Nidia Reflects on the Original Tough Enough, How the Editing Depicted Her Differently

– Fightful recently interviewed former WWE Superstar and Tough Enough winner Nidia, who looked back on her career, being a part of the show’s original series, and more. Below are some highlights.

Nidia on the editing of the original Tough Enough: “It was so funny. I remember watching the first few episodes when it seemed like there was something going on with me and Chris Nifong. It was so edited. He looks like he was in a boy band. That was a completely different episode. ‘I love N’Sync.’ The way they pieced it together, I was like, ‘Aw, dammit. They’re making it seem like I have a crush on him.’ It was two completely different episodes. They’d ask me questions like, ‘What kind of music do you like? Or what kind of bands?’ So you have to, ‘Oh, I like N’Sync. I like pop.’ So, they pieced it together. They knew what they were doing. There’s a lot of stuff they left out, too. But, we won’t talk about that. Nope. There’s a lot of other stories there.”

On how she was portrayed in the series: “They were like, ‘You’re like a duck in water.’ I was like, ‘Oh, cool.’ But, then in the show it wasn’t portrayed that way. So, towards the later season, I remember Josh, Maven and I would go eat and I was just like, ‘Man, Maven. You’re looking pretty good. I’m not looking so good.’ They’re like, ‘Just give it a second, maybe it’s an underdog type of angle that they’re going with.’ ‘Cause we’re watching it and we didn’t know who was going to win at the end. So, you’re watching the entire show. You’re seeing how they’re portraying you, and you’re like, ‘It’s not looking very good, guys.’ Not to sound arrogant, but I thought I was better. Then when you see yourself being portrayed as really struggling, it’s like, ‘That’s not really accurate, but dammit. It’s not looking so good.’ But, it worked out.”

Nidia on not knowing on who the winners would be: “Oh, super surprise. We didn’t know. It was supposed to be the last filming episode before the show aired and they took us to, it was actually the Trump Tower, everybody was dressed up and we were going to have the award ceremony. When we got there they didn’t open the doors. They were like, ‘Okay, guys, you’re gonna go back home. You’re gonna come back here in a few weeks and you’re gonna start training again and we’re gonna do the last episode live.’ So, we thought we were going to find out. Nobody slept the night before. We were all super nervous. It’s like nobody’s talking on the way there and they’re like, ‘Psych You’re gonna have to wait three / four more months.’ So, they sent us back home for a few weeks and then we started training again. That’s when whenever we were watching as it went week by week. The last show was live. They were like, ‘Everybody prepare a speech.’ That was it.”