Monster Wars was a syndicated

Television syndication

In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 television show featuring United States Hot Rod Association

United States Hot Rod Association

The United States Hot Rod Association is an organization owned by Feld Entertainment that markets various motorsports. These include monster trucks as well as motocross, quad racing and others...

 monster truck

Monster truck

A monster truck is a pickup truck, typically styled after pickup trucks' bodies, modified or purposely built with extremely large wheels and suspension...

 racing. The show aired for one season in 1993 and 1994, and was the successor to the popular Super Trax. The show was hosted by Luann Lee

Luann Lee

Luann Laureen Lee is an American model and actress. Luann was selected as Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month in January 1987. Luann has appeared in several Playboy videos and special editions, working steadily for Playboy for more than five years following her centerfold appearance...

, with Joe Lowe providing voiceover for races and Jim Davidson

Jim Davidson (actor)

Jim Davidson is an American actor and model who is best known for his work on the mid-1990s television drama, Pacific Blue...

 as a pit reporter.

The show was controversial within the monster truck community for its use of superhero

Superhero

A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...

-style mascot

Mascot

The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...

s for several trucks. Before individual matchups of trucks, these mascots would often appear on screen, trash talking to one another. These trucks were also given new paint schemes, and in Predator

Predator (truck)

Predator Racing, Inc. is a monster truck team consisting of the trucks Predator, Prowler and Pouncer, all of which currently compete primarily on the USHRA Monster Jam circuit. The team is owned by Allen Pezo, and includes Pezo, Larry Jaruzel, Lenny Kuilder and Dale Mitchell as drivers...

's case, a new body, to match their characters (except for Grave Digger

Grave Digger (truck)

Grave Digger is the name of a team of monster trucks currently racing in the USHRA Monster Jam series. There are several Grave Diggers being driven by different drivers to allow them to make appearances at more events, but their flagship driver is creator Dennis Anderson...

, which was the most popular truck on the show). Many saw the personification of trucks as representing the sport as similar to professional wrestling

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...

, and although a toy series and video game followed, the show was cancelled after one season. Interestingly, the champion of the series, Bearfoot, had no mascot.

Trucks with mascots were:

• Grave Digger
  Grave Digger (truck)
  Grave Digger is the name of a team of monster trucks currently racing in the USHRA Monster Jam series. There are several Grave Diggers being driven by different drivers to allow them to make appearances at more events, but their flagship driver is creator Dennis Anderson...
  
   - Grim Reaper character in a graveyard
  Graveyard
  A graveyard is any place set aside for long-term burial of the dead, with or without monuments such as headstones...
  
  
• Invader - Alien robot in outer space.
• Predator
  Predator (truck)
  Predator Racing, Inc. is a monster truck team consisting of the trucks Predator, Prowler and Pouncer, all of which currently compete primarily on the USHRA Monster Jam circuit. The team is owned by Allen Pezo, and includes Pezo, Larry Jaruzel, Lenny Kuilder and Dale Mitchell as drivers...
  
   - Half man-half cat (with the ability to morph
  Morph
  - Astronomy :* Morphs collaboration, a collaboration that studied the evolution of spiral galaxies using the Magellan and the Hubble Space Telescope- Biology :...
  
   into a panther) in an urban back alley
• Equalizer - Traditional superhero in a snowy landscape
• Carolina Crusher - Construction worker in a construction zone
• Taurus - Cowboy in a desert
• First Blood - Vampire in Transylvania
  Transylvania
  Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
  
  (only appeared in roughly half the episodes, as the truck was sold mid-season).