Anyone catch this show on Spike TV ?

It is awesome !

First episode was Gladiator v Apache

second episode will pit Viking v Samurai

It's similar to National Geographic Fight science where they analyze weapons of the warriors etc and do computer simulation then they do a dramatized final battle (very bloody which is cool)

very well done show

I thought it was an interesting premise. I watched the first episode and I had picked Apache all the way, I don't even know how the Gladiator guys thought it was closer in match up. The Apache guy was bad ass with the knives!

I would rather see better match ups. I think the samurai takes the round from the viking. Berserker can only take you so far when you have someone that is skilled in combat. I see the samurai winning this much like the apache took the first round.

Think I'm gonna have to catch this show. My gut reaction is that no way a gladiator would lose with armor to an Apache. I'd pick the samurai over pretty much everything else.

This is an awesome show. I ended up watching the Apache one after TUF the other night, and it was great.

Yeah. I'm going with samurai tonight as well.

Like I said.. Apache vs Ninja or Viking vs Gladiator make for better match ups.

I hope somehwere down the line, Ninjas vs Pirates come up.

Sometimes, those guys think out of their asses. Seriously, the katana wasn't made to go against chain mail, but if they had studied the movements of kendo, the neck and wrists are the targets for armed attackers (which are usualy unguarded by armor.) And had Chan properly sliced thru those pigs, he could have easily gone thru 3.

Once again, precise cuts to down an opponent take the win.

I think next week is Ninjas vs Spartans.

This show is great. That guy was smooth as silk with the Yumi.

I watched the first episode. They slanted things so in favor of the Apache it wasn't fair.

First of all, I think you have to limit the Apache to native, period appropriate weapons. North American natives in particular were not very advanced in metal work. In fact, one of the most popular trade items were metal items, and in particular steel tomahawks manufactured by Europeans. If your going to give the Apache steel knifes, tomahawks and arrowheads of European construction, why not give them European firearms, which they also adopted?

Gladiators on the other hand may have used scissors, slings and nets, but only to make it more entertaining. The Roman army employed slingers as field artillery, not for individual combat. They had bows and arrows. They probably gave the gladiator the sling because it was popular to reenact ancient battles, like David vs Goliath. If they had outfitted the gladiator with just standard roman soldier gear then it would have been a much closer fight, even if you give the Apache steal weapons.

Ok... a Spartan wins over a Ninja? Ridiculous. The fact that the Spartan only carries 3 weapons puts him at a greater disadvantage. It would be stupid for a ninja to use fukiya or shuriken against a Spartan shield, but he should and would use the black eggs and certainly use poison tipped tetsubishi to drop as the blind Spartan attacks. Once the Spartan hits the tetsubishi, he would most likely stop advancing as it pierces thru the soles of the feet setting up a killing opportunity for the ninja.

Damn. Did the Ninja even use his sword?

Anyway, heres an interview with the creators:
http://www.newsarama.com/tv/090421-d...-warriors.html

As for mutants vs. metahumans, don't discount it showing up. Geiger and Desmoulin said there's always a possibility of fictional characters being analyzed this way and eventually getting their chance to fight on the show.

"You know, probably 90 to 95 percent of the press that we talk to want to see fictional characters," Desmoulin said. "If you can get me some scenarios that have appeared in comic books or some footage of a cartoon, or some footage of a film, I can get some real data from that. Even girth of legs or arms, or estimates of force based upon the damage done in those scenarios could be used in something like this.

"The thing I always talk about is the Fantastic Four movie where the Thing stops the truck on the bridge," he said. "You can estimate the speed of the semi-trailer, the mass of the semi-trailer, and the damage on the asphalt, and you can pull real data from that. Everyone wants us to just blow it out of the water like that. I think it's too popular to not appear eventually in the show."

From the show -
"The simulation shows the Spartan Warrior wins 65% of the time"

Deal with it

I'm a huge ninja fan-boy, even took budo-taijitsu for 2 years, but even I think the spartan should have won in that setting. Well, at least the TV version on the ninja they used. The real ninja wouldn't be wearing the fictional black outfit, he'd instead be dressed up as a spartan. Using that outfit he'd poison their water supply or set fire to their housing while they slept.

