled frames, personified strength and power kept me entertained, always wanting another episode of AG. I want to believe that the show's portrayal of physically dominant male gladiators contributed to the rise of the popularity of bodybuilding and bodybuilders in pop culture. I would bet this would eventually lead to the popularity of muscle and bodybuilders in gay porn, which I hope would make a resurgence sometime soon.

In 2008, the show got revamped and while I caught a few episodes, I did not watch most of the series.

It may have been a weird coincidence, whether or not I organically came across recent memories of AG or I saw an ad for it which subconsciously brought me to old sexy memories. But in writing this article I came to find out that the docuseries 30 for 30 from ESPN is hosting a 2-hour and 48-minute documentary on the show. Released Tuesday, May 30 on ESPN, the documentary is available on ESPN+.

Coincidently, Netflix will be releasing an unauthorized documentary on the series. Premiering on June 28th, you know I will be tuning in to ‘Muscles and Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators’

Most likely, this will definitely lead me to watch other types of videos with muscular men sweating in it. Did you like American Gladiators when it aired? If so, who were your favorite athletes?

Author’s note: All images were taken from various sites covering the show and previous participants.