Tough Enough Recap + Review – 4/4/11

Well, as you all know the days of ROH On HDNet are finally over and my review of the final episode will follow tomorrow. But in the meantime it’s time to begin my transition into reviewing the revived Tough Enough series. I’m greatly looking forward to it given the way it’s been treated ahead of time, though the contestants’ appearance on Raw this week disheartened me a touch.

The likes of The Miz, John Morrison, Matt Morgan, Kenny King, Skip Sheffield, Daniel Puder, Maven, Chris Nowinski, Matt Cappotelli, Nidia, Josh Matthews, Jackie Gayda, and Mitch from Spirit Squad all competed in the first four seasons of the show before it was abolished, while Awesome Kong, Melina, Shawn Daivari, The Boogeyman, Shad, Melina, ODB, Shelly ‘Ariel’ Martinez, and Justin Roberts would audition but fail to make the cut. I think general consensus was that season 1 was enjoyable, but series 2 and 3 got a bit too caught up in the reality TV aspect of the show, despite a nice array of talent. Series 4 spelled the end when it was integrated directly into the Smackdown brand to parallel the Diva Search on Raw, morphing into an early version of NXT in the process. Though Daniel Puder stunning the world by almost breaking Kurt Angle’s arm was entertaining, the show was a failure and was banished from the WWE’s good graces… Until now!!!

So join me each week for a look at Tough Enough…. what? I’m not enough for you? OK, how about Stone Cold Steve Austin, Booker T and Trish Stratus as trainers too? Still not enough? I can throw in Bill DeMott but that’s it.

Introduction to the Series

Stone Cold welcomes us to the show by discussing his legacy and a desire to find a new superstar. He runs down six of the contestants, which may be telling about who is going to succeed. They are Luke, “a pretty boy from Maine”, Rima Fakih aka Miss USA 2010, Eric Watts who Miz punked out on Raw (buckwheat), Ivelisse, a small-framed indie wrestler, Matt (Cross), an indy veteran and former gymnast, and Jeremiah, a farm boy and MMA fighter. A fairly eclectic cast I think you’ll have to admit. We’re shown footage from forthcoming episodes including some challenges and drama between the contestants. Austin says he is looking for not just an athlete or a personality, but a total package, standing in an empty arena as pyro goes off. His line that he never gets tired of the fireworks may be corny, but he sells it well and his personality immediately comes across. I already have high hopes for him as the host.

Welcome to the Show

Remaining in the ring, Austin summons our 13 contestants to the top of the stage and barks at them to come closer to the ring. Instantly we see that this is a reality show as some of them elect to sprint down the ramp while others take their time to stroll on down. I enjoy subtle moments like, and the different approaches they all take in terms of kissing up to the host is going to be one of the driving forces of the show. More on that later. We also get the typical cutaways to pre-recorded interviews that add insight to events. I have a love/hate relationship with these in all reality shows; on the one hand they do heighten the experience, on the other they break any sense of timeline by being recorded after the fact. I have a hard enough time dealing with a weekly show that was recorded in its entirety months before it makes television as it is.

Austin welcomes them to Tough Enough and has them look around the empty arena and imagine that they’ve won and have the task of entertaining the people that would fill the building. He’s quick to point out that most of them won’t get any closer than standing there and imagining, and that while he’ll give them all a chance, he won’t hesitate to toss them from the show if they mess up. Standard reality affair with all the contestants gathered in one place looking at what they’re competing for while the host lays down the law of the land. The empty arena was a nice touch because it illustrates the whole so close, but so far nature they’re looking for in these openers.

First Lesson: Commitment

Austin wants to teach them life lessons in and out of the ring each week and the first one will be about commitment. He talks about how committed the backstage crew are to the WWE and in an effort to haze the contestants has them don less than flattering coveralls and help set-up and take-down a WWE set. They pick up garbage, run cables, put up the ring and do a lot of heavy lifting. Some of them get scolded for attempting to watch the show instead of cleaning up, with Rima being teased about breaking a nail.

Amidst this we get some more cutaways. Michelle chose modelling over wrestling and regretted it so here she is trying to have the best of both worlds by being a diva. While sorting garbage she says “at least I still look pretty” and on Raw this week she said she’s definitely good looking enough to be a diva, both of which make me dislike her intensely. Ariane struggles with the work, wearing heels and expressing her displeasure with looking like a janitor. Mickael tells us his company downsized and let him go so his wife is supporting him financially. Rima says she doesn’t want to just be known as Miss USA and is willing to work hard. Ivelisse has a silly name. Oh and she says it was humbling to see what the crew go through every week. She has a very good point; we just watch the two-hour broadcasts each week, we rarely see the all-day effort it takes to set up and pack away the WWE circus in a different building every night. It was good to bring them all down a peg or two right from the outset – they’re getting a pretty nice ride to potential fame so they should be humbled at least once a week.

