‘An awesome challenge’: Palatine gym owner making his American Gladiators dream come true

When Tavares Chambliss was younger, he would watch “American Gladiators” religiously.

Now the Palatine resident is appearing on the rebooted version streaming on Prime Video.

He is hosting a watch party from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Palatine gym he co-owns, Body Shop Gymnasium, 345 N. Eric Drive, Suite 500. The event will include food, games, T-shirts for sale and a joust setup for attendees to try.

Chambliss has already appeared in an earlier episode, which was released April 17. He is appearing in one of the four new episodes available Friday.

The episodes were taped about 10 months ago during a two-week period in a town outside Paris, France.

He traveled to Paris with his mother, Zina Bey, of Wheeling. There, they enjoyed visiting the Eiffel Tower and an aquarium.

Chambliss said he competed in several events against “big, giant dudes.” His strongest event was the Whiplash, a form of tug-of-war involving standing on a 20-foot elevated platform and pulling on a triangular “dog bone” apparatus.

Other events included The Joust, The Wall, The Edge and Powerball.

“They were way harder than I thought they were going to be,” he said. “I think it's way more intense than the show used to be.”

He has a background in martial arts, football and track. He played football at Wheeling High School, where he earned all-Mid Suburban League honors as a running back in the 1990s.

“I wanted to be good at multiple different sports or events,” he said.

His gym provides team training and boot camp classes, and also Zumba, boxing and kickboxing.

Chambliss is no stranger to reality TV sports. The “Neon Ninja” has appeared twice on “American Ninja Warrior” and previously tried out for an earlier reboot of “American Gladiators” hosted by the late Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali.

Now that he has done the show, he said he would go back and do it again in a second.

“It was an awesome challenge and a great experience,” he said.