Gladiatorial combat
From Transformers Wiki
One of the less reputable aspects of Cybertron before the Great War was the fact gladiatorial combat was one of the most popular sports. Though many of these games were officially illegal, they often thrived with Transformers battling each other to the death. Knowledge of this circled among way up-top government officials but they tended to turn blind optics to the bloodsport.
They should have paid better attention, for within these arenas many Megatrons first arose... and found many similarly-minded individuals.
Fiction
Generation 1 continuity family
Marvel The Transformers comics
The first gladiatorial Games of Cybertron were ancient athletic contests meant to demonstrate combatants' skills and abilities. Gladiators usually wore battle masks and fought armed with tools like shields and Energon weapons.
During the reign of the final Overlord of Cybertron, the planet was experiencing much political strife. Overpopulation had led to fuel shortages, the larger cities of Cybertron had become sovereign city-states and the Overlords little more than figureheads. In an attempt to garner more good will between city-states the last Overlord revived the Games as inter-city competitions. The attempt backfired and seemed to excite rivalries, especially between Iacon and Tarn.
During the last Games of this era, a Tarnian gladiator named Megatron brutalized his Iaconian opponent Sunstreaker, even threatening to kill him. Optimus Prime entered the arena to put a stop to this. Despite an axe to the chest Prime got Megatron to stop with his photon pistol. This altercation made the Overlord postpone award ceremonies for the Games.
At the same time, saboteurs from Vos were using the Games as cover for an operation to destroy Tarn's main power plant and frame Iacon for the deed. They were caught by a technician from Tarn who recognized them as members of the Vosian gladiatorial team. The power plant was still destroyed bringing Vos and Tarn to war instead. State Games
When Smokescreen was introduced to Earth's demolition derbies he considered it a form of gladiatorial combat and went to participate as soon as he knew he was allowed to. Devastation Derby!
The Games on Cybertron did not surface for another 4 million years. The Decepticons revived gladiatorial combat in an alliance with the alien known as Zabra but were shut down by Ultra Magnus and the Sparkler Mini-Bots. Deadly Games!
It amused the Triumvirate to pit their warriors against Autobot POWs in arena fights rather than actually going out and fighting the war. They even pitted 'Con against 'Con when the returning Straxus-Megatron clone challenged their leadership forcing him to fight his own troops, but a rousing speech rallied them back to his side and they overthrew the Triumvirate ending the arena matches seemingly for good. The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire.
The Transformers cartoon
Millions of years in the past when Cybertron was still a Quintesson-ruled factory world the planet's robotic slaves were forced to battle each other in gladiatorial combat for the amusement of their masters. Some of the robots forced to compete in these sadistic games grew tired of it and attempted to fight against their oppressors. Although this initial revolt failed it would plant the seeds of rebellion that proved successful and one of the participants would hold the Matrix of Leadership. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4
Dreamwave Generation One continuity
There were several gladiatorial combats staged in city-states far from Iacon, such as in Kaon. For some such as Grimlock it was a good outlet for anger and aggression. Megatron was a participant of these games. As his victories mounted he realized they were a simple conspiracy by the Council of Ancients to keep the masses distracted. Megatron began using the matches to find similarly-minded Transformers. For over half a million years Megatron used the games to recruit the Decepticon army, even bribing Emirate Xeon to remain quiet. Finally however, they struck. The War Within
Descent into Evil
The Insecticon Buzzclaw used to be a fighter in the gladatorial pits of Polyhex. BotCon 2005 Buzzclaw profile card
2005 IDW continuity
Gladiatorial combat was a popular pastime in the barbaric ages predating the first unification of Cybertron. In the arenas of Protohex, a pair of siblings named Galvatron and Arcee carved out a reputation for themselves as "The Twins". In the ensuing war that precipitated the first gathering of the Thirteen, the Twins would go on to serve in the vanguard of Megatronus' army after slaughtering their master Septimus Prime. Origin Myths
Gladiatorial combat continued on as a forbidden though alluring bloodsport, surviving into the modern eras of Transformer civilization. Four million years ago, Megatron, Rumble and Frenzy escaped to Kaon after a prison riot where they joined Clench's illegal gladiatorial circuit. Megatron's star began to rise, attracting the attention of Sentinel Prime and Senator Ratbat. In Megatron's first victory the crowd chanted "'Til all are one". (They like saying that when people die.) Megatron Origin #2 As Megatron's power grew he used the games to recruit his army of Decepticons. Megatron Origin #3
Much later on the Garrus-9 penitentiary Overlord hosted gladiatorial fights, the most prominent featuring crazed Autobot Kick-Off doing things like ripping Borehole's head off. However, when Overlord was barely defeated by the Wreckers the games were forcibly put to an end. Last Stand of the Wreckers #1
Transformers vs. G.I. Joe
Megatron used the Polyhex Killway arena to stage gladiatorial battles between prisoners of war. A group of Autobot and G.I. Joe prisoners were transported by Astrotrain to the Killway. There, they were forced into a battle royale with Destro and Zartan manipulating them via some kind of remote control while Megatron and his guests watched. Expelled from the Garden
Beast Wars: Uprising
In his glory days before the Great War, Double Punch was a celebrated gladiator. Identity Politics
When the Autobots and Decepticons grew too decrepit to continue the war these Builders of Cybertron constructed the Maximals and Predacons who competed in the Games. While the Games encompassed a variety of different sports, gladiatorial combat between teams was always a favorite. Typically these matches would take place in Cybertron's ruined cities which had been gutted and repurposed as arenas. Any Maximal or Predacon could be called to fight in the Games at a moment's notice; only those in higher positions such as the Maximal Command Security Force or Predacon Secret Police were immune to this random selection.
