Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors

Hosts

Mick Foley (2001-2002)

Pit Reporters

Rebecca Grant (2001) Carol Grow (2002)

Commentator

Stefan Frank

Broadcast

The New TNN: 8/20/2001-7/1/2002

Packagers

Mentorn International

Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors was an American adaptation of the British robot combat series Robot Wars broadcast by The New TNN between August 2001 and July 2002. Competitors brought remote-controlled fighting machines with a variety of designs, weapons and armor, facing each other in a purpose-built arena as well as a variety of hazards including the House Robots.

Two seasons were produced, each hosted by then-recently retired WWF wrestler Mick Foley and commentated by Stefan Frank. A "pit reporter" was also present to interview teams and present trophies to winning competitors; Rebecca Grant in Season 1 and Carol Grow in Season 2.

Premise

Arena and control pods for Extreme Warriors Season 1; The Revolutionist, Razer, Flensburger Power and Diotoir face off in the World Championship (UK: The Second World Championship) episode

Similar in concept to BattleBots, the series featured competitors building fighting robots (weighing up to 220lbs or around 350lbs for walking robots in Seasons 1-2) and pitting them against each other in a variety of elimination-based competitions, such as the "US Championship", "Annihilator" and "Tag Team Terror". As well as each other, they would face a variety of hazards in the purpose-built Robot Wars Arena, including the Pit of Oblivion, Flame Pit and a roster of five House Robots (Shunt, Matilda, Dead Metal, Sgt. Bash and Sir Killalot) which could attack competitors upon straying into their Corner Patrol Zones (CPZs). A non-combative House Robot, Refbot, was also used primarily to start battles, count out defeated competitors, extinguish fires and enforce fair play.

Robots won their battles by immobilizing opponents, pushing them down the Pit of Oblivion or, in very rare cases, throwing them out of the arena. One event, the "Robot Rebellion", involved a team of competitors facing the House Robots which had free reign of the arena.

In the event that more than one robot survived the full battle duration or if there was a rules infraction (e.g. excessive attacks from a House Robot), a panel of Judges would decide the winner of the battle based on a set of four criteria: "style", "control", "damage" and "aggression".

Filming took place at Earl's Court, London (Season 1) and Shepperton Studios (Season 2) in the United Kingdom, using the same arena, pit area and House Robots as in the original UK version.

A number of internationally-themed competitions (such as the "World Championship" and "War of Independence") also featured a small number of competitor robots from the original UK series.

Format

Both seasons featured a variety of events including the main "US Championship" and various smaller competitions, each with their own distinct themes and/or tournament formats. The way in which some of these events were formatted and broadcast varied between each season.

Season 1

Season 1 featured a total of seven episodes which were all dedicated to a single event. In broadcast order, these events included:

• Robot Rebellion - Following a series of one-on-one "Eliminators", four winning robots would face a team of House Robots in the climatic "Rebellion". The concept of this event would also be adapted for the Nickelodeon and UK Series under the name House Robot Rebellion.
• Annihilator - Based on the side event introduced in the original UK Series, six robots competed against each other in the arena, with one being eliminated from each round until only two remained. The winner of the final round would be declared the Annihilator champion.
• Civil War - A one-on-one knockout tournament, consisting of three rounds, between four robots representing the North (Union) and four representing the South (Confederacy).
• Tag Team Terror - Eight robots were paired into teams of two to fight each other in a two-round contest including a play-off. Only one robot from each team was allowed in the arena at a time and the teams could switch robots by 'tagging' them, though the rule was often broken in this and other similar events held on the UK Robot Wars.
• War of Independence - A one-on-one knockout tournament between four US and four UK robots, the latter all competitors from the original UK version. Identical in structure to the similarly-named competition from UK Series 4/Grand Champions.
• US Championship - The main domestic championship, initially grouping 24 robots into four six-way "Heat" melees. Winners of each "Heat" faced off in the "Semi-Finals", which were followed by a final head-to-head battle to determine the inaugural Extreme Warriors US Champion.
• World Championship - The US version of the Second World Championship, which would also be broadcast as part of the first series of the UK spin-off Robot Wars Extreme. Sixteen international robots - including entries from the US and UK versions - fought in a similar tournament structure to the US Championship, with four-way "Heats", two one-on-one "Semi-Finals" between the "Heat" winners and a final battle to determine the Robot Wars World Champion.

