'American Gladiators' alums reveal backstage drama of classic show... and the origins of their superhero names

More than 30 years after American Gladiators debuted on television, Nitro, Ice, Storm and the rest are having another moment, as the second documentary on the star-spangled show this year, Muscles and Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators, debuts Wednesday on Netflix.

"I wanted people to watch this show and take a nostalgic romp into the past," Dan "Nitro" Clark, who executive-produced the new five-part docuseries, tells Yahoo Entertainment. "I wanted to do like a time machine with the characters. And I didn't want to do a Behind the Music, like, 'Oh my god, look how broken everybody is.' I wanted to tell the true stories of these people you watched, the heartfelt stories of their pain. Their purpose stories. And I wanted to have sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, and I wanted to have triumph and tragedy. But I also wanted to have a way through for all those characters to triumph."

Clark wasn't a fan of ESPN's two-part 30 for 30 on the franchise, which spent considerable time breaking down who actually created the show rather than its stars.

"To me, I'm thankful for Johnny [Ferraro] and Dann Carr, who did [create Gladiators], but I don't think most people care to watch two episodes, three hours, about, 'Did this guy steal a guy's show? Did he ever get his pay? Did he ever get his comeuppance?' And I also think the ESPN one, the 30 for 30, it was sad. You know?" Clark says. "You watched it, and you're like, 'Aw, this was a moment in my life that I loved as a kid or as a young adult,' and, 'God, poor gladiators.'"

Lori Fetrick, who joined the show as "Ice" in 1991 and appears in Muscles and Mayhem, agrees.

"We," she says, "get to tell our story from the gladiators' point of view."

'The worst part about being a gladiator'

Not that the Netflix doc is all sunny. It describes some tough times for the stars, including, for many of them, struggles with steroid use and partying, and, for most all of them, the injuries sustained from repeated blows to their body. The injuries particularly piled up when they took their TV show on the road, all of it for a fraction of the money generated from the series, which became a phenomenon and a forerunner of American Ninja Warrior, Wipeout and the like. Initially airing in syndication from 1989 to 1997, American Gladiators spawned T-shirts, hats, dolls, video games, trading cards and more. Everyone wanted a piece of it.

Clark's goal was to recapture that wild ride — the poofy hair, the chiseled bods and the colorful games, like the Assault and the Joust, that pitted the gladiators against everyday people who wanted to be on television. To achieve his vision, Clark recruited many of his co-stars from the show, which he competed on from the beginning, to tell their own stories.

"The worst part about being a gladiator is two things: the injuries and the pay rate," says Fetrick, who hosts the American Gladiators-themed podcast Chillin' With Ice. "That was pretty much it. Everything else was awesome. I absolutely loved it."

Again, that's not to say that everything was rosy.

For one thing, Debbie "Storm" Clark recalls to Yahoo Entertainment that being not only Black but gay made it harder for her: "We could never be who we were." And she experienced homelessness after the show — which, as she notes in Muscles and Mayhem, fellow gladiator Jim "Laser" Starr helped her with. She says she's doing OK now.

Fetrick thinks viewers will be surprised to learn how much injuries factored into the show.

"They just never showed that on the air," she says. "It was almost like we were invincible."

'Nitro. Nitro makes sense.'

Part of that image came from those stage names, which helped elevate the stars to superhero status.

Clark says he suggested his moniker after having chosen the character of Evander from a list of three. While the assigned personality appealed to him, the actual name did not.

"That Evander character — loud, cocky, hates to lose — resonated with me," he says. "I figured I could do that. I just hated the name. So after all these auditions, we get the job and I just looked at them and said, 'Doesn't make sense. Evander. How did you get Evander?' Then I said, you know, 'Nitro. Nitro makes sense.'"

The producers agreed and the character — he emphasizes that it's not his true personality, despite what many people on social media seem to believe — was born.

"I think that’s what was fun about the original is it was a chance to be more brash, to be more arrogant, to be more in your face than I would ever be," Clark says. "Cause I guess if I had one fault as a human being, it's that I have a tremendous need to be liked. I want to befriend everybody. Like me, like me and accept me, accept me. And for Nitro, he didn't care. I could be that jerk. I could be the heel, the villain."

Fetrick recounts getting her nickname during her first day on the set.

"We were on the bleachers, and I knew that I had to come up with a name, otherwise they were going to give me a name, which was going to be maybe a little scary. So we just kinda started throwing things out there," she says, noting that Top Gun had recently been a big hit. "And somebody said, 'Oh my god, you look like you could be Val Kilmer's sister.'"

Kilmer played Iceman in the movie, so someone suggested she become Ice. The producers loved it, and so did she. To this day, Fetrick appreciates that an autograph requires just three letters.

Debbie Clark had initially auditioned to be a contender on the show, not a regular cast member. But she remembers that she quickly got a call with happy news: "We called you because we want you to be a gladiator, and we want to name you Storm, because you blew everybody away."

'I'm stunned about why people still love this show'

More than the names have stuck with audiences.

"It stuns me. I'm stunned about why people still love this show," Dan Clark says, "and I've actually thought about it a lot. Because, for me, it was just a job."

His theory is that it was about wish fulfillment, particularly for former athletes who weren't part of that tiny percentage that makes it to the pros. And for those who wanted to be stars.

"American Gladiators gave them that stage to go after their athletic aspirations, be on TV and win $25,000," he says. "I think this was really this first bit of where American culture changed, not only with the beginning of reality TV, but the beginning of people really looking for that 15 minutes of fame."

Muscles and Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators premieres Wednesday, June 28 on Netflix.