WWE Tough Enough Episode #2 Review
Welcome one and all to episode two of WWE Tough Enough where we hope there’s less dumb contestants and more live panel discussions. Of course by live panel discussions, I mean more of Paige. Please and thank you.
We left last week with the vanilla but big mouthed Hank eliminated from the show. Let’s see if ZZ has his stuff together now and we’re also expecting a visit from Roman Reigns tonight. I wonder if he’s teaching promo class.
After our intro video, we go live to Y2J Chris Jericho and the lovely Renee Young. She traded in the blue for red this week and still looks great. NO SCARF FOR JERICHO! The people have spoken!! Our judges are introduced and Paige is two for two in looking tremendous on this show. The live crowd is much more lively this week. Paige said she was not impressed after week one. We get another recap of the rules of the show.
We go to the barracks to see the reaction of the 12 remaining competitors to Hank being eliminated. Hank becomes a distant memory as the women start bickering instantly, and to no one’s surprise, everyone says they want Dianna gone. I would agree with that. Apparently they’re gonna start calling her Princess Dianna. Clever. Alex becomes my #1 enemy on this show as he makes a fool of himself by saying that history is irrelevant as it pertains to becoming a WWE superstar. Patrick, who’s starting to seem to be the only true WWE fan in this group, makes the comment, “You don’t go to the NFL and not know who Ray Lewis is.” To which he’s 100% right. Alex says, “Yes you do.” which makes him 100% wrong, and an idiot. Daria sums it up by saying that was the dumbest statement she’s ever heard.
The competitors are on an air boat in the swamp and are taken to the middle of nowhere where the coaches are waiting on them for their next challenge. The point is driven home that they have to be fearless to be a WWE superstar. There’s a wildlife owner with the coaches describing the dangers of the gators in the area. Apparently ZZ won a reward that we were all unaware of, cause he’s got a big shit-eating grin on his face while everyone else is scared to death. The challenge is to swim across one of the ponds to the airboat, grab an NXT Title and then swim back to the coaches.
Patrick says he can’t swim. That’s not good. Dianna of course is terrified of dark waters. Everyone to their credit dives right in without hesitation, even with an alligator looking right at them. Dianna somehow is the first one to the boat while Alex & Patrick cannot swim and look dead in the water. Alex is done/eliminated after a lifeguard has to save him. Dianna is first to the coaches, ZZ was second to the coaches, and him and Josh complain about how Tanner got to the coaches and saying he took a shortcut. Mana also was disqualified apparently. Billy Gunn lays into Daria who apparently lost or gave up her NXT Title in the water. He makes her cry, but he makes a great point about what it means to carry a title. We go to our first break.
Tanner and Josh are playing pool and Josh is still complaining about how Tanner won that challenge for the guys. Let it go guys. Giorgia is talking about how she felt bad for Daria for being made to cry during the challenge. A new friendship has been created. That’s sweet. Now Gabi and Dianna are trying to start a pact together. Patrick puts them on the spot and says if they’re gonna be friends, they have to kiss and make up. Two weeks in a row a guy tries a bold move. Doesn’t work, but kudos for trying. Mada facetimes with his wife, who just happens to be fully made up and dressed like she’s going to a nice dinner. What a coincidence.
The “Big Dog” has now arrived to the Performance Center as Roman Reigns is in the ring. I swear that’s what WWE called him when promoting this show. When and where did that nickname come from? All the girls gush over him. Roman says, “If you don’t know by now, I’m WWE Superstar Roman Reigns.” Sadly, there are probably people that didn’t know. Roman asks the competitors if they’re ready to be slammed on their backs for the entertainment of the crowd. He says they’re not ready for a Superman Punch or a Spear. He’s brought along Bull Dempsey and Tye Dillinger, and Roman tells everyone that if they can take Bull’s finisher, then they may have what it takes. Bull’s finisher is a top rope Earthquake Splash right onto Tye’s chest. The competitors are pretty shocked by it, and Roman wishes the best of luck to everyone and hands them off to the coaches.
Back live to Jericho now who says he has a crush on Reigns too. Paige says she was impressed with Dianna, but Hogan says all he saw was fear on the competitor’s faces. We go to commercial.
We see how to vote again, and Jericho with Renee talk about how they wouldn’t swim across the water like the competitors had to.
It’s time for everyone to learn how to bump. Someone demonstrates how to take a flat back bump and now they all take their turns. Patrick turns in a tremendous flat back bump, whereas ZZ does not. Their next challenge is now taking a flat back bump off the top rope where a platform has been installed. Lita tells them that she wouldn’t do it, to try and instill some fear in them. The girls go first and don’t do awfully, that’s about as nicely as I can put it. Dianna puts them all to shame with the worst bump ever taken. Patrick does another great bump and pats himself on the back. Billy Gunn doesn’t miss a beat as he replies, “Nice job, Barry Horowitz.”
They finish for the day and Booker says that Patrick was the best for the guys and Lita says Giorgia was the best for the girls. Billy reminds them that someone still has to leave this week despite everyone doing their best. He wishes them luck as we go to commercial.
