Wrestling championship titles come and cross, however for the remainder of his existence, the identify of American Gladiator can by no means be taken clear of Jessie Godderz. However for the athlete now referred to as “Metal,” one lapse in technique nearly let that chance slip away.
Godderz, alternatively, proved that Metal might bend, however on this case, it for sure didn’t destroy—and as a father, it’s a lesson he hopes his youngsters can be informed from. He was once decided on, along side 15 different athletes, to compete at the vintage display—which drops its Season 1 finale on Might 1 on Top Video—and the remaining will also be streamed for eternity.
“I went for broke each time,” he says. “I simply outperformed everyone on the tournament proper sooner than it. They knew what they have been going to get out of me.”
Relishing his new Gladiator function, the shredded sports activities megastar is in all probability very best referred to as the previous 12-time OVW wrestling champion—aka “Mr. PEC-Tacular”—or the arrogantly entertaining unhealthy man from his stint on Giant Brother just about 20 years in the past and most up-to-date actuality display Area of Villains. Love him or like to hate him, whether or not he’s hoisting certainly one of his belts within the air or making actuality TV housemates flinch with each double-biceps flex, something has at all times been positive: Godderz is made up our minds to maximise each second of each alternative.
Then again, as he stocks, on this one second going all out can backfire. He admits that right through a body weight problem portion of the American Gladiators football-combine-style auditions, giving 100% just about price him the risk to position his title along Gladiator legends Nitro, Malibu, and Zap. Godderz says he ruled the pushup and pullup portion of the tryout, knocking out round 100 pushups in a minute, adopted via 46 pullups.
Then got here the 3rd tournament—a excessive rope climb—that left him with not anything however noodle palms, not able to finish the ascent. Happily, he says, his general efficiency was once sufficient to offset the rope blunder.
“I used to be like a cheetah after working 70 or 90 miles an hour—after which there was once not anything left,” he remembers, giggling. “There was once a few 0 % probability that I used to be getting up that factor. If there was once ever one thing that’s going to hang-out me for the remainder of my existence, that was once it.”
He can chortle now, status along Gladiator teammates reminiscent of Bull, Mayhem, and Neon for the primary season of the display reboot, however getting ready for American Gladiators’ hard 10-episode agenda was once no comic story. And because the area’s elder statesman, this time he was once going up in opposition to competition just about 1/2 his age, despite the fact that you’d be hard-pressed to peer the distance in his nonetheless PEC-tacularly flawless and apparently ageless body. The life of positive factors he says are the consequences from greater than 20 years of secure weightroom paintings.
“I’ve stayed beautiful constant my complete existence, and I beg or implore any one to check out and discover a unhealthy picture of me or with out abs,” he says. “That’s two-plus a long time of getting abs, and I’m very pleased with that,” he says.
To drag off the function of Metal, Godderz says he needed to shift his coaching from bodyslams, energy bombs, and his signature “Adonis Crab” to studying methods to navigate occasions just like the Joust, Powerball, and the Gauntlet. Each competitions call for elite athleticism, however changing into leaner, sooner, and extra tough was new goals. And prefer he’s finished at each and every level of his profession, Godderz got here up giant on the proper second.
“I simply only sought after to concentrate on this as a result of I didn’t wish to lose,” he says. “It’s such an honor to be an American Gladiator. I sought after to actually cross in the market and be sure that when any individual stated my title they usually knew that they have been going up in opposition to Metal, it was once a type of like, ‘Now not this man.’”
The Gauntlet: How Jessie Turned into an American Gladiator
He might now be 40, presentations no indicators of slowing down. And Jessie Godderz would be the first one to inform you this.
“So far as I’m involved, I will nonetheless be booked as a 20-year-old,” he says. “Simply throw some lipstick in this pig and ship me in the market.”
His tryout tribulations have been a long way from the primary time the one-time bodybuilding champion driven himself to the prohibit—Godderz has been giving this sort of max effort for many years. Take a look at some vintage YouTube clips and also you’ll to find the previous two-time TNA Global Tag Crew Champion—then one-half of the BroMans with spouse Robbie E—blasting again with bodybuilding legend—and previous American Gladiator Mike O’Hearn, aka Titan—banging out minute rounds of high-rep pullups. So it was once becoming that O’Hearn was once one of the most first to congratulate him on his new function.
