…Siren and Wolf from American Gladiators.American Gladiators has been brought back to network television. The NBC reality game show gives contestants an opportunity to battle fierce Gladiators in events such as Joust, Power Ball, and the Gauntlet. The end of each show puts the two male and two female contestants through the Eliminator (an obstacle course) to decide the winner. The winning male and female go on, the losers go home. The final four contestants will compete this Sunday, February 17, at 7:00 PM EST on NBC to crown the male and female champions.
Siren and Wolf took some time out of their busy schedule to answer some questions about themselves and being American Gladiators.
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…Siren and Wolf from American Gladiators.
ReplyDeleteAmerican Gladiators has been brought back to network television. The NBC reality game show gives contestants an opportunity to battle fierce Gladiators in events such as Joust, Power Ball, and the Gauntlet. The end of each show puts the two male and two female contestants through the Eliminator (an obstacle course) to decide the winner. The winning male and female go on, the losers go home. The final four contestants will compete this Sunday, February 17, at 7:00 PM EST on NBC to crown the male and female champions.
Siren and Wolf took some time out of their busy schedule to answer some questions about themselves and being American Gladiators.
TwoCents: Hi. How are you both doing today?
Wolf: Great.
Siren: Great. Hi Jeff.
TwoCents: I’d like to know from both of you - How does it make you feel when a contestant talks excessive trash and then is able to back it up by winning the event against either of you?
Siren: Yeah, that doesn’t feel too good. What it does is gets you, not only you fired up for the next one that they’re in, it gets the team fired up. So if you weren’t able to rise above and kill them in one event, the rest of the team is like “I’m going to get her. Don’t worry about it.”
There were times when a couple contenders took some cheap shots or said some really ridiculous things. We’re nice people. We’re up for competition, but the trash talking and the cheap shots, that’s not our style.
So when that happened, it just fired us up even more for the next event to really get them. And I think that was to their disadvantage. I thought it was really cool that we backed each other up saying, “Did you hear? Did you see what that girl just did to Venom?”
And I’m like “I can’t wait to meet her in the next event.” I was more pumped up when they did things to my teammates.
Wolf: I was thinking the same thing. We are a family and we do have each other’s backs. So yeah, when you do see somebody doing something like that it does get under your skin and hurts you for the other person.
You know one of the girls was grabbing the [female Gladiator] in the Gauntlet by their necks and by their heads. We’re trying to play by the rules and she’s not.
Siren is a lot nicer than me. If some guy is going to come out and he’s going to start doing cheap shots like that - if he wants to trash talk that’s fine. I can trash talk with the best of them. If he wants to start doing cheap shots, if he wants to go that route the Wolf will go that route with him, and I will win.
TwoCents: We heard what Wolf was doing prior to American Gladiators (professional rodeo clown/bull fighter for 23 years, protecting bull riders). Siren, what were you doing before you became an American Gladiator? And what were both of your dream jobs growing up?
Siren: Well I was actually competing in the IFCB, which is the International Federation of Body Building as a professional figure competitor. I’ve been a pro for two and a half years. I won a couple pro shows and competed in the Arnold and the Olympia, and also was on fitness magazine covers like Oxygen and Flex, and Muscle and Fitness. And actually, a Flex Magazine editor gave my name to Gladiators and said, “You’ve got to call this girl. She’s totally a gladiator.” I think at least three of my contacts in the industry told Gladiators, “They have to audition you, they have to cast you.” So they called me and a week later I was in an audition. I said, “Are you serious? Gladiators are coming back? I can’t believe it. I loved this show. You’re asking me to try out? Oh heck yeah!" A week later I was in auditions and actually Wolf and I auditioned at the same place. We kind of went through the whole process together.
I’m also a motivational speaker. I speak in corporations on motivation, health and fitness as well as in schools with children. I continue to do that. It actually gives me even more of a platform to do motivational speaking because more people know who I am, especially the kids. So, they can look up to me as Siren, but then I can talk about how to take care of your body and how you go after goals.
