Franklin can add an American Gladiator to its list of famous connections. Eric Bugenhagen, who was raised in Franklin and a 2006 graduate of Franklin High School, has been announced by Amazon to be one of its contenders in Prime’s resurrection of the famous American Gladiators competition show.
Originally a syndicated show between 1989 and 1996, it was revived by NBC for two seasons in 2008 before being revived present-day by Amazon Prime.
In a post on his official Instagram account, Bugenhagen in a promo discussed what brought him to love fitness so much:
“My dad bought some weights for our basement when I was 10. My uncle was a trainer so my dad would have him come over to put my older brother through workouts, probably cuz my dad thought we had to toughen up… I specifically remember once being yelled at for being too SLOUCHED. I saw how hard my brother was being pushed and I was terrified my uncle would tell me to join them so I would hide and watch Scooby Doo, drink Surge, and eat Gushers. One day I went down to the basement and decided to just hoist some weight around, no idea what I was doing. But I’ll never forget the feeling of it as my arms felt on fire and I had a bunch of little red dots all over, most likely bursted capillaries as my body never experienced anything like that before due to my docile pencilnecked state of existence. I became addicted to lifting from that point on.”
We here in Franklin and the rest of SE Wisconsin will be rooting for you! American Gladiators premieres tomorrow, April 17th on Amazon Prime. #franklinwi #AmericanGladiators #competition #tv