Very little of what the teach you is even remotely useful for squared off combat. The idea is to hit once and keep moving. The spartan weapons are pretty heavy, extending with them would put you slightly off balance... a nice pull on the spear while it is extended would at the very least put the person down to one knee. The ninja would then run past the spartan and just keep running.

The set-up the show uses is something closer to the two guys in a gladiator pit. The spartan wining 65% is actually pretty fair, if not being kind to the ninja. One soldier will kill one saboteur in a fair fight, but one saboteur can reek such havoc within an army that the soldiers group as a whole can be terrible weakened.

Where and how the fight takes place is much more important then who has the better weapons. Everyone here would agree that a hand grenade has much better killing power then a table fork, but if I had to fight someone within the confines of a phone booth I can tell you I'd much rather have the fork with me.

The premise and execution of this show is a male geek wet dream.

Take two pairs of overly serious period enthusiasts (with a jock slant) smack talking each other.

Add a bunch of terrible pseudo science.

Top off with a b-movie action scene finale.

And you get brilliance!

They might as well start pitting fantasy types next season. I mean, its either that or start mix and matching what they've already done, "Ninja vs. Pirate" and so forth. Its only a matter of time before they start with "Frankenstein vs. Creature from the Black Lagoon" or "Werewolf vs. Conquistador" or go completely nerd-gasm with "Superman vs. The Flash."

If only there was female nudity, this would be the perfect show.

I demand a re-match... seeing that in the post show interviews on the Spike website (The Aftermath), the Spartan guy is one of the creators of the show. He quickly dismissed the use of caltrops (tetsubishi) against his Spartan. Probably why they chose the fukiya and shuriken. And they gave too much towards the pain threshhold of the Spartan.

I also think that they should have consulted Dr. Masaaki Hastumi instead of that Louis Klein dork. Heck, Bandoman could have chosen better weaponry for the ninja.

Half of the tests where it's weapon against armor have been laughable. As if, you're going to use the kusarigama to penitrate the Spartan armor... or have the katana trying to slice thru chainmail. They are not weapons made for that.

Anyways... here's the upcoming episodes...
Pirate vs. Knight 4/28/2009
Yakuza vs. Mafia 5/05/2009
Green Beret vs. Spetznaz 5/12/2009
Shaolin Monk vs. Maori 5/19/2009
William Wallace vs. Shaka Zulu 5/26/2009

I'm waiting for the guy from Gymkata against Steven Seagal or Krull against the Beast-master.

Well, thats easy. Gymkata rules all.



That would be a neat thing for them to do, try different martial styles, kinda' like that one off Discovery? History Channel? program did a few years back, I forget the title. Fight Science, maybe?

Do Aikdo versus Wing Chun, and so forth. That could really create some ire. Those martial guys get real stuck up defending their archaic, mostly impracticable fight styles. Tell a karate guy throwing a punch in the horse stance is bullshit when compared to boxing and watch him fume.

Next week is Pirate vs Ninja

and the following week is Zombie vs Plant

...and then spazz vs. dweeb.

Then paraplegic vs. morbidly obese.

Finally wrapping up the season with coma vs. dead.

Agreed. I'm watching the show now.... ridiculous. Gladiators were maybe 200 pounds plus, while Apaches were maybe 150 to 170.

Annoying. Although seeing Chuck Lidell cut through the meat was pretty awesome. It would've been cool if Lidell just beat the shit out of those 2 native american dudes.

The strange thing was also the weapons they selected for the gladiator; they were mostly from the late-era of gladiator combat. I'm sure someone here knows more then me about the matter, but I thought the late era weapons were mostly flash. Meant to be exotic looking and keep fights going longer.

I did like the other episodes though because I agreed with who they picked to win.

I like David Wenham doing the narration... when he was talking about the 300 Spartans... it was like word for word from the movie.

Next week's episode looks to heavily weigh in favor of the Knight but I'm sure they'll make it interesting.

Next week? You meant this past Weds. The pirate made the knight his bitch because of the blunderbuss.

I'm still not liking the competition. Something closer for the knight would have been the Spartan.. or a Conquistador.

What next, a stormtrooper against a condottiero?
They should either both have projectile weapons or neither. The above is like using a revolver against a swordsman.