Australian Ninja Warrior: Former Gladiator Vulcan thinks he’d ‘smash’ the course

NINETIES TV star Vulcan is hooked on Australian Ninja Warrior like the rest of us, but he’s not a big fan of one of the presenters on the show.

AUSSIE TV viewers have fallen in love with Channel Nine’s Ninja Warrior and so too has former Gladiators star, Vulcan.

The ’90s TV star, whose real name is John Seru, told the hot91.1 breakfast show that he’s hooked on Ninja Warrior.

“I’m sitting there watching it and it reminds me of the old Gladiators days,” Vulcan told co-hosts Dave, Sam and Ash.

And despite the fact he’s over 50, Vulcan thinks he’d be able to defeat the Ninja Warrior course.

“Man, I would smash that!” he said.

That’s not the only thing Vulcan wants to smash though. He went on to tell the radio hosts that he’s not a fan of one of the presenters on the Channel Nine show.

“I’ll smash the Pommy commentator,” he said, referring to Freddie Flintoff.

“Good for him for being a cricketer but he’s not a commentator,” Vulcan said, “Why can’t we use an Australian cricketer?”

Vulcan during his Gladiators days.

You’d better watch out, Freddie Flintoff.

Vulcan talked a big game during his radio interview, but when push came to shove and the hosts asked if he’d like them to reach out to Ninja Warrior’s producers to get him on the next season he wasn’t as enthusiastic.

“Probably not,” he said, “I’m just saying, I’d probably smash it, but now with the injuries [voice trails off]”.

Vulcan was arguably the most popular personality on Gladiators, which aired on Channel Seven in 1995 and 1996.

Back in 2014 he opened up to news.com.au about how he was given the name Vulcan, if he ever seriously injured anyone and how he ended up appearing in a Bond movie.

WHO CHOSE THE NAME VULCAN?

“The producers chose it,” Seru said.

“I wanted to be called Blade because I thought that was a really cool name but they asked around and one of the girls chose Blade before me.

“I didn’t care what they called me. It’s not about the name, it’s about the character.”

DID HE EVER INJURE A CONTESTANT?

“I did once in the UK,” said Seru who appeared in two seasons of the British version in the late 1990s.

“I was challenging this guy on duel who was a surfer and he had really good balance. I hit him in the head with one shot and it was the first time I’ve felt sorry for someone.

“He had a delayed reaction. He just stood there for a few seconds and then he just fell back and hurt his neck.

“You could hear how hard I hit him. It was a big smack.”

The Gladiators.

DOES HE STILL HAVE HIS GLADIATORS OUTFIT?

“I do actually, yeah,” Seru said.

“I actually have it framed up in my house and when I look at it I can’t believe how fu**ing small it is.”

HOW DID HE END UP GETTING A ROLE IN THE BOND FILM, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH?

“They saw me doing the UK version and they tracked me down,” Seru said.

“They called me and I thought it was a wind up so I kept brushing them off. It took them two weeks to nail me down.

“Even when they flew me to London I still had doubts in my mind. I didn’t believe anything until I went to the studio and I saw Dame Judi Dench and I was like, ‘What the fu**, this is real!’ And then I saw Pierce Brosnan and again I was like, ‘What the fu**!’ And then I saw Denise Richards, who I’d just seen in Wild Things and there she was standing right in front of me.”

WHAT WAS PIERCE BROSNAN LIKE?

“He was the nicest guy ever,” Seru said.

“He’s very suave. He’s like a man’s man and a ladies man too. He called me John Seru like it’s one word so I said, ‘Bro, it’s two names not one’.”

John Seru now runs Club Vulcan Gym in New South Wales.