The writers of this episode seem to be a little late in wanting to ride the wave of wrestling's success. WWE's golden era was in the 1980s and early 1990s. The story isn't made any better by the fact that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has a guest appearance. Speaking of guest appearances: We see a small DS9 reunion with Combs (Weyoun) and Hertzler (Martok), which at least gives this episode something positive. Otherwise, this episode is rather weak and doesn't fit the bright stainless image of Starfleet.
When the crew has a few days of shore leave, Chakotay, Paris, Kim and several other officers spend their entire time watching an archaic form of gladiator competition. The crew bets on the winners and after a short time knows the fighters and their strengths. Somehow that doesn't fit the characters at all. Suddenly the crew is enjoying watching alien fighters smash each other's heads in a small arena. Also, how come they haven't heard about "red fights" where people actually fight to the death? With all the fights they attended and with all the background information about these competitions, they should have noticed this insignificant fact.
The crew only becomes suspicious when Seven suddenly appears in the ring and competes against a grim-looking "The Rock". Only then they do realize that there is apparently a plot behind the facade in which the fighters do not volunteer to fight, but are kidnapped and forced to fight.
The only interesting thing about this episode is the interaction between Seven and Hertzler as Hirogen fighter. This has a certain charm between a martial arts sensei and his student to teach him how to beat his own master. In the end, all that remains is the realization that Starfleet and the people of the 24th century are probably not as highly developed and morally elevated as Star Trek always wanted us to believe. As soon as people fight in front of an audience, they cheer along with the others in the stands.