Dianna is already mad at her nickname and telling Daria to stop calling her Princess Dianna. She goes to her new BFF Gabi to vent about it. Daria goes into the room with them to call Dianna out. Now Amanda is getting involved. It’s not Tough Enough, it’s Drama Enough. Everyone else listens through the wall to the argument. Later on in the day, Dianna tries to buddy up with ZZ, and convinces ZZ to switch rooms with her. ZZ agrees to it, because he’s a sucker for a blonde.
We’re live again and the competitors have made their way to the stage as Jericho and Renee discuss what’s on the line. They introduce them all and there’s a girl at the end, Sara Lee, who I’ve honestly not seen in the entire two weeks of recap videos. I don’t know if that’s a good thing to be so under the radar. We go to commercial.
We return to a glorified commercial for Full Sail University. Jericho then turns it over to the judges, with Daniel Bryan being first. Daniel calls up Patrick and Alex first. He gives them credit for getting into the water when they can’t swim as he can’t swim himself. Daniel then questions Alex about his quote mentioned earlier about not needing to know history. Alex bumbles and stumbles through some answer, which Paige promptly calls moronic. Patrick gets a rebuttal and says that it’s fine if you’re not a fan when you start out to be a wrestler, but if you get an injury and you need a backup plan, you want a backup plan in the profession you’re in. So it’s smart to know the business and he’s very passionate about WWE. Great response from Patrick, which Daniel says the same thing. Hogan steps in and says he disagrees with everyone, but then agrees with everyone by saying he needs to know the history of the likes of Andre and Buddy Rogers, etc.
Hogan gives ZZ a hard time about switching rooms with Dianna. ZZ makes a smooth comment about women being like pies to which all the judges laugh at that. Paige complements Dianna on her week and then calls up Sara and Amanda. Paige is not messing around with either one of them and tells them to stop blending into the background and step up for themselves, or get off her stage. Strong words from Paige. She’s really cute when she’s mad too. Just a FYI to everyone reading.
Alex, Mara, & Daria are now called up by Hogan. Hogan says he can’t decide who pissed him off more, Mara and Alex for quitting or Daria for losing her title. None of the three really make a good impression on the judges or on Jericho, who cuts off the conversation so we can move on to see who the bottom three are this week. Daniel is trying to be the nice judge, which Paige calls him out on, but Daniel calls out Alex. Paige calls out Sara Lee for having no personality. Hogan rounds out the bottom three by selecting Dianna. He says that he can’t figure out Dianna, she says one thing but does another. Plus she can’t get along with anyone. We go to our last break as Renee shows us again how to vote.
My Take On Who Goes Home: As I did last week, I’ll use this spot to say who should go home before the votes are revealed. I completely see Paige’s point of view on Sara being very bland and not doing anything in two weeks to stand out or separate herself. However, Sara has completed everything, and two weeks into the show isn’t the time to be head of the class. You don’t want to peak too early. So I would send Alex home. Maybe I’m biased as a life long wrestling fan, but I feel that someone who doesn’t know anything about the history of the business, nor apparently cares to, should be sent home especially after quitting on the initial challenge for the week. So Alex would be my choice. We’ll see if the fans at home hate Dianna as much as she’s presented to be hated, and will get her sent home. Dianna looks really hot tonight though, for what that’s worth. It’s time for our last commercial.
Jericho brings us back to the bottom three and gives them 30 seconds again to say why they shouldn’t be eliminated. Sara gives an impressive speech with her time about why she shouldn’t be eliminated. It’s too bad she didn’t get that beforehand. Alex does a poor job with his 30 seconds, enforcing my opinion that he should go. Dianna gives her speech, and only uses about 15 seconds, but gets her point across without stumbling. The judges are asked if they will use their save this week, and they all say no.
Time for the reveal and the votes come up as honestly a big surprise to me, Sara gets 50% of the vote, Dianna gets 35%, and Alex gets only 15%. That means that Alex is the second person eliminated. I actually expected a much tighter vote than that. Sara should get some confidence knowing that half the fans voted for her. The fans make the right choice for the second week in a row. Jericho plugs Tough Talk on the Network hosted by The Miz and our episode is over.
Here’s a tweet from Alex after his elimination.
https://twitter.com/ToughAlexF/status/616073155187245056
Final Thoughts
Despite Jericho saying on his podcast that the show format would change up from week one as “they’ve heard what the fans had to say about the format” it stayed the exact same, and that’s not a good thing. I received a lot of complaints on the format of the show, and I can’t say I disagree with them. Jericho once again is useless to the show, and although Paige and Hogan really maximized their appearance, Daniel was more just the happy go lucky guy.
I miss the days of Stone Cold being in the ring with no one else around besides him and the bottom three. Nonetheless though, the right two people have been eliminated thus far and hopefully things will start to get more interesting. I didn’t realize Dianna was as hot as she is (maybe she just had a good night tonight), but that might buy her some time with me wanting her to stay. Looks gotta count for something.
We’ll be back next week for episode three, so until then, keep staying away from the scarfs Jericho.