Season 2

Season 2 placed greater emphasis on the main US Championship, which comprised of eight "Heats" featuring six robots each followed by a dedicated "Grand Final" episode. Heats followed a similar structure to those of UK Series 4/Grand Champions, opening with two three-way melees where one robot from each would be eliminated. The remaining four robots were paired off in two one-on-one battles before the winners of these faced each other in the "Heat Final". The Heat winners would proceed to the Grand Final, which consisted of two more rounds of one-on-one battles plus a final encounter to determine the main Season 2 US Champion.

The remaining four episodes of the 13-episode run were all dedicated to side competitions, with the Annihilator, Tag Team Terror and Robot Rebellion all returning from Season 1. The solitary new addition was the International Championship, a one-on-one knockout tournament between US and UK robots which was mostly identical to the War of Independence. A key difference was that both sides in the International Championship did not fight against each other until the final round, unlike the War of Independence events from Season 1 and UK Series 4.

Arena

All battles took place in the purpose-built Robot Wars Arena, which during Extreme Warriors' run consisted of a rectangular-shaped area with a plywood floor, bulletproof glass walls and outer enclosure, and a backdrop with three booths overlooking the arena from above. The two outer booths - featuring plexiglass lining as a safety measure - were reserved for competitor teams ("roboteers") to drive their machines during battles, with the center booth being used mainly for introductions, announcements and interviews by Mick Foley. Directly beneath these booths were entry doors for competitor and House Robots to drive into the arena for battle, the centre door featuring the main Robot Wars logo.

The overall design of the arena was consistent with that introduced for Series 5-7 of the original UK series, giving the appearance of an abandoned factory setting. Indeed, the Extreme Warriors Season 1 iteration was also used for some events taking place as part of Series 1 of Robot Wars Extreme, which would broadcast its own localized version of the World Championship episode.

Various hazards were scattered across the arena floor which every competitor had to avoid while fighting their opponents. Many of these were marked in yellow and black hazard stripes with red borders, with the main arena floor being painted gray.

Hazards featured in Seasons 1-2 included:

• The Pit of Oblivion - A rectangular panel in the floor located at the bottom-left, which could descend once competitors had pressed a button (the pit trigger) fixed on the opposite wall. The trigger could be pressed at any time and changed appearance in between both seasons; firstly appearing as a tire (Season 1), then as a metal bumper located next to the bottom-right CPZ (Season 2). Competitors which drove into or were pushed into the opened Pit by another robot would be instantly eliminated.
• The Floor Flipper - A front-hinged, pneumatically-operated flipping panel at the top-right with a very similar appearance to the Pit. Used to throw defeated competitors across the arena once they had been attacked by the House Robots.
• The Flame Pit - a large grille on the right-hand side with multiple flame jets spouting out from beneath. Robots passing over this would sustain damage to their internal components and circuitry, as well as have any flammable armor, fuels or fluids set on fire. Joined by smaller flame jets spouting from the arena floor which served a similar purpose, as well as additional jets between the entry gates which served an atmospheric purpose.
• The Angle Grinders - wall-mounted grinding disks placed in large semi-circular housings, intended to damage any competitor making contact with them. Three of these would line the left and right-hand side walls respectively.
• The Steam Vents - upward-firing CO₂ jets which acted more as a visual hazard, but could sometimes be used to extinguish robots which had caught fire.
• The Corner Patrol Zones (CPZs) - a set of four marked areas in each corner where the House Robots would be stationed during battles.

Season 2 introduced a slightly updated Arena design shared with the concurrently-filmed Nickelodeon Robot Wars. This introduced two additional hazards which would also see use in future UK, Dutch and German versions:

• The Disc of Doom - a circular rotating panel on the center-left of the arena, similar to the Spinners used in BattleBots. As well as flinging competitors across the arena, disrupting their movements and attacks, the Disc was lined out with sharp teeth to snag and damage their undersides. Identified by a spiral pattern, this hazard could be activated by a nearby button similar to that of the Pit.
• The Drop Zone - a marked area (black rectangle with yellow cross) between the center of the Arena and the Pit, where competitors would have heavy objects dropped on them upon being defeated. Objects dropped included washing machines and, in one instance, an electronic organ.

