WWE Tough Enough Episode #6 Review

Welcome one and all to the dumpster fire that is Tough Enough episode six, right here on TJRWrestling. Just when the show can’t get any worse, Hulk Hogan remembered that Mel Gibson is his all time favorite actor, and goes into a racist tirade that made Donald Sterling blush. Needless to say, we have a new judge this week. I almost want to make a case for the fact that Patrick should be brought back on the show since Hogan is such a racist, but you guys always expect me to take the high road on these reviews, so that’s what I’ll continue to do. This week we get special appearances by Cesaro and Team B.A.D. Let’s see what they have in store for us this week.

This week we don’t start with an opening video, we get a recap of what happened to Patrick last week, along with Big Show’s chop session. They tease what Team B.A.D. has in store for the female competitors and now it’s opening video time. THANK GOD IT’S THE MIZ!! The Miz is replacing Hogan as a judge and for a fleeting moment, all is right with the show. I’ve had a bunch of you in your feedback tell me to watch Tough Talk (thank you all for the feedback by the way) and I did in fact go back and watch it, and The Miz is outstanding on it. He’s been on Tough Enough, so he gets it. He has the perspective you want in this show. I really look forward to his contributions. I hope this isn’t a weekly revolving door and he sticks.

Chris Jericho and the lovely Renee Young, dressed in black this week, welcome us to the show. Jericho is sans scarf this week, so that’s two moral victories for the show! They discuss last week’s eliminations again and send it to the judges. The Miz tells everyone that he wishes he was a judge last week because he would’ve saved Patrick. Paige gives a lame excuse that the fans should’ve voted Patrick to stay, completely ignoring the fact that she knows he shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

We go to the barracks after last week’s elimination and ZZ is making a Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich for a picture of Patrick next to his bed. Pour one out for your homies I guess. They then show a montage of ZZ doing workouts and trying to prove he’s taking it seriously. Amanda calls out Chelsea for having blonde hair now as if being blonde is such a rare thing for a woman.

The competitors now leave for the Orlando Tree Trek Adventure Park where they meet their coaches for today’s challenge. Booker says he can tell they’re all hurt and homesick, but it’s only gonna get tougher. Lita says you have to have focus when you’re in an arena of 20,000 and can’t be sent off your game when you’re in that environment. With that said, they bring in their special guest, The Swiss Superman Cesaro. Who ziplines down in a suit, because he’s just that damn cool. Doesn’t connect with the fans my fat ass. How you doin’ Vince?

Cesaro says today’s challenge is focus. Cesaro tells them to find their fear, focus on it, and eliminate it. The challenge today is doing an obstacle course across the trees, walking from platform to platform, while trying to memorize a series of numbers. When at the end, Cesaro will be standing next to a safe, where you’re supposed to take the numbers you memorized and open the safe to win a prize. So basically the exact opposite of what you’d actually do in a wrestling ring. I wonder if Dixie Carter went to this park and that’s how Ultimate X was created.

Sara Lee goes first, and Billy Gunn yells at her through a bullhorn while she goes through the course to try and distract her. He drops a funny line, “You’re doing surprisingly good. If we put a ring in the trees, would you still be good?” Sara gets to the safe in just over 8 minutes, but doesn’t get the combination right. Amanda fails in just over 9 minutes, Chelsea fails in just over 7 minutes. Gigi completes the course in 7:18, and inside the safe is Chris Jericho’s book, “The Best in the World: At What I Have No Idea”. Sadly, I have not read that yet.

Mada goes first for the guys and fails in just over 14 minutes. ZZ fails in just over 11 minutes, but Booker says he was actually impressed so there’s something. Tanner crushes the course in 6:10. Josh ends up being the first one to fall off the course, but still manages to open the safe in 10:54. Billy Gunn gives ZZ some credit for not being last because Mada was over 3 minutes slower. Lita says Gigi won for the girls. Cesaro presents the book to Tanner and says the book has a special inscription inside.