The House

So where would you expect contestants on a reality show to live? An enormous mansion decked out with beautiful and unnecessary objects, complete with a swimming pool and gym? Correct. Martin puts the house over, and you know what? He didn’t have to do that but he’s not afraid to job to a domicile and you have to respect that. Trainers Booker T, Trish Stratus and Bill DeMott greet them and the contestants shower them in praise. They’re sent inside to have the standard “Oh My God! Have you seen this room?!” freak-out session that comes with arriving in a mansion and eventually find a card on their beds congratulating them on making the show and informing them they each have a replica WWE Title belt that must be returned to Austin when they are eliminated. I like props like these on reality shows that are taken away during eliminations and belts were the obvious way to go. Ryan says the belt symbolises his dream of making it and he will prove he’s committed. Martin walks around carrying his which I think makes him a tool, but that’s not for me to decide.

They sit around waiting to start training and begin asking each other how long they’ve been working. Rima immediately surrenders the information that she’s never wrestled before and and M-Dogg guesses she’s a beauty contestant, and hilariously tells her she’s not when she says she’s Miss USA. To his credit, he’s not the only one who was dubious, but the boldness of his statement made me laugh. AJ doesn’t think she has any business in a ring, and just wants to add to her resume, but of course he doesn’t dare say this to her face.

Mickael however has no such qualms and lets Rima, Ariane and Christina (Alicia Fox’s little sister) know that he feels they only got on the show for their looks after hearing they have 3 days of combined wrestling experience. While he’s 100% correct, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend saying it out loud and naturally pillow and water throwing ensues. Rima does a lot of cursing, and during the preview footage we saw her arguing with other contestants, so I guess we have our foul-mouthed troublemaker. We also have in Mickael the rude guy who isn’t afraid to badmouth the ladies. I feel there’s one of those in every reality show too.

Daily Training

They report to the nearby training building, which seems to be a converted set of luxury stables. DeMott says conditioning and commitment go hand in hand and has them exercise while Austin drives in the back door on a motorcycle. No idea why they felt the need for him to make such an entrance but the camera shot on the bike looking up at him made me laugh. He has each of them get into the ring and perform some rolls and bumps. Ryan is christened Skid-Marks and after struggling to roll goes all wobbly-legged and looks like he may throw up. He isn’t the only one to receive a nickname, as Martin gets called Donny Osmand, and AJ is named Tumbleweed due to flopping like a mad-man (in a good way). AJ puts Luke over for his looks and conditioning, and Austin calls him outstanding after his impressive rolls and bumps.

Ariane is instantly terrible, unable to roll. Austin finds it painful, but Trish is encouraging. Ariane herself states she’s not a great athlete but she has everything else…. sure ya do honey. Rima brains herself trying to roll, driving her forehead right into the mat and then going flat. This had me in stitches. She does one in slow motion and Austin patronises her by calling it perfect and asks if she was worried about breaking her tiara. She’s not just there for her looks at all.

When Trish hears Michelle started wrestling 11 years ago she immediately zeroes in on her. Booker and DeMott get on her case too and hilariously she admits she can’t do rolls. Christina – like the rest of us – doubts Michelle‘s eleven year claim after he performance. DeMott continues to humiliate her and she struggles to run the ropes too. Michelle claims she’s worried because she’s “lost [her] basics”. It would be a little naïve to believe she ever had them given how she performed.

DeMott ties a bow on the segment by saying some of them are very green and none of them realise how tough this is. This first session seemed to concentrate more on the bad than good, and that’s probably because seeing Miss USA face-plant is far more entertaining than seeing Matt Cross do textbook rolls. They did show Luke doing well though and seem to immediately be pushing him.

Back to the House

Some of the guys start drinking and Luke claims well-behaved people rarely made history. I’m too lazy to generate a list that proves him wrong. Some of the girls hit the hot tub, and Matt, Andy, Ivelisse and AJ hang out in the kitchen and discuss protein. Yep, seriously. Andy (23) talks about his 7-month pregnant wife and one-year old daughter, and how he wants to win to help them. I appreciate his attitude but appearing for the first time so late in the episode may hurt him. He condemns Luke and Jeremiah for their partying and we see Luke and Martin falling over drunk.

In contrast to their behaviour the night before, Luke and Jeremiah are shown working out together first thing in the morning while the others sleep. Luke wants to be the Ric Flair of the contest, partying hard but working harder. Mickael calls them nuts. Not a fantastic segment, but Andy has a good story and seeing Luke and Jeremiah lift medicine balls in perfect sync was hilarious.

