texts: Underdog!  How can he be an underdog -- he wins all the time!  I'm the emperor why can't I kill him?  He could be poisoned, or somehow killed to look like an accident.
labels: You don't want to kill him.  If anything happens to him now you will be blamed... and he knows it. Besides, that gladiator school is a fortress.  It would take the army to break in there.  What you want is to... offer him the wooden sword. If he takes it, he's no longer the champion of the people, is he?  He's gone.  And you are a hero for awarding it.