Just to continue with your next question about what are my big dreams or what were they as a kid - My dream is to always grow, so this was a dream of mine because I always wanted to compete at the highest level possible in whatever kind of competition. To me, this is in TV, the highest level of competition. And for me to be a superhero character, that’s just a great blessing, a great opportunity. I want to use that to create a superhero character for kids that I’m developing so they can have a role model to look up to. I’m going to continue on with the dream.
Wolf: From the time I was seven, I wanted to grow up and be Elvis. I wanted to be a singer, an actor. I wanted to be able to affect the world. Elvis was a man that everybody in the world knew and still knows to this day. He did a lot of really cool things and took care of a lot of people. So I figured, get to that status, get to that level to where everybody knows you and then you can use that celebrity status in order to try to change the world and try to do things. So I’m working on a lot of stuff.
I’m eventually going to put an album out because I still love singing and I’m going to act. I’m going to do everything. I’m also into helping kids find themselves and not worry about being bullied and not worry about being different. I was a kid that was very small. I was short. I was thin and I was a tough kid because of that. I kind of had that short man syndrome for a while to where I would fight at the drop of a hat.
I learned a long time ago that if you just focus on your dreams and your goals and you live a better life, that’s the best revenge to get back at those people that have treated you or are treating you poorly, and to be better than them. I want to eventually help kids, and adults as well, to just find themselves and be happy, and be proud of who they are.
TwoCents: It really sounds like both of you have very similar goals for not only now but the future and it really looks like you both are on your way.
Siren: That’s right. We agree. We definitely bonded on the set and helped each other - showed each other kind of our own process - we shared some of the books that we were reading together that are motivational books and just our own process.
I actually write my goals down on note cards as well as motivational and affirmation type of passages that we use too. I wrote one for Wolf when he was going through a tough day. We use these things to help us stay positive because you’re on national television in front of millions of people. Although you can’t see them, you know that’s what’s going to happen when it airs.
You have to be on your A game all the time. There is no “poor me” or “I don’t feel like it right now,” or “I had a bad day.” You have to have a good day every day, and there’s no other way to do it but to power yourself up with positive affirmations, and to focus on your ultimate goals and purposes.
When I lost in the Joust that first time, I was really, really mad about it and you can ask him. He was backstage with me. I was swearing because you hate losing and it was my first time losing. But it helped me to realize, “Okay Valerie, it’s not about you. You’re not always going to win.” The show just has to be entertaining and it was.
You can use this and learn from it for the next event, for the rest of the tapings and use it to your advantage. Just remember, it’s not about you. You’re doing this to be a role model for kids and the show is going to be successful, so get over yourself. From that point forward, I just let it go and it was so much more fun and easier to compete.
Wolf: Sometimes it’s hard to get yourself up and it’s hard to keep yourself going. So it’s good to have a good support team or a good support system even if it’s not a whole team. Siren is my support. My wife is my support as well, but a lot of times I need that extra little jump start, so I’ll text message or I’ll call Siren and we’ve had a lot of talks.
Through training, through the show and even since then we try to keep in contact and if one of us is having a bad day we try to be there for each other, and help each other get through those rough areas where you are just so tired from traveling and so tired from everything that you’re just like “Oh, I just don’t know if I can do it anymore.” Or “My body is sore and everything.” You need to be able to have somebody else to help you get your head right. That’s just picking good friends.
TwoCents: Well thank you both for taking the time to answer my questions, elaborating on them and really sharing something about both of you and the way you think. Stay healthy and good luck.
Siren: Thank you.
Wolf: Thank you.
Siren: That’s a good question too, by the way. Thank you.
Many thanks to Siren and Wolf for taking time to share their TwoCents. Be sure to tune in to the season finale of American Gladiators this Sunday (Feb 17) on NBC at 7:00 PM EST.