Cage Potato assesses the situation:
I'm sure part of the reason Carano took the Gladiators role, besides the money, was to promote herself as viable television talent; if not acting roles, Carano could surely score hosting gigs post-AG for shows in the vein of Fear Factor or Wild On. The problem is, in all the press and promo clips we've seen for the show, Carano's name is rarely mentioned. Instead she's just "Crush," a Gladiator, a Warrior; she's occasionally identified as some sort of pro fighter, though her legitimate MMA pedigree is never discussed. Any hopes that her presence on the show would be a good thing for MMA should by now be deflated.
So when I see this clip of her on The Today Show this morning, standing next to a ridiculous man-beast named "Wolf," half-naked in 40-degree weather, being swatted with a pugel stick by Ann Curry, getting chastised by Matt Lauer for getting too rough with another NBC fluff-piece reporter, and having to deal with Meredith Viera's minstrel dress-up antics (the housewives love that shit), I just hope that they're paying her enough to deal with this humiliation. And I hope that diehard "Beautiful Disaster" fans take her back when the guy with the flashy car and pickup line moves on to the next pretty face...
I'll be honest: the analogy Carano "gave it up" (that phrase is used earlier in the entry) to said interests smacks of misogyny by articualating the course of Carano's career through a prism of sexual conquest. That being said, the point is - I think - ultimately correct: where is the promotion of her MMA career vis a vis American Gladiators? It's still early in the game, so perhaps we are all speaking too soon, but one has to wonder how serious a MMA competitor Carano is with distractions like this that affect her ability to fight at a lower weight and take away the time necessary to develop and test her MMA skills.