John Fashanu has revealed a feud between footballer Vinnie Jones and Gladiators icon Wolf, where they wanted to ‘bash each other’s brains out’ for what resulted in ‘one of the most successful shows’.
Former pro footballer Fashanu, 61, presented Gladiators alongside Ulrika Jonsson, and has now recalled a memorable clash between two iconic stars on the ITV competition.
Wolf, real name Michael Van Wijk, appeared on the hit show for all eight seasons between 1992 and 2000, where he made quite a name for himself.
And as well as forming a rivalry with his competitors, Wolf is said to have had a feud with football player-turned-actor Vinnie during the 1993 celebrity spin-off.
Fashanu shared: ‘What really made it special is we had the celebrities on. Vinnie Jones and one of the other footballers and a few other television presenters, and they were all participating in the Gladiators.
‘Now, Vinnie Jones and Wolfman is a recipe for disaster. Seeing Vinnie Jones on the show going through, bumping people with elbows… then you have Wolfman the other side.
‘That really was one of the most successful shows of our time.’
He added to The Sun: ‘And that’s because you had two people that didn’t know each other that wanted to go on there and bash each other’s brains out, which, at that stage, was quite fun.’
During his appearance on Gladiators, Ulrika branded him ‘the naughty boy of football’, to which he replied: ‘I do like to bend the rules now and then, sometimes it helps us to win and sometimes we don’t get nothing out of it, just a lot of problems.’
Talking about going up against the Gladiators, he went on: ‘I heard there’s a little man here called the Wolf man.
‘I haven’t seen him yet, I think he’s hiding in the toilets!’
Wolf was known as one of the fiercest Gladiators at the time, and in a recent interview, he remained adamant he could wipe the floor with the new line-up.
Ahead of its launch, the 71-year-old, who also appeared on Netflix’s Squid Game reality show, took a swipe at the BBC for not including him in the revival, claiming the production company ‘did not bother coming back’ to him when approached.
‘I think they decided from the get-go that they would have nothing to do with the old show or nothing to do with any of the people, it was just (going to be a) completely new format, completely their way of doing it,’ he said.
‘I suppose because (it is airing on) the BBC and it was ITV, they just want to be completely separate.
‘That’s just my personal opinion.’
Gladiators airs Saturdays at 5.50pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
