PWTorch.com reader Clay Marshall sent the following report from the NBC "American Gladiator" taping starring Hulk Hogan as host which too place Saturday night, Dec. 1 in Culver City, Calif.

Much to my surprise, they didn't film the show as it will air. Instead of a series of events, from the time I arrived until the time I left, all I got to see was three hours of "The Joust." (It's now on platforms above a swimming pool, if you care. It reminded me of "Fear Factor," or some other NBC reality show I can't place.) The male gladiator we saw was called Titan (not the same as the old Titan - this was Mike O'Hearn, the guy who cracks his neck in the commercial), and we saw two female gladiators named Siren and Venom.

Hulk Hogan [artist Grant Gould (c) PWTorch]

About 90 minutes after we were led into the "arena" (in truth, a Sony soundstage), Hulk Hogan returned from lunch with Nick and Brooke (and what appeared to be their significant others) in tow. I'm not sure how, if at all, this connects to the theories floating around that the divorce is a work, but if it is, the kids seem to be siding with Dad - at least, for now, while he's still the one making them money.

Hulk was his usual charismatic self, and he introduced the Joust and led some post-match interviews with the participants. I guess they'll record the play-by-play at a later time, after they edit the footage (which should prove to be laborious - I was in the arena for three hours and saw about 10-15 minutes worth of action).

Although I only got to see The Joust, they apparently played Powerball earlier in the day. Meanwhile, The Wall was adjacent to the Joust pool, while on the other half of the arena, I could see the Pyramid setup. One of the pages also mentioned an event called Earthquake, so I guess they're trying to come up with some new ideas, too.

Long story short, I think Gladiators will look much better on TV than it did in person, so any Hulkamaniacs should proceed with caution if they're considering attending a taping. We were bored out of our minds, and when a tour bus group had to leave, we sneaked out with them.

Keep up the great work, and congrats on your anniversary.

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