House Robots

The House Robots were a set of robots serving as active hazards in the arena. Up to two would be stationed in Corner Patrol Zones (CPZs) in regular battles, where they would attack competitors which strayed too close to those areas. They would also deal further damage to and take defeated competitors to other hazards once they had been counted out after thirty seconds:

• Shunt - Influenced by bulldozers and railroad shunting engines, equipped with a snowplough and pneumatic lifting scoop at either end along with a powerful diamond-edged axe.
• Matilda - Based on a mutant alien boar or dinosaur, equipped with pneumatic flipping tusks and a set of interchangeable rear-mounted spinning weapons. The latter included a 3,000rpm chainsaw (as originally used in UK Series 1-4) or a vertical flywheel capable of severely damaging and even throwing competitors out of the arena.
• Dead Metal - An exoskeleton-style robot with a set of pneumatically-powered pincers and a 3,000rpm circular saw mounted on a hinged 'head' assembly.
• Sgt. Bash - Designed to resemble a futuristic military tank, with green army paintwork, hydraulic crushing pincers and a turret-mounted flamethrower used to set flammable robots alight.
• Sir Killalot - The largest, heaviest and deadliest House Robot, equipped with hydraulic arms fitted with crushing claws and a rotating drill lance. Modelled on an alien knight; his name is a pun on 'Sir Lancelot' from Arthurian legend.

In addition to these, the series had a non-combative House Robot to enforce fair play in the arena:

• Refbot - A humanoid-style robot modelled on a sporting referee, featuring ramming ploughs and scoops as well as a variety of additional equipment. His primary roles were to separate competitors if they became stuck together, extinguish fires with an arm-mounted CO₂ fire extinguisher, prevent the other "House Robots" from attacking active competitors outside of their CPZs, and to count out defeated competitors after they had become immobilized for more than thirty seconds.

The Pits

Also part of the Robot Wars studio was The Pits, a designated area where all competitor and House Robots would be maintained and prepared in between battles. Roboteers would be allocated a workbench to store and work on their robots away from the main arena, as well as introduce themselves and their machines before battles.

An entryway between the Pits area and main Arena, the tunnel, would also be used for interviews, which occasionally involved light-hearted conflicts between teams staged in a similar manner to WWF wrestling shows.

Judges

• Noel Sharkey
• Martin Smith
• Mat Irvine

Episodes

Season 1

Overall No.	Season No.	Episode	Broadcast	Winner(s)
1	1	Robot Rebellion	August 20, 2001	None declared
2	2	Annihilator	August 27, 2001	Drillzilla
3	3	Civil War	September 3, 2001	Manta (Confederacy)
4	4	Tag Team Terror	September 10, 2001	Drillzilla & Tut Tut
5	5	War of Independence	September 17, 2001	Pussycat (UK)
6	6	US Championship	September 24, 2001	Panzer Mk 2 (Champion)
7	7	World Championship	October 1, 2001	Razer (UK)

Season 2

Overall No.	Season No.	Episode	Broadcast	Winner(s)
8	1	Heat A	April 6, 2002	Panzer Mk 4
9	2	Heat B	April 13, 2002	Rocky-Bot-Boa
10	3	Heat C	April 20, 2002	Conquering Clown 2
11	4	Heat D	April 27, 2002	Propeller-Head
12	5	Heat E	May 4, 2002	Rosie the Riveter 2
13	6	Heat F	May 11, 2002	Tricerabot 3.0
14	7	Heat G	May 18, 2002	Destructive Criticism
15	8	Heat H	May 25, 2002	The Falcon Mark 2
16	9	Grand Final	June 1, 2002	Panzer Mk 4 (Champion)
17	10	Annihilator	June 8, 2002	Cyclone
18	11	Tag Team Terror	June 15, 2002	Rocky-Bot-Boa & Black Widow
19	12	International Championship	June 24, 2002	Tornado (UK)
20	13	Robot Rebellion	July 1, 2002	Dead Metal, Shunt & Sir Killalot (House Robots)

Inventors

Marc Thorpe (based on the British show and 1994-1997 US live competitions of the same name); Tom Gutteridge and Steve Carsey (executive producers).

Spin-Offs

• Robot Wars: Grand Champions - North American version of the original UK Series 4 broadcast on The New TNN between March and June 2002.
• Nickelodeon Robot Wars - Children's version filmed alongside Season 2 and aired in August-September 2002 on Nickelodeon.

TV Rating

Link

Official Website (via Internet Archive)