Years ago in the early 90's they had try-outs and a friend of mine went to try out. He posted the best scores there out of 100s of people and was ranked first. They told him "sorry kid, you are first, but just aren't good enough".
6 months later he was handpicked for the Olympic bobsledding team because of his size, speed and leg power. Later during an interview at the Olympics when they asked him what he wanted to do post Olympic, he stated he wanted to be a wrestler. Ric Flair was watching and heard it, contacted him, got him enrolled in the Power Plant and a WCW contract.
He did a guest cameo on the Tonight Show and while talking about the American Gladiators rejection they had arranged for the show to call and offer him a chance to compete on their show again. He told them to stick it up their ass.