Wardlow Reveals He Filmed American Gladiator Reboot With Fully Torn Left Bicep
An extensive chat with Wardlow.
April 17th is the premiere date for the American Gladiators reboot on Amazon Prime. One of the contestants on the show is three-time AEW TNT Champion Wardlow, who is going by ‘Fang’ on the show.
To promote the show, Wardlow did an extensive interview with BCP+. He detailed the process of being booked for American Gladiators. He opened up about the car accident he was in in April 2024. Not too long after getting back into training following the accident, he attended a combine for the Gladiators reboot.
During the combine, Wardlow got paired with former WWE talent Eric Boogs a.k.a. Rick Boogs. Wardlow said getting physical with Boogs was the first time he’s ever experienced someone matching his power. He called Boogs the real deal. Wardlow added that when it came to who would be selected for the actual Gladiators show, he felt that if it came down to him or Boogs, the former WWE talent would be selected. It was some time after the combine that Wardlow received the call that he was selected.
“Oh man, it was quite a fun process. Bit of a rollercoaster. Nothing in the past couple years of my life hasn’t come with some controversy and some — a little bit of roadblocks here and there, and this was no different. So the opportunity came about. They were looking for somebody like myself. They saw me, they said, ‘Let’s see what this guy’s about,’ so we do a couple Zoom calls, just like this. Just talking about myself, and I, at one point, I’m standing right here ripping my shirt off, screaming and flexing. Doing the whole little audition type thing just to show ‘em what I’m all about, and they immediately loved me, and wanted to take the next step. So we had to go out to L.A. to do a combine. There were many of these with large groups of athletes… For the most part, very confident in myself and my abilities, okay? So this came about after being away from wrestling for a while. So I had a car accident that took me out of wrestling for a while. So I had been rehabbing that, and I had just really started to start training again at this point. So I went to this combine, just starting training again. So, as confident as I am, I was a little bit skeptical, like, okay, I could have used a few more months of rehab and stuff but, we’re gonna go for it, and the elevator door opens and we’re all sitting there and I’m scoping out the competition and I’m like, yeah, I got this. There’s not one guy here that I’m worried about, and then the elevator door opens and out walks Eric Boogs. Not only is it him but, lo and behold, he is decked out head to toe in 90s American flag, singlet, just the whole nine, and I’m like, well, as confident as I am, if it’s me versus this guy, I’m gonna have a run for my money here. So, of course we ended up getting paired up together for this combine. They basically paired you up with the person you’re closest to in age and size and we were the two biggest guys there, and we were curious the whole time. We were like, ‘Do you think they just wanna see us? Or is it like me versus you right now?’ So, we ended up building a little bit of a relationship through the course of this day… we’re questioning whether they were trying to choose between the two of us, or we were just basically being put on display. But we had to do this physical challenge. Push-ups, pull-ups, rope climb, tire flip, wrestling, and gosh, not to put the guy over too much, but, I will say I’ve been on the mat with a lot of guys; wrestling, jiu-jitsu. I’ve never felt overpowered, even remotely. I’m pretty strong fella. First time in my life I’ve ever felt somebody match my strength, and I will say, Boogs is the real deal, and he is a collegiate Division I wrestler, which I never was. So he should be very skillful. But, we were neck and neck the whole time and we had a fun day and then that was it, and part of me was like, ah, I don’t think I got it. If it’s coming down to me and Boogs, he’s so charismatic, so over the top. I was like, ‘Yeah, if they have to choose, they’re probably gonna go with him,’ and I was at dinner with my sister for her birthday, and it was just her and I having a nice little sit-down dinner… Time had passed. I didn’t even really think about it at this point, and I get a phone call from my agent, and he goes, ‘Hey, you’re an American Gladiator,’ and it was just like, ‘Well, I guess we’re gonna get a glass of wine and celebrate right now because I’m officially an American Gladiator.’ So, that was a very long way of telling you how I got the role.”
He shared that days before flying out to film the show, he fully tore his left bicep by overtraining. A surgeon told Wardlow that he could undergo the operation and be out for six months, or he could do American Gladiators with the injury, and his arm would lose 10%-15% strength.
