411’s WWE Tough Enough Report 6.23.15

411’s Tough Enough Report: Season 6: Episode 1

-Tonight is the debut episode of the new season of Tough Enough and it seems this season will have a completely different format than any of the previous five seasons. As noted the trainers will be Booker T, Lita, and Billy Gunn. Chris Jericho is your host and the panel of judges will be Hulk Hogan, Daniel Bryan, and Paige. The winners (1 male and 1 female) will each receive a $250,000 WWE contract. This season will also be interactive with fans voting as well, so it will be interesting to find out how power the fans have versus how much power the judges have.

-After the WWE Network special last week we don’t know too much about most of the contestants. They naturally
covered people who didn’t make the cut or made the cut and then had their hopes crushed due to medical issues. Only a few who made the final 13 were given any significant air time so no point in naming a favorite yet. I will say that ZZ, our gator wrestler, will be most entertaining member to start even if he doesn’t last long. Patrick, the 19 year old, looks to have a lot of upside, but again no clue what all the men bring to the table. As for the women we only really got to know a little about Gabi, the Brazilian model, and they seem to be tabbing her as the bitch of the show. With that brief primer let’s go to it!

-As a reminder our finalists are: Alexander, Hank, Joshua, Mada, Patrick, Tanner, and ZZ for the guys, and Amanda, Daria, Dianna, Gabi, Giorgia, and Sara for the women.

-We start out live from Full Sail University with our host, Chris Jericho and a studio audience. Renee Young will be Jericho’s co-host and this show is already great just by her presence. Ambrose is one lucky man! Bryan, Paige, and Hogan each get their own entrance and naturally Hogan gets the biggest pop. Damn right and they even show a brief video package for him.

-Renee throws it to Jericho and he questions the judges on what they are looking for in the contestants. Bryan wants heart, Paige personality, and Hogan says all the above, but definitely the “it” factor.

-Renee covers the rules and each week there will be one elimination. The judges will nominate the bottom three and the fans will vote who to save. Each judge will get one save per season which I believe was an American Idol rule put in place when Daughtry got hosed. After 10 weeks the viewers will decide the overall winner: 1 male and 1 female each getting $250,000 WWE contract.

-Now we go to training footage as the 13 contestants met the trainers for Boot Camp in what looks like The Citrus Bowl (home of Mania XXIV). We meet several contestants again: Josh (the guy known as The Yeti) and he is the biggest one in the house. Next is Daria, the MMA fighter, who goes by the name, The Jersey Devil. We have Hank who says he has never lost anything before in his life.

-Lita says in a male dominated sport the women have it tougher and wants them to all show they are ready for this. That leads to Amanda who wants to prove she isn’t just a Barbie doll. Alex is next and he is one ripped dude with Byzantine armor tattoos on his torso and he is also Russian. I smell a feud or tag team with Rusev!

-Jericho shows up on the scoreboard of the stadium and gives the contestants a pre-taped pep talk. Next we have Patrick and he is the 19 year old kid that lost his father at a young age and the WWE helped him cope. They do finally confirm they are standing in the Citrus Bowl.

-The first few challenges are to test their strength and stamina. They have to run from the goal line to another part of the field with a parachute attached to their back. Nice! We meet Mada next and he is the guy from Egypt that has seen peopled beheaded. After they complete their parachute runs they have to carry a bag full of sand (weighing as much as each contestant) back to the start. Before that starts we meet ZZ and you all know him as the alligator wrestler from Louisiana. Gunn then tells them after the sand bag they have to run up the stadium stairs. Damn! Our next female competitor is Dianna and she is a model/athlete who is engaged to an unnamed badass.

-The drill starts and a graphic tells us the temp on the field is 108 degrees. They also splice in Giorgia’s introduction and she is a single fitness model who doesn’t have anything at home to tie her down. Gabi next and she isn’t her to make friends, as yep she is going to be the bitch of the show. We are just flying through introductions as Tanner is next and he is an MMA fighter who is going to compete with his smarts. He is crushing everyone so far in this contest. Sara Lee is next and she is pretty damn cute. She is from a small town on a dirt road and this is her dream.

-Josh gets a rude awakening as he figured he could throw the sand bag over his shoulder, but he is struggling. ZZ seems to be doing the worst as Tanner crushes everyone. Amanda reaches the top first for the women as everyone cheers on ZZ. Mada mentions Tanner crushed everyone, but so did Lance Armstrong and he wouldn’t make a good wrestler either. Ha!

-Hank says ZZ is by far the least fit one, and ZZ says that he won’t quit. He does finish the drill and the contestants get taken to their new home. The house is pretty sick, but their rooms are basically what people in the Army get. They all want to go out and party naturally, but ZZ and Patrick have to stay back since they are 18 and 19 respectively. That takes us to our first commercial break!

-We are back to Full Sail and the live portion of the show. Jericho and Renee introduce each of the 13 contestants one by one as they clap and smile for the camera and crowd. So we are nearly 20 minutes into the show and nothing has been shown as far as them training in a ring. Somewhere Al Snow is weeping!

-Back to the contestants at the club and Gabi is on a stripper pole which shocks nobody. She says she is a fan of twerking and Dianna talks to everyone about her fiancé. Back at the house ZZ and Patrick share the hot tub as ZZ says this is his first time ever being in one.

-Back to the club and Tanner talks about his hair which should impress HHH and Nash. They leave the club and make it home in various sober and drunken states. Two of the women jump in the hot tub with ZZ and Patrick. They quickly leave when ZZ gets naked and he says every soup has an expiration date and he was the expiration date. Nice!

-The next morning comes and Billy Gunn wakes all up of them up. Not as terrifying as when Tazz did it in season 1, but still effective. Gunn runs them throw some exercise and then sends them on a jog. Tanner crushes everyone again and ZZ is last once again. This looks like it is going to be a trend.

