Battle Dome is a syndicated American television series that aired from September 1999 to April 2001.
It combined elements of American Gladiators – inspired athletic competition – with scripted antics more reminiscent of professional wrestling.
Recurring character-athletes known as "Warriors" competed against weekly contestants in a variety of physically demanding (and sometimes dangerous) events.
The series was filmed at the Los Angeles Sports Arena and produced by Columbia TriStar Television.
The entire second season of Battle Dome is available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon Video.
A Warrior typically entered the show's arena accompanied by his own bombastic theme music and-in several cases-a comely female sidekick; in later episodes, weekly contestants were also allotted female companions, courtesy of Perfect 10 magazine.
The announcer for the show was Steve Albert (brother of Marv and the uncle of Kenny); Scott Ferrall provided color commentary.
Downtown Julie Brown appeared in early episodes, as a sideline correspondent but was replaced by Kathleen McClellan for the run of the show.
Three male contestants competed in a series of four or five events, which varied in intensity and danger factor.
After the fourth or fifth event, the two highest scoring competitors advanced to the Battle Dome final.
The Warriors were ranked before the competition started and could move up or down the list depending on either how well they performed during the show or how well they politicked with the chairman or his on-camera assistant, Bobbie Haven (played by model Bobbie Brown, who prior to this was best known for her appearance in the video for Warrant's "Cherry Pie").
After all ties and championships between the Warriors and contestants were settled, the two remaining players moved into the Battle Dome for the final round, in which the two competitors wrestled each other in an attempt to throw the opponent off an elevated platform.
In fall of 2000, the stars of Battle Dome and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) began a brief cross-promotional feud.
In retaliation, on the November 6 edition of Monday Nitro, T-Money, Cuda, Mike O'Dell (husband of WCW star Midajah), D.O.A., and Bubba King began heckling in the audience as Diamond Dallas Page spoke to the Chicago crowd.
Rick Steiner, Ernest Miller, and Buff Bagwell came to Page's aid before security ended the physical dispute.
[1] The feud between these men continued as far as November 20,[2] mere months before the buyout of WCW by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
His actual level of authority is unclear although he did ban a few warriors from competing for bad behaviour.
The event took place on a large, rotating platform which resembled a right circular cone with its outside edge and apex flattened.
The contenders had 60 seconds to force both warriors to touch the bottom ring of the wheel with any part of their body.
The contender was placed in the center of an enclosed area with 2 warriors on each end (Michael O'Dell participated in this event most often).
Contenders had 60 seconds to force the warrior (Almost always T-Money, with 1 or 2 appearances by DOA in the later part of the 1st season) through one of the holes while avoiding the same fate.
Aerial Kickboxing Contenders and opposing warriors hung from an undulating metal grid roughly 10 feet off the ground.
The scoring bin was located in the center of the playing field atop an approximately 5-foot-tall (1.5 m) pyramid.
The warrior wore boxing gloves and could freely attack the contender as much as they wanted to keep them from scoring.
Evader A contender had to light targets while avoiding medicine balls being launched by two warriors.
The contenders were also chased by a Battle Dome Warrior, which was almost always The Commander, and could lose the game in one of two ways: either losing their grip, which would result in the contender floating away, or having the Warrior rip their harness off and send them to the floor.
This game was simply a test of endurance; each player stood on a platform behind a metal disk.
During the first season, the warriors maintained distinct personalities, similar to professional wrestling characters.
At the end of that day's competition the top ranked warrior received the Battledome Belt.
At the start of the second season, the chairman, the standings board, and the Battledome Belt were dropped from the competition.