When he was filming the show, Wardlow wore a long-sleeve shirt to hide the discoloration on his arm from the bicep tear. There were events Wardlow knew he could not do because of the injury, so he got out of them by saying his shoulder was bothering him.
He shared that Eric Boogs and Jessie Godderz were also dealing with injuries while filming Gladiators. He said they kept each other’s injuries amongst themselves and supported each other. Wardlow said they’ve developed a close friendship and they speak nearly every day.
“Right before — and this goes back to what I said — there’s always some controversy, there’s always some sort of hill I have to climb. The past couple of years, it’s just been the theme. Right before flying out, like days before flying out to film this show, I fully tore my left bicep. So, and I did it training for — the mistake I always make, I overtrain, always. When there’s something big, I just go balls to the wall and I destroyed my body a little too much in preparation for the show, because you would have thought I was going into the Olympics. That’s how I was training, and so I trained all night long and I made the mistake of waking up the next morning and getting right back to training on the rings. I don’t know if you remember where you swing across the rings and you gotta wrap your legs around ‘em, so I was training for that a lot because I’m a wizard on the monkey bars so, I’m like, ‘I really wanna do this event.’ So dude, I was training all morning, swinging, swinging and then my last round — it’s always the last one. Don’t ever say, ‘Alright, one more.’ Because that’s when it happens, and I went to swing to the next ring and just felt it pop, and I fell to the ground and I just knew right away. I was just like, ‘I just tore my bicep,’ and I’ve never torn a muscle. I’ve never torn a muscle. So I went to my surgeon, and he said, ‘We can either fix this — it’d be super easy and you’d be out six months.’ He’s like, ‘I know you really wanna go do the show.’ He’s like, ‘If you can deal with the pain, and you can accept the fact you’re gonna lose 10 to 15 percent strength, and it’s gonna be wildly uncomfortable, but if you wanna go, go,’ and I was like, ‘That’s all I needed to hear.’ So, the first few days we were just training. So I wore a long-sleeve shirt, because my whole arm was black and blue. So I just wore a long-sleeve shirt and hid it from everybody, and just kind of bit the bullet and did what I could. Obviously, there were some events I couldn’t do, which was a total bummer. I couldn’t do some things and I just said, ‘Oh, yeah, my shoulder’s a little messed up. I can’t do that.’ So I went into this very defeated. I flew in, like, I don’t know if I should be here. It was rough, and then (Eric) Boogs and Steel (Jessie Godderz)… The Bull (Boogs) and Steel, other wrestlers — The Bull came in with a little tweak. Steel tweaked a little something during training, and talking to The Bull about this because we came in kind of not liking each other. It’s just that big man heat, where it’s like we’re so similar, we have to hate each other. Until we have an actual conversation and realize we’re brothers. We’re literally the same person. It was exactly one of those moments, where I ended up telling him what I was dealing with. He told me what he was dealing with, and we’re like, ‘You know what? We’re both hurting. We’re gonna be each other’s support system and we’re gonna get through this together, and we’re gonna just gas each other up.’ Well, I see Steel after doing the rock climbing training. He’s sitting by himself with his head down, and I’m like, oh, that’s me. That’s me. Something’s off. So I went up to him, I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ And he’s like, ‘Man, I just found a little pop in my arm.’ He’s like, ‘I don’t know. This is rough,’ and I was like, ‘Do not tell anybody this,’ and I lifted my sleeve up and I showed him the purple and yellow and he’s like, ‘Dude, what is that?’ I was like, ‘I just fully tore my bicep.’ I’m like, ‘I didn’t tell anybody.’ I’m like, ‘Whatever you got going on, even if you tore something, you can get through this,’ and dude, his whole attitude changed, and next thing you know, the three of us, brothers forever. I talk to those guys almost every day of my life and I don’t think to (talk to) anybody every day of my life. Even my mother which she would probably have some things to say about that. We ended up being each other’s support system over the course of this month and we really helped each other get through it…”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Wardlow stated that he’s very close to being recovered from his torn pec injury that he suffered in 2025.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit BCP+ with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.