The Maximal Guardian of Order Lio Convoy oversaw these matches from behind the scenes, rigging the results so they would never end and the Builders would never run out of amusement. Broken Windshields
War for Cybertron Trilogy marketing material
Before the war for Cybertron, Megatron partook in the gladiatorial events at Kaon, which led to his rise to power and began the Decepticon revolution. Siege Teletraan-1 Data Files
One of Megatron's powers and weapons was his gladiatorial strength. Kingdom webpage[1]
In a possible destiny recorded on the Voyager Golden Disk, Megatron returned to the gladiator fighting pits. Kingdom Golden Disk cards
2019 IDW continuity
Gladiatorial combat was a popular pastime during the Age of Expansion, a violent sport that attracted athletes like Megatron, Apeface, Lugnut, Clench, and Tap-Out. The Change In Your Nature Part Three Transformers Valentine's Day Special After the War of the Threefold Spark, the Constructicons planned to construct a new arena in Iacon where gladiators and their many fans could continue the sport. Orion Pax: Free Fall
In time, however, the sport fell out of popularity; by Sentinel Prime's era the new Prime banned all gladiatorial combat and shut down the old arenas, Transformers Valentine's Day Special a decree that extended to colonial worlds like Mayalx. Constructicons Rising, Part 2 Apeface and Tap-Out attempted to take their fights underground in a last-ditch effort to keep the sport alive, but their first and only match ended with both members of the audience walking out just after the show began. Transformers Valentine's Day Special
At some point, the burgeoning Ascenticon movement set up shop in Iacon's old gladiator arena and refurbished it into Ascenticon Headquarters. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Five
Transformers/Back to the Future
While observing a shootout in Hill Valley, Rumble compared the sight to the gladiator pits on Cybertron. Transformers/Back to the Future #1
Animated
Lugnut was a gladiator before he joined the Decepticons. His title was "the Kaon Krusher". Lugnut's toy bio
Also, Trypticon Prison was constructed right next to an old gladiatorial arena in Kaon. The Stunti-Con Job
Revenge of the Fallen toy bios
Before the war Cybertron thrilled to the gladiatorial games. Sideswipe trained for years to take part in them and became a master at fencing. Robot Replica Sideswipe
Aligned continuity family
Hall of Fame bios
Before starting the Lightning Strike Coalition, a 'bot named "Grimlock" started off as a gladiator for obvious reasons, though in a fight with a notorious combatant called "Scorponok" his voice box was somewhat damaged and apparently unrepaired, leaving him with a speech impediment. Transformers Hall of Fame
Aligned novels
Gladiatorial games emerged in places such as Kaon and Slaughter City, lower-caste areas where workers sought a distraction from the drudgery of their lives. The original High Council, aware of why the games began blatantly did nothing to stop them. From the pits rose a virtually unbeatable champion who took the name "Megatronus" which was later shortened to "Megatron". He killed the gladiatorial bosses when they tried to convince him to fix the matches by losing on purpose and took control of their establishments, merging it into what became an anti-caste movement that attracted followers in other cities. The business even spread to the cleaner city of Iacon. During the civil war Megatron's former fellow gladiators were the core of Decepticons and formed the Decepticon Gladiator Corps. Exodus Prime graphic novelization
Prime cartoon
Ratchet recounted that Optimus Prime when he was still the data clerk "Orion Pax" met Megatron when the future Decepticon leader was still another gladiatorial fighter. One Shall Rise, Part 3 Megatron later mentioned that he had "honed [his] skills in the pits of Kaon". Crossfire
2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon
Gladiatorial combat remained popular even in the post-war era following Cybertron's restoration, though the more violent aspects of it appeared to have been lessened with the sport now appearing to be legal.
One gladiator of the modern era known as Groundpounder proved popular with fans but was arrested by half of the Cybertron Elite Guard and locked up on the Alchemor alongside his unscrupulous coach Headlock after going on a violent rampage due to being correctly accused of cheating and thrown out of the ring. Groundpounder himself would later make a comparison of human demolition derbies to gladiatorial combat, even claiming he fought Dinobots before. The Champ
List of gladiators
Cyberverse cartoon
Before the Great War, Megatron was a champion of the gladiator arena. Trials Megatron Is My Hero
Go-Bots comic
In 2018, seedy businessman T. Coriander Banks ran an illegal Go-Bot gladiator fight club. The Go-Bots who took part in the combat were modified to increase their aggression. When these Go-Bots picked up a modification that the United States military had made to its own Go-Bots that allowed for lethal force, their G-chips deactivated and they began a rebellion. Go-Bots #1 Go-Bots #2
Games
Transformers Roleplaying Game
Gladiatorial combat took place in a series of sprawling arenas known as the “Pits”, the place where Megatron first got his start. Combat ranged from lightweight ‘bots fighting against various alien creatures, all the way up to vicious blood matches where heavily armed incumbents attempted to depose the reigning Pit champions. Despite the brutality of these matches, the local code of honor maintained that that anyone brave enough to risk their skidplate in the Pits would be protected by their fellow gladiators. Decepticon Directive
