Highland View: Tough Enough

Highland View: Tough Enough

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to yet another Highland View! Thank you for joining me today, and as always I try to bring you something different and original. This week I shall be looking at WWE’s own reality TV programme “Tough Enough” and comparing it to other programmes of a similar genre (all wrestling/fighting realated abviously). Now let’s get to it!

For some reason a few days back I felt like watching Tough Enough and just to see how good it was. Ceratinly I’ve heard people rave and complain about it, but that is normal with almost anything these days. Now I decided I would watch a few episodes now, despite the fact I know the result, to see how I truly felt about it. SO why did I choose now? Well people make rash judgements as things develop, people react spontainoulsy and that reaction may not be their true feelings, it will only be their instant reactions. How will reviewing it months later help? I have time to mull over and decide how I really feel about things.

Now first off let me say this, I think that Tough Enough is a pretty darn good idea! Yes they did it like 5 years ago but whatever. Did Tough Enough give us the Miz? Then shut up now! Tough Enough has a great idea, give some ‘unknown’ wrestlers the chance to realize a dream that I can say most professional wrestlers have, to become a WWE superstar. Not only that but it also gives you the fan an inside look as to the mere basic skills of a WWE superstar. One of my favourite quotes was when Stone Cold described what getting slammed on the mate so hard felt like. Only Stone Cold could have said that and got away with it! Furthermore Tough Enough did also give me an excuse to look at Trish Stratus for an hour, certainly a win!

Going back to the point of what skills a WWE superstar needs, I enjoyed what I have watched so far of Tough Enough as seeing what it really takes to be a WWE superstar. I mean getting people to run away from dogs? That is certainly bold there Stone Cold! Seeing how it doesn’t just matter about if you have good promo skills you need to balance it up with good in ring skills. Furthermore, yes it’s great if you have in ring skills but if you are like Matt and almost chicken out of showing then, how will they know if you  are ‘Tough Enough’?

However, one thing I find ironic now is the some of the ‘Tough Enough’ contestants, weren’t all that random. What do I mean you say? Well take the winner, Andy Leavine, if you google him you’ll find out that he was in FCW, WWE’s developmental territory. Another example, Christina Crawford, Alicia Fox