Skills Challenge

Each week they will take part in a skills challenge that will contribute greatly to whether they stay or go and our first one will be what Austin calls three minutes of hell. To us mortals, that’s running the ropes for 120 seconds. Again we saw more of the bad than the good, but once again Luke is shown being praised, and M-Dogg gets some love from Booker too, as well as pointing out that running the ropes for so long in one go is actually difficult. Mickael echoes the sentiment by showing off some pretty nasty rope burns. Ivelisse collapses the moment time elapses and Austin yells at her to get up.

Eric is so out of shape it’s embarrassing, almost falling at times, and stopping for a moment between runs. I had hope for him being an indy guy from out west, but his conditioning is inexcusable. Austin points out all his positives but questions his heart. Jeremiah claims he’s the greenest person there (umm Miss USA?) and runs with pace and explosiveness but in the process drops his false teeth to the mat. I guess MMA will do that to you. Naturally everyone is amused and DeMott wonders if it was his, demonstrating he is part of the Mark Briscoe false-teeth club. Michelle, now nicknamed Miss 11-Years goes at a snail’s pace. Ariane can’t stop grabbing her pants to pull them up and gets scolded three times for it. She wasn’t very good either, looking like she feared the ropes were covered in barbed wire.

Rima gets to go last and a spectacle is of course made of it. She’s slow and hits the ropes a bit gingerly but Austin actually praises her. DeMott notices she has a pad down her shorts to brace her. Trish questions whether it’s cheating or not. Austin doesn’t look pleased and tosses it away. She claims it was due to pain she experienced yesterday. Though it’s shady tactics, I have to say that’s not the area I’d pad if I wanted to cheat.

On paper that challenge sounds easy, and Joey Styles remarked on Twitter that even he could run the ropes for three minutes, but given the rope burn Mickael received and Austin himself admitting it’s tough, I think it was a good challenge, but again, not entertaining to see it done well.

Critique

Austin the trainers step into his office to discuss the contestants. Booker and Austin praise Luke‘s drive and charisma. Trish scolds Ariane for her wardrobe shenanigans, pointing out it’s important for female wrestlers to have proper fitting gear that isn’t a distraction. DeMott calls her greener than green. Trish says Michelle doesn’t have star quality and Austin agrees. Booker and DeMott say Eric has no motivation despite being 6’6”. Austin agrees, saying he wanted him to impress but he failed. Booker commends Rima for getting through the fitness tests. They discuss the concept of cheating, with Trish not approving, but Booker believing that if you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’. Austin seems to agree.

They return from the office and Austin calls Michelle, Ariane and Eric forth as their designated bottom three. Everybody heads back to the house and the unlucky trio feel sorry for themselves with Michelle feeling misundestood, Ariane refusing to be the first one sent home, and Eric lamenting being on the chopping block with someone with only two days wrestling experience.

Elimination – Set-Up

Austin sugarcoats it by telling them they’re the worst three. Each of them have their chance to tell a sob-story, with Ariane taking the term literally. She says she gave up her job and house to be there. Michelle says she gave up wrestling six years ago when she got married and had a baby. Eric talks about his four siblings, one of whom is mentally handicapped and he has spent most of his life caring for. Austin takes issue with Eric‘s laid-back attitude, and for turning up to the show out of shape, cutting a promo on him and insulting all three of them. He also warns Michelle that he is a father to two daughters and being on the road 300 days a year made him a bad father.

As is the norm, each contestant is asked to comment on their competition. Ariane feels she performed better than Michelle despite being less experienced. Michelle answers by cutting a promo about Ariane having no passion and that she and Eric have a desire to succeed. Ariane gets told to go climb a mountain or run some races if she wants life experience. Austin naturally sits back and watches them bicker. He then trips Ariane up on her “new passion” of wrestling, asking about her favourite match. Her response? Melina vs. Alicia Fox. Austin can barely contain himself, and nor can anyone watching at home. To make things worse she can’t name another match.

I’d rather they had to do something more than explain why they wanted to win in order to save themselves, but I suppose in the debut show we need to weed out the pretenders. Perhaps in future episodes they may have to get physical to survive elimination.

Elimination – Aftermath

This faux-pas proves to be her downfall and Austin eliminates Ariane and takes her belt. She says she is Tough Enough and that we’ll still see her in the WWE. It’s American Idol! Michelle congratulates Eric and repeatedly thanks Stone Cold. Austin says she has too much experience and he has too much potential for them to be in the bottom three.

