What is wrong with the axes?

[Kreegan]

I don't think it's bad luck any more. I've tried to develop Rage gladiators three or four times already but their performance is always terrible and I end up selling them. One of them was dual-axes, the other two (or three) - two-handed weapons, armed with the basic Great Axe from the armoury. Their stats looked perfect for Rages - 75+ Strength, 70+ Chi, 70+ Agility and so on and the fact that they were losing 2 out of 3 fights no matter the strategy (and the win was usually due to overly-active opponent who burned their endurance too fast) looked puzzling, to say the least. The damage dealt during the fight was minimal, even the criticals with the Great Axe never scored more than 50 damage (that's with 2-3 activity and 5-6 bloodlust). So today I armed my last Rage with a Great Sword instead of a Great Axe and... the next fight ended in no time. 2 hits x 100+ damage and the opponent was down. Now THAT is what I was expecting all along. Then I remembered that there was one occasion when I bought my two-handed War a seemingly cute two-handed axe and his damage dropped twice, even thrice (lost several fights due to this)...
So - what is the problem with the axes? I don't think I'm supposed to tell my gladiators to lunge or bash with such weapons but slashing doesn't help either. Could I be doing something wrong?