Video: Ninja Warrior could be the best Saturday night telly since Gladiators

Gladiators was the best thing on TV in the whole of the 90s. Fact.

Watching Wolf, Hunter and Jet make mincemeat out of poor lycra-clad contestants was just magical. Saturday night television has never been the same… until Ninja Warrior UK came along. We’re not going to lie, we’re a little bit excited about this one here at JOE. We loved Gladiators, we loved Takeshi’s Castle and we’re probably going to love this too. It’s already huge in America and Japan –  but with a f*cking massive assault course, some insane wipeouts and the comedy madness of football pundit Chris Kamara presenting, how could it fail? 'The world's toughest assault course' is coming to ITV this Saturday at 7pm. Here’s why it’s going to be awesome…

It's got that Gladiator feel

We know it's not quite the same with out the Gladiators, the futuristic 90s set and that referee chap in the black and white stripes, but it comes close. For starters Ninja Warrior has those Gladiator-style rings... Remember the Travelator from Gladiators? That weird backwards escalator of broken dreams. Well Ninja Warrior has a vertical one. Beat that, Ulrika...

 Insane obstacles

Every assault course needs obstacles. Gladiators had that huge cargo net and that spectacular yet seemingly pointless zip wire. Well, Ninja Warrior has taken crazy contraptions and obstacles to the next level. Try scaling a wall by gripping onto a 1 inch beam with your fingernails...   Or riding a this hand bike... We literally don't know what the hell this thing is, but it looks hard. Our gym definitely doesn't have one...   We all watched Gladiators because we loved the showbiz and drama and people got smashed up by the likes of Wolf and Rhino. But we secretly enjoyed it when someone got one over on the Gladiators. It's that triumph over adversity that Ninja Warrior has by the bucket-load. Watching people do spectacularly crazy things makes for good telly... This guy tackles the Salmon Ladder with the effortless ease of a morning stroll to the papershop...     Or climbing a ridiculous rope with simian speed and efficiency... Much as we love to see people succeed, it is far more entertaining watching people fail. And boy are there some epic fails on Ninja Warrior. If you love a good wipeout, clap your eyes on these... You wouldn't get this on Gladiators... We saved the best until last. This one will shrivel your testes, gentlemen... All we know is this all adds up to one badass show. Here's a little look at Saturday's show...   https://youtu.be/WgC5-FhHgRQ   (H/T: ITV)