'Gladiator' star Venom is actually very bubbly

That's because Horn is better known as Venom, her nom de guerre on "American Gladiators," the adrenaline-drenched TV game show that pits Gladiators against normal Joes in bone-crunching physical feats. Beth delivers beat downs professionally — on prime-time television, no less.

Being wed to a spandex warrior has taken some adjustment for her agent/husband, Bruce Butler. Last month, the couple attended Wizard World Chicago, a comic book/movie/pop culture convention, where wrestlers and reality-TV stars abound. It was the perfect venue for "American Gladiators," a show that entered the cultural consciousness in the 1980s but recently was reborn with Hulk Hogan as a co-host.

For two full days, Horn signed autographs in her gladiatrix garb: skin-tight silver shorts and an ab-flashing, barely there top. When she first saw the outfit, she thought, "Wow, it's very small. It's amazing how small the package it came in is."

Fans lined up to pay $20 for a signed glossy and posed for photos with her.

"A lot of them wanted me to flex, but I don't do that. I don't want to be known as a bodybuilder. It just seems so masculine, and that's not me," Horn says. "But there were a lot of headlocks."

Fielding requests for headlocks just comes with the territory of newfound fame.

"So many husbands would be jealous or not supportive, and I see it all the time," she says. "I'm so grateful."

He adds: "As long as the people asking for headlocks don't follow us home."

Home is Greektown, where they live with a pair of massive, aging dogs: Cleo, an Akita, and Gabriella, a golden retriever. All four just moved to a modest condo where Butler, 39, works out of a small office that doubles as the guest bedroom.

"We're normal as can be," he says.

Bionic woman

In person, Horn doesn't seem very Venomous. In fact, the word "bubbly" best captures the 34-year-old personal trainer and former national fitness champion. But being named Bubbly the Destroyer wouldn't exactly strike fear into the spines of über-cocky "Gladiator" contestants who face her.

"The name Galaxy, I thought that would be cool," Horn says. Butler suggested Indigo, because of her blue eyes, but producers eventually went with Venom.

And so Butler became "Mr. Venom" (as NBC producers call him) and Horn's biggest supporter. A cheerleader, even. Failure is not an option; neither is self-doubt.

"I say, 'Beth, give me a . . . break; you can do anything.' She's the Bionic Woman," he says, a reference to her knee reconstructions.

Both were fans of the original "American Gladiator" series.

"I used to watch it all the time . . . and I cheered for the Gladiators!" admits Horn, a competitive gymnast in her teens.

After blowing out her left knee in high school, then her right knee in college, she turned to fitness training and bodybuilding with the help of coach Bob Dixon, with whom she still works one hour a day, five days a week.

Doesn't hide the scars

In person, the two are nearly the same size. Butler, a former spin instructor, is trim and toned with a slightly larger frame than his wife's. She wears a size 2 or 4, she says; during her bodybuilding days, she could be a size 10 or 12, but she prefers a "more athletic" look for "Gladiators." On the show, she uses self-tanning lotion but doesn't cover up the surgery scars on her knees.

"They're just part of me," she says, like tattoos, like battle scars.

In November, Horn will be immortalized in plastic as an action figure. It's a smiley, exaggerated version of her Venom alter ego.

"I want a doll, an actual doll. I love Barbie," she says. "I'm honored. . . . It's actually kind of wild. It looks like I really am a superhero. It looks pretty cool."

Butler likes the action figure but says it's not her. Not his wife.

"It's just flat-out weird, because it's a cartoon of her," he says. "I just see the woman I fell in love with."

On TV

"American Gladiators" is on KVOA, Channel 4, at 7 p.m. Mondays.