Ariane is disappointed, naturally, claiming she brought everything she had. Austin tells us that he can tell whether or not people really want to be in the WWE by talking to them and that’s why he eliminated her. On his office wall are a bunch of empty portraits with a picture of Ariane filling the one on the far left. He hangs her belt under it. Nice touch, but the picture could have been a little bigger to drive the symbolism home more effectively.

End Credits

In a preview of next week’s episode and those going forward, we see some of the forthcoming challenges such as being chased down by an attack dog while wearing a protective suit and see that The Rock, John Cena, Rey Mysterio and the Big Show will be guesting. I look forward to each and every one of their appearances.

Overall Show Thoughts

First and foremost, I really like the format. It’s a well constructed television show that holds its own with any reality show out there. It has all the usual hallmarks from the music cues, to the ‘after the break’s and ‘tune in next week’s, and of course the challenges, eliminations, cut-away interviews, and tensions from living with your competitors. We even have some of the contestants slotting themselves into the stereotypical roles of reality show contestants. Mickael is the obnoxious one, Rima is the foul-mouthed troublemaker, Michelle is the ‘nobody understands me’ chick, Luke is the arrogant one etc. I get the feeling not a lot of actual on-air wrestling is going to be done, so their personalities are going to be crucial to making the audience invest in them.

It’s immediately clear that Stone Cold Steve Austin is going to be the glue that holds the show together. He’s a very strong talker and his gimmick has always been one of someone who won’t accept excuses or pull punches, so he’s perfect as the host. Him running down the bottom three was gold, and his quick-witted retorts during their work-outs were great too. Trish was at times a little too nice for my liking, and there wasn’t an awful lot of Booker T, but Bill DeMott was really strong in his tough as nails trainer role. He’s not there to make any friends and you can tell most of the contestants are afraid of him, which can only lead to good things down the road as they take bumps from him and he chews them out when they slip up.

But what of the contestants?? Luke is getting a lot of screen time so far and while I can’t deny his athleticism and look, I’m not a fan of his cocky attitude. Comparing yourself to Ric Flair will do you no favours, and nicknaming yourself the Golden Sledgehammer will do you even less. Matt is the internet favourite given the decent level he’s performed at for numerous companies and in several countries, but aside from his quips towards Rima, he barely managed any screen-time. Martin is apparently an accomplished wrestler who has worked for the NWA for nearly 8 years, so he may be a dark horse. Eric is monstrous and has been getting work out West for a few years, so if he can improve his physical conditioning I’d expect him to survive. Jeremiah and Andy have the size, conditioning and charisma to intrigue me too. Ivelisse seems to take the competition far more seriously than the other ladies and looks like she can handle herself, but she is pretty small.

AJ seems ok, but there’s not a lot to him. Mickael’s personality isn’t endearing and he doesn’t stand out in the ring. Ryan is just there. Michelle talks a lot but can’t back it up. Rima talks even more and it’s obvious she is going to get an awful lot of camera time due to her ineptitude in the ring and short fuse out of it. Christina didn’t get a chance to speak for a very long time and did nothing to stand out when she did. Given the talent level of her sibling my hopes aren’t exactly high.

Elimination Verdict

Absolutely the right decision was made in this episode. Ariane had no business being in the competition having barely wrestled and knowing nothing about the industry. Say what you want about Michelle and Rima, they at least care and have been fans for years. Ariane embarrassed herself in the ring and made a fool of herself when she spoke. Her American Idol-esque words upon being eliminated punctuated the decision in my mind. Hundreds of wrestlers auditioned for the show and I’d like to hear the justification for choosing her. Austin Aries was rejected folks.

But hold up! Word broke today that she had in fact received a developmental contract and had reported to FCW, so I guess we WILL be seeing her in the WWE. That may be why she seemed so sure of herself on Raw. It will be interesting to hear from the contestants as they get eliminated as they’re all on a strict media ban until they episode where they leave has aired.

Plugs

Not sure if you heard, but there were a few wrestling events in Atlanta this last weekend. I covered three of them so if you’re after in-depth results for ROH’s Honor Takes Center Stage Night One and Two, or DGUSA’s Mercury Rising 2011, look no further.

I also appeared on a pair of live podcasts with Jerome discussing the results of these shows. The first is archived but I’m having some technical difficulties with the audio file for night two. I’m not sure if I can fix it, but if I do, I’ll be sure to post it.

Speaking of podcasts, if you haven’t heard the debut of the JKM Fun Hour drop everything you’re doing and go listen right now. It was concerned with previewing this last weekend’s shows so if you haven’t heard it already you may not get the same enjoyment from it, but hey, you can mock us if we were wrong about anything.

I wrote a nice long article assessing the entire ROH roster recently.