In a week that was supposed to be all about Creativity, injuries rear their ugly head and ruin the plan.
AJ Returns
AJ returns to the house and explains the double-elimination to the other five remaining contestants which of course elicits varying reactions. Christina is happy because she wanted to knock out all the girls, whereas Martin provides the reality check that nobody is safe if Stone Cold is going to eliminate two people in one week. We also see a LOT of AJ talking, more than the previous episodes combined almost. The last time that happened was with Matt Cross and he got eliminated that same episode. Just sayin’.
Yoga Time
Trish takes Christina out to a tiny pier over the lake in front of the house (yes, there is a lake in front of the house, no, I didn’t know until this week either) to do some yoga. Christina says she’s scared but she knows she can win. She lets out a few tears when talking about wanting to be allowed to take her guard down for a moment. Trish feels she could win the show, not that there’s any bias or anything.
Daily Training
Bill mocks Martin’s old boots, telling him to sell his car and get new boots. Bill is proud of Christina for surviving for so long and asks her to keep up the good work. As a warm up they take turns to pin Luke while he kicks out at two each time. Interesting idea for a drill, and not something I’d have thought of, but certainly worth practicing.
Austin arrives and the theme of the week is Creativity, and this is how they can take a basic move and make it their own. They line up and take turns executing fireman’s carries and arm drags. AJ gets scolded for being timid, while Christina is praised. Jeremiah is told off for going to his MMA instincts, blocking and countering the grounded submissions. I found it pretty funny to seem him owning Luke and Martin, but the trainers don’t want him to do such things apparently.
Clearing the Ring
The contestants move on to another fundamental, throwing each other out of the ring. Austin tells them they’re all bad at leaving the ring and asks them to be more creative, while Booker gets hands on and tosses Martin out of the ring himself. The instruction to be more creative of course leads to mishaps, as AJ throws Jeremiah too roughly and his hand almost gets caught in the ropes. Andy steals the danger show however by accidentally punching Luke in the face to break an armbar, and then hurls him out of the ring, sending him face first into the mat. Luke manages to break his fall but comes up with a bloody nose. Am I the only one who saw this coming when they were told to be more creative?
Bill tells Andy he’s worse than AJ now, and it’s another of those who should be more insulted situations. The trainers and Austin agree that the entire work-out was worthless as everybody underperformed and they’re ejected.
Andy’s Family Time
Andy watches a video of his daughter that his wife sent him and then talks to her on the phone. Unlike Michelle, Andy’s family time seems to refocus his mind rather than pushing him towards walking out. Good for you dude. I wonder if the others get these messages from their families.
Divas In The House
Trish decides to reward the contestants’ failures by inviting Kelly Kelly, Eve, and the Bella Twins to the house to take them all out on the town. In a wonderfully scripted moment they arrive as Jeremiah, Luke and Martin are wearing nothing but towels, and Jeremiah looks like a kid in a candy store. Everybody gets changed to head out with the Divas and Christina of course gets the warmest reception as they comment on how well she fits in. Couldn’t be because she’s a dead-ringer for her sister who is already a Diva could it?
Andy finds himself in a position I’m in on an almost weekly basis as one of the Bellas (like you could tell them apart) asks him why he isn’t drinking. Luke mocks him because he’s the nicest guy alive. Kelly shocks the world by confiding in Christina that she has off-days too. How many on-days does she have? She gushes over Christina and if you don’t think this girl is getting a contract you’re insane.
One of the Bellas gives AJ advice after learning he survived elimination and says it’s not about moves, it’s about keeping the crowd interested. Sums the WWE up perfectly, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. How many moves did Hogan and Austin do? How exciting were they? Things get weird as Jeremiah and Luke request bitch-slaps from the Divas and then take turns on each other. Weird.
Game On!
The contestants are taken to THQ headquarters and meet the company’s CEO who tells them they’ll be creating themselves on WWE All-Stars. Jeremiah creates a gargantuan mass of muscle wearing nothing but tighty-whiteys and boots, while Christina makes a mannish looking diva with massive boobs. Jeremiah wins, but Christina does a better job of explaining why she made it the way she did.
AJ creates a dynamic rock star called Jaxon Krash in response to being called boring. Luke creates the Miz on steroids called the Legend. I think Luke won but again, not the point. They’re quizzed about their creations and both commended. Martin creates Ultimate Warrior after some gamma radiation, while Andy sort of makes a larger version of himself called Silent Rage. Andy wins and Austin points out and praises the fact he made a version of himself. THQ’s CEO chooses Luke’s lame creation as the winner though.