We’re back live and Renee asks Daniel if there’s a book he wants to plug, and Daniel says he’s disappointed they didn’t give away a copy of his book. Miz and Paige make fun of ZZ for eating PB&J and having a shrine to Patrick. They said it was creepy. Coming up next is Team B.A.D. We go to our first commercial.

Renee welcomes us back with the rules of elimination, and then teases a love connection in the barracks as we return to the competitors. Tanner and Chelsea are in the hot tub. Chelsea says the jury is still out on Tanner. She says he has personality and charisma, but it’s not coming out. She’s trying to get it to come out. We still talking about his personality? Chelsea tells him to cut a promo on her bikini and this guy can’t cut promos and has no game. He bombs to say the least.

They go back to meet the coaches in the Performance Center. For their in ring challenge today, they’re going to get paired up and the coaches are going to call spots for them to do in the ring, while loud crowd noise is pumped in above them. We get highlights of all the commands and watch the competitors go through the motions. They focus on ZZ and Mada doing their combination and ZZ is off his game and looks distracted.

The coaches round them up after it’s over and Lita says all the girls had issues, but Chelsea was most improved. Billy Gunn says that Josh improved the most this week by a slight margin. He sends them back to the barracks and now we go back to the judges. They have a discussion about what they saw and Miz calls out Tanner for his horrible game. We go to commercial.

Back to the barracks and Chelsea and Sara Lee are getting in some extra practice when Amanda walks in on them and feels like they’re being shady about it. Paranoia has set in officially apparently. Amanda calls them out in front of everyone now and asks what they said about her with he door closed. Chelsea says she can’t take the BS going around, she’s here to wrestle. The guys are eating popcorn again, which I popped for yet again.

Gigi now calls her dad on Facetime. She starts crying for no reason. Then her dad starts crying. Her dad apparently can tell she’s not coming back home. Gigi says in her confessional that this is her dream. Mada and ZZ are in the kitchen now and Mada wants to know what’s up with ZZ because he’s frustrated with him. ZZ basically admits he’s homesick. Mada says he’s homesick too but it’s the least of his concerns when he’s in the ring. Mada asks ZZ if he thinks he can beat him right now and ZZ says no. Well that’s not smart to say. Mada asks why is he here then, and ZZ doesn’t answer him.

We go back to Jericho live, who bring out Team B.A.D. Sasha Banks, Naomi, & Tamina. They’re each wearing shirts that say “I’m B.A.D.” We go to commercial.

We return to our ways of voting, and now the females are in the ring with Team B.A.D. Sasha remembered to bring the NXT Women’s Title with her. Jericho asks what they have in store tonight and Naomi says they’re not sure everyone has what it takes to do this day in and day out. Sasha says they’re here to slam them and then Tamina is going to give them a splash off the top rope. Jericho asks all the ladies if they’re nervous, and they all say yes. I guess that’s the right answer? Does anyone else think this just exposes the business way too much?

Tamina grabs Sara Lee first and slams her down, she goes to the top and comes down with the splash and Sara Lee DOES NOT MOVE. She lays there like a 2×4 and makes Tamina absorb all the splash. Then Sara Lee smiles instead of selling it. Kayfabe officially died at 7:43 CST on July 28th, 2015. Same thing happens with Amanda and Chelsea. This is so bad because it comes across like Tamina is the one that is doing the training. Why didn’t they train the women on how to catch someone coming down on them from the top rope before doing this? Am I completely off base by thinking Tamina could’ve easily gotten hurt here? Whatever. We go to commercial as I contemplate where I went wrong with my life having to watch this.

We’re back with all the competitors on the stage and Daniel Bryan gives them props for taking the splashes and to Chelsea and Sara Lee for practicing on their own time. Tanner says he’s only read one chapter of Jericho’s book, and Daniel says it must not be as good a book as his own. Miz asks ZZ about his training and eating habits. ZZ says he’s doing well, but then Paige calls him out and says that Mada apparently put out a Periscope this week where everyone was going to the gym, but ZZ was asleep instead. Dang, sorry I missed that Periscope. I feel like I’m letting you all down.

