Gladiatorial combat

Gladiatorial combat is a sport where powerful Transformers fight each other to the death as entertainment to the mass populace. It was one of the less reputable aspects of Cybertron before the Great War.

Transformers: Exodus
The gladiatorial games emerged in Kaon and Slaughter City, the low caste areas where workers sought a distraction from the drudgery of their lives. From the pits rose an unbeatable champion who took the name "Megatronus" which was later shortened to "Megatron". He killed the gladiatorial bosses and took control of their establishments, merging it into what became an anti-caste movement that attracted followers in other cites. The business even spread to the cleaner city of Iacon. During the Great War, Megatron's former gladiators were the core of the Decepticons and formed the Decepticon Gladiator Corps.

Transformers: Prime
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.

Megatron later mentioned that he "honed his skills in the pits of Kaon" as a reference to his upbringing.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise
Gladiatorial combat remained popular even in later times after Cybertron's true restoration, though the more violent aspects of it appeared to have been lessened, instead being similar to human sports such as wrestling.

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.

Decepticons

 * Megatron (As Megatronus in the Golden Age and after)
 * Soundwave
 * Insecticons
 * Barricade
 * Lugnut
 * Hydrau
 * Drixco
 * Blackout
 * Makeshift
 * Groundpounder
 * Scorponok

Autobots

 * Grimlock
 * Showdown