-They guys are already testing Tanner since he is kicking ass in the challenges. They talk up how he can run, but is he strong enough and then question his muscle mass. He just sits there as one of the girls plays with his hair. He tells us again he is a MMA fighter and he can fight. ZZ also gets his hair done and the other guys make fun on them.

-We finally get to the Performance Center and they get their first lesson: running the ropes. The second lesson is picking someone up and putting them down. They are going to see who can run the ropes the most and who can pick up and slam the bag the most. Booker and Billy ask them all who they think will be the weakest link and Dianna stupidly says herself as she is seemingly hurt.

-Hank thinks he can do the drill 15-20 times and Tanner says he can do twice as much as everyone else. Damn! He flat out says he is twice as good as everyone else and the rest of the guys seem pissed. Patrick goes nuts on him calling him a MMA fighter that just wants to make money and get back to the MMA world. I like where this is heading already!

-They show some of the girls and they are less than graceful. They all say it is tougher than it looks. No kidding! Josh was only able to do 9 which is rather weak compared to what he thought he could do. Dianna does the best out of the women with 17.

-Now we get to Tanner to see if he can back up all his talk. The men’s average is 8 and Booker doesn’t think he will be able to do 15. We find out the bag weighs 100 pounds and they show Tanner blowing through the drill and Booker taps him out when he gets to 16.

-The males continue to say that just because he is winning all these challenges doesn’t mean he will be a good wrestler. Everyone just talks about the crazy cardio he has. We take another commercial break. This is going to be fun already and I am curious if judges will ever put him in bottom 3 just as an ego check.

-We are back and Dianna is outside meeting her fiancé. She is already crying and the women are talking about how she is already saying she wants to be home. Gabi doesn’t like her and can’t believe she did 17 runs in the drill while being hurt. Basically the girls think she should go home if she doesn’t want to be there. She tells the girls she is sad and she just wants to plan her wedding. She is also bummed because they don’t have wi-fi. They try to cheer her up and Gabi is having none of that as she flat out tells her to go home. Nice!

-This brings up us first of many cat fights though nothing gets physical. Gabi is her to win and Dianna says she didn’t win today. She has a point there. A lot of cursing and normal stuff you would expect.

-The next day and Sara says her biggest fear is not getting noticed. I surely noticed her. The girls talk on one side of the house and there is another fight somewhere. Alex and Tanner are at it again about Tanner’s cockiness. Alex says nothing Tanner has done can prove he can fill an arena. Damn! Patrick gets in his verbal shots as well as Alex gets him away from Tanner. Apparently all of this is just before they head over to Full Sail for the live show. We take another break.

-Back to the live show with Renee Young. She goes over the Rules of Elimination once again. Jericho is back in the ring with the judges.

-They now get to grill the competitors. We start with Hogan and he asks Dianna if she is the next WWE Diva or a trophy wife, cry baby that wants to go home. She says she is going to be the next Diva and Daniel brings up that her fiancé is already his ring and questions if she is keeping him on a short leash. She says no and that he respects his woman.

-Paige brings up Hank and he stood out to her for all the wrong reasons. Mainly because he said he doesn’t lose at anything and was beat out by all the women in the challenge. Get him Paige! He says he was told to elaborate on ZZ’s appearance and he did say he was physically the weakest, but back tracks as he says ZZ has the most heart. Bryan cuts him off and brings Daria up and wants to know biggest risk she has ever taken since she didn’t take any the first episode. She says her life story has been a risk: being a MMA fighter is a risk, and being in a WWE ring to train is a risk. Jericho ends the questioning and throws it to another break. That sucks as I was waiting for them to touch on the Tanner vs. Every Male in the house storyline.

-Back to Jericho and the judges. He asks Hogan who he thinks could go home and he picks ZZ. He thinks ZZ does have a spark and a lot of heart, but this week was about the physical challenges and ZZ finished last. That sucks, but does make sense. Bryan says he is offended everyone was calling Tanner small when he is bigger than he is. He calls out Hank for this reason and he joins the bottom 3. Paige calls out Josh because he didn’t do much of anything and she wants to break up the clique he is in.

-Renee gives everyone the ways they can vote and the one with the lowest percentage of votes will be eliminated. We take another break and we will find out who is gone when we come back. I want ZZ to stay as he does have some charisma and I want him to get a chance to show that. Plus he hasn’t acted like a whiny bitch in regards to Tanner’s domination like the other guys. So out of Hank and Josh I guess I would give Hank the boot just because I don’t remember much of anything from him.

-Jericho welcomes us back and each member of the bottom 3 gets thirty seconds to tell why they should stay. ZZ gives the best 30 second interview and this is why I want him around a bit longer. Hank and Josh were just kind of there with they had to say. Hank went the average Joe route and said he is always the hammer and never the nail.

-The voting is done and Jericho asks the judges if they want to use their one save. None of them use their save which isn’t all that shocking. The results are in and Hank is heading home with only 22% of the vote while Josh just sneaks by with 26%. America loves ZZ as he gets the majority with 52%. So I am 1 for 1 with these eliminations though this one was kind of easy.

-Jericho wraps up the show until next week.

-My initial thoughts are that this isn’t going to touch any of the first three seasons just due to the format. We didn’t get to see much of anything from an in rings standpoint. The MTV version was built on them learning how to wrestle from the ground up and here the first episode was just about their cardio and strength. We didn’t even get to see them get abused from learning to take flat backs for hours on end. With that said I still found the show entertaining and I am ok with the format mix of judges voting and the fans saving. As expected the fans seem to love ZZ and the Tanner/All Male feud should be fun for the rest of the series.

-See you all next week!