It’s now time to see who’s going into the bottom three this week. Daniel Bryan sends in Amanda for being in the bottom this week and having sloppy ring work. Miz tries to convince him otherwise since she’s hot and it’s about looks when it comes to the divas. He’s right and he’s wrong, but I like Miz’s approach trying to ensure the true bottom three end up there. His words fall on deaf ears however. Miz pulls a shocker and sends Mada in. He says that he doesn’t like that Mada played the blame game this week and lost his focus in the ring. You can’t blame anyone else when it’s about you. He also says that Mada needs to stop being a “one dimensional 80’s wrestler”. Miz’s opinion holds credibility with me, so I’ll take him for his word and I have no issues with this. Paige calls up ZZ and says that she’s mad that he has bigger boobs than she does. HAHA. Brutal but funny. Paige says he’s lazy and isn’t trying, among other things.

It’s time for the 30 second promos and ZZ goes first and says that he left everything behind at 19 and admits he wasn’t prepared for the physicality that came with a WWE job, but now he is and he’s going to go all the way with it. He told Mada what he wanted to hear at that moment, but he knows he can beat Mada and he wants to win it all. Amanda goes and gives some sort of prepared speech about what it takes to be a diva, but she doesn’t use her full 30 seconds so there’s an awkward few seconds of nothing. Mada goes last and says he wants this more than anything and wants to be a WrestleMania main eventer and a Hall of Famer. He doesn’t want to be here for his 15 minutes of fame, he wants the whole thing. He gives a very passionate plea to stay. We go to commercial.

My Take on Who Goes Home: Now that Patrick is gone, I think Mada is the lead dog for the males. Tanner wins every challenge, but he’s got literally zero charisma or personality, so I give the edge to Mada. So despite the fact that I respect Miz’s opinion, no way does he deserve to go home. ZZ obviously should be the one who goes home, but the popularity vote has carried him this far and I doubt that ends yet, so I think this will be Amanda’s time to go. She’s probably the most attractive of the females left, like Miz said, but she starts a lot of drama and doesn’t really stand out in any way.

We’re back to see who’s going home tonight as Jericho asks who should go home. Sara says Amanda, Tanner says ZZ, Gigi says ZZ, Chelsea also says ZZ. Jericho asks if there will be any saves this week, and Miz saying he’s the new guy here, he will shake things up and saves Amanda! Wow, did not see that coming. Miz says a Diva should have a certain look about her and an aggressive side and Amanda has that. Paige goes absolutely belligerent on Miz when she realizes what he’s doing. This is why Miz should be a judge. And sure enough, the votes come in and Amanda only had 13% of the vote and would’ve EASILY gone home, but she is now saved, which means Mada at 39% of the vote is going home. ZZ’s popularity refuses to take a hit and he has 49%.

Mada clearly wants to explode at what happened. Renee asks him about the elimination and he manages to control his emotions and says this isn’t the last you’ll see of him. Jericho says that Byron Saxton is the new host of Tough Talk and as we close the show, we see a clearly furious Paige.

Final Thoughts

I realize as I see how the show ended, that I may come off as a bit of a hypocrite on how I responded to this week’s elimination compared to last week. Let me explain. Paige last week obviously just threw Patrick in to prove a point and stroke her ego on this show. She was trying way too hard. She didn’t have a good reason to throw Patrick in and he gets eliminated for it. While Mada this week also didn’t deserve to be thrown in, but at least Miz had a clear reason why he felt Mada deserved to go in. He didn’t do it for shock value or anything along those lines. Was he right? Was he wrong? It’s your perspective and I don’t know if there’s a correct answer. But Miz’s perspective as a former Tough Enough contestant gives his opinion weight that the others just don’t have. Let’s be honest anyways, this is a popularity contest right now so unless ZZ and Sara Lee channel their best Hulk Hogan sex tape impersonation, they’re not going to get thrown off this show.

As I’m writing this wrap-up, Mada is giving ZZ the business on Tough Talk, so at least he’s going out guns blazing. I’m sure we’ll see him again. Until next time, continue to stay away from the scarves Jericho.