“He simply stated, ‘Welcome to the circle of relatives. Do us proud,’” Godderz remembers.
Going from Mr. PEC-Tacular to Metal required Godderz to tweak his tried-and-true bodybuilding-style exercises. “I didn’t wish to stray away or lose the scale that I’ve had, as a result of that’s what introduced me to the display,” he says. “I used to be at all times doing a bro science bodybuilder break up my complete existence.” Chest day. Again day. Palms. Shoulders. Legs. Heavy weights, excessive quantity, one leisure day.
His new function required a extra specialised means. Exercises have been damaged down, he says, into A and B days—one eager about energy, the following on velocity. For the primary time, Godderz was once incorporating devoted footwork into his routines. Sprints, cone drills, ladder paintings, and sport-specific actions helped him adapt to shifting on slim overhead beams, a a long way other process than just proudly owning the highest rope in wrestling. Whilst he nonetheless prefers to throw down when wanted, this new form of coaching ready him for the thrilling, overhead battles Gladiator lovers be expecting.
“Mr. PEC-Tacular was once extra floor and pound,” he says. “For American Gladiators, I indubitably needed to faucet into my internal Jeff Hardy. If you get started mountain climbing up on best of stuff—we’re 30 or 40 ft up within the air right through an tournament just like the Joust—it’s simply mano a mano. You could have 30 to 60 seconds and you’ve got to move broad open. You wish to have to be overall full-body exhaustion, or so far as I’m involved, you didn’t check out tough sufficient.”
Consuming Like A Metal From OVW Champ to Complete-Pace Metal
Rather then revamping his coaching program to fulfill the calls for of an American Gladiator, manufacturers left it as much as the contestants to make a decision what sort of body they might carry to the world. Finally, it was once their already-ripped athletic our bodies that helped pave the way in which for this mythical alternative.
Whilst wrestling was once extra irritating because of trip and unpredictable schedules, changing into a Gladiator required a tighter, extra structured diet plan. Godderz employed nutritionist Tyler Garceau to lend a hand him put in combination a program that allowed him to each keep each bodybuilder shredded and athletically agile. “I sought after to be as complete as conceivable. I sought after to be as giant as I most likely may just at my body and nonetheless have the ability to transfer my ft,” he says.
He saved his energy between 2,200 and a pair of,700 according to day, with the upper quantities reserved for high-intensity days. His protein stayed constant at round 212 grams day by day.
In contrast to the grind of wrestling—the place a couple of hard-boiled eggs from a deli may just cross for a protein-packed meal at the cross—catering at the Gladiators set made it more straightforward to stick locked in. “They handled us like kings and queens over there,” he says. “They did a beautiful task of seeking to maintain everyone’s power and diet. couldn’t have requested for anything else higher.”
On tournament days, this timing was vital. Godderz added fast-digesting carbs, like Vitargo, sooner than taping to stick pumped and strong for the ones 30- to 60-second bursts. “I used to be taking, like, complete servings sooner than, so I’d wish to pump up and be as complete as conceivable once we began,” he says.
Keeping up a Legacy and Sharing Classes
Turning into an American Gladiator has been a dream come true for an athlete-celebrity who continues to reinvent his profession whilst keeping up the younger body that helped release his wrestling and tv run just about two decades in the past. Like the whole thing else he’s earned, he went all in—and got here away with the honour of status along a few of his boyhood idols.
“You develop up gazing this,” he says. “Now not one individual has any more or less unwell phrase towards American Gladiators. Everyone, once you utter the phrases, is like, ‘Oh guy, I used to like that display.’”
At 40, he nonetheless carries the similar PEC-Tacular character he’s constructed since changing into each a champion and a hard-to-hate reality-show heel. However what makes this new function other is that he will get to proportion the instant along with his younger sons. On the finish of the day, father stays an important identify on his résumé.
“My 2-year-old, 3-year-old, 5-year-old can simply listen the tune, they usually simply get started pronouncing, ‘Daddy, Daddy’s on TV, Daddy’s on TV.’”
Sharing the message of consistency along with his youngsters is an important reason Jessie Godderz, at any age, will at all times retaining pushing to make it to the highest of the rope.
“I would like my son to be sure that he is aware of he can’t ever surrender,” Jessie says. “And I would like him to peer that, as an American Gladiator, Daddy by no means offers up both.”
