Dallas Newlywed Ally Davidson competing on American Gladiators

"It was like one last crazy thing to do before I got married," the Dallas sales representative told the Star-Telegram for an online interview in June. "I wanted to let the producers know that I was making that big a sacrifice to come try out for the show on the day of my wedding."

Well, it worked — beyond her expectations. The producers wanted to do a "couples edition," so they persuaded Ally’s newlywed husband, Jeff, to come on the show. Both did well during the summer season, getting past their first rounds, which is tough enough. But Jeff was eliminated last week, and only Ally will be on tonight’s finale. She had another phone chat with the Star-Telegram to talk about it.

Since your initial episodes aired, do you hear from more people about your wedding-day audition?

Yeah, it’s kinda funny. We’ve been noticed a couple of times now. I’ve been noticed at the gym working out. The funny part about that is, everyone’s watching you work out and judging you. But the whole experience has been amazing, it’s been great and we’re still rockin’ and rollin’ and having fun with it.

So does anybody say anything about the veil, or are they trying to scope you out figuring if they should say something?

[Laughs] That’s what most people remember and recognize about that episode: "Oh, yeah, you were that girl wearing the veil on your tryouts, weren’t you?" I’m like, "Yeah, that was me." That’s what sets most people off and makes it memorable. So that’s a good thing, people remembering us.

What’s been the most challenging thing in the competitions?

The whole thing is a mental game. You’re mentally exhausted. You wait around 12 hours a day before you’re called to do your event, and you don’t know which event you’re doing, against which Gladiators, you don’t know what time you’re gonna go, so this whole thing is you wait to go out there and perform and pray that you do OK in your 60 seconds.

That was the hardest part when you were actually filming. Since we’ve gotten back, it’s just been trying to adjust to the back-to-normal life. It’s not quite as fun as going up against Gladiators every day, you know, going to work.

Do you ever feel like, say, doing a race while hanging upside-down from the ceiling or maybe getting knocked into a pool of water by someone bigger than you?

I would give anything to be able to play those crazy games again. When you’re there, you’re so nervous and exhausted, and you’ll throw up before your event because you’re so anxious. After you get back, you don’t have those nerves anymore — except when you’re watching the show. We still get those same feelings. You kinda miss it, and you wish you still had it.

Because you and Jeff were both on the show, did that double the nerves, because when you weren’t in your events, you were cheering each other on?

Oh, it was horrible. I was more nervous watching him, because I kinda dragged him out on the show and I’m sitting there going, "Oh, please, Lord, don’t let him get killed by these huge guys." Every event has a high potential for injury, so you hope you can come out of it and still be walking.

I recall him getting a pretty big bruise on last Monday’s episode.

On the Eliminator [a brutal and elaborate obstacle course], he took that rope swing really hard and it didn’t quite descend him, so he actually hit the metal scaffolding on that part of the race. He fell off a platform during the race, cracked some ribs, got a concussion and busted his eye open. He got beat pretty well.

And yet he’s not so competitive that he’s jealous that you’re still in it and he’s out.

No, it wasn’t like that at all. He had a great [run] and we knew that if he hadn’t gotten injured during the Eliminator, he woulda definitely made it on to the finals. It was one of those things. It was a crazy fluke accident that just happened. There was no bitterness on his part. I was probably more upset than he was.

I’m 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds of pure flab. Think you can take me?

[Laughs. Hard.] Well, it depends on the event! You could probably get me in tug-of-war. [Reporter’s note: Actually, probably not]

Check out Jeff and Ally Davidson’s "Camp Gladiator" Web site, featuring videos from the show and their own Gladiator boot camp, at www.campgladiator.com. For more on the Davidsons, visit the Pop Cultural District blog at www.star-telegram.com/blogs and click on the "American Gladiators" category.