This was an unusual challenge because when you give them a blank canvas they can create absolutely anything, way beyond the realms of possibility. So are you asking them to show you what they would like to be if they get a WWE contract, or just asking them to say “here’s something creative”?
Martin’s Injury
During a night time training session (to make up for the lack of physicality in the life lesson) Martin behaves strangely and confuses the training staff, but upon replay it becomes clear he injured himself. He’s incredibly frustrated, not wanting to miss a moment of practice, and perhaps aware that Ivelisse was cut for an injury. Despite his protests he’s sent to the hospital for an X-Ray. Luke does an awful job of pretending he isn’t thrilled.
The next day during a warm-up, Martin arrives on crutches wearing his belt and informs the cast that he fractured his ankle and isn’t medically cleared to continue with the show. He’s naturally devastated and Austin takes him into his office as AJ says he was the best competitor on the show.
Austin talks to Martin about the neck injury that cut short his tremendous run and tells him if he wants it enough he’ll be back in the ring when he’s healed. He tells him he took the belts of the other contestants because they weren’t Tough Enough, but he thinks he is, so he’ll let him be the only one to hang their own. A genuinely touching moment.
2 for 1 Special
Despite Martin’s elimination, the show goes on and the Skills Challenge for this week is essentially wrestle a match for two minutes using everything they’ve been taught thus far with the stipulation that they must perform one move from the top rope. Booker will be the referee.
AJ and Christina will go first, with Bill taking her aside and looking like he’s going to make out with her, telling her how good she is. Christina does extremely well for two minutes, even hitting a nice body slam and a bitch-slap to the grounded AJ before heading up top. She hits a double axe handle smash but then crumples to the floor and bursts into tears, apparently having hurt herself as well!
Bill and Booker state they thought she was going to go for a crossbody and actually blame AJ when all he did was stand still and take her move. Trish and a medic tend to Christina as AJ wishes he could disappear, Andy saying he didn’t want to see her go out like that, and surprise, surprise, Luke is pleased. Christina is taken to the hospital and Austin says there will be no elimination this week.
Next week: THE ROCK!!!!
Overall Thoughts
Boy, it’s not a good week to be the ankle of a potential winner. It’s often said that the term reality television is an oxymoron, and it’s true that almost every moment of this show is scripted in some way, but nobody could plan for these two serious injuries, and thus the reality was very restored to the show. It was probably for the best considering the trainers told them they all failed their first training session, the stuff with the Divas was questionable, and the video game challenge obviously didn’t require too much strain on the contestants’ part. Take out the drama of these injuries and this was a somewhat weak show, though as with previous episodes, the amount of actual wrestling has increased in both volume and variety.
It is however a real shame the skills challenge got cancelled because seeing how the men and well, woman, do in the ring would have been nice, and their first chance to actually wrestle since Luke and Matt went at it in week two. I hope they get a chance to revisit this task before the end.
The fact Martin left immediately and Christina’s status remains a cliff-hanger tells me she’ll probably be back, though they looked equally as serious. Watch this space.
Contestant Evaluation
With Martin gone, this is truly Luke‘s competition to lose, as much as it pains me to say it. He’s got the perfect WWE look, he’s solid in the ring, he’s got attitude, and his strongest competition just left the show. Heck, if Christina does return, she has a chance of winning the entire show given how well she’s done and the fact she’s the only woman.
If Christina is gone then Andy is the only one who seems to have a shot at taking Luke down. He’s a giant, and he shows flashes of brilliance, but his docile demeanour and occasional slip-ups are going to be pretty big obstacles for him.
Jeremiah is two weeks from the final, and I just cannot see him suddenly grasping the concept of wrestling. He’s got charisma, a look, athleticism, and an unrivalled hunger to perform and try new things. But he bumps like a backyard wrestler and is reckless. It may end up taking more time than it’s worth to get him up to speed in FCW, but I think he has a shot at sticking around.
AJ‘s bland personality was finally noticed last week and he was lucky to survive elimination after messing up over and over again. He’s even luckier that two people got injured this week, because he was a lock to be thrown off the show given how bad he was. Plus the trainers outright blaming him for the injury of their new favourite Christina won’t do him any favours, though I’d love to hear an explanation of how exactly it was his fault. Maybe he stood a little too close to her and didn’t leave her room to land properly, but she barely jumped anyway, so what can you do? It’s taken two eliminations per week for him to survive these last two weeks, but I fear no amount of injuries will keep him in this show past next week.