There was a show on TV about creatures submitted by viewers fighting in card games. 32 submissions were collected from a large random pool, but I only remembered two of them. They were put into a 5-round tournament bracket.
The creatures grew in strength and gained special abilities and new designs as they advanced.
One of the third-round fights was between a machine that looked like an iron maiden with short limbs who had special nuclear attacks fighting against an armored scorpion with shields for claws. The iron maiden creature went on to win the tournament.
After the tournament, the iron maiden fought a giant cube with wings, legs three times as long as the cube’s side, and an overly detailed face. The background during the final confrontation was a blue screen with bars of other tints of blue scrolling across the screen.
Before every match there was a 10 second animation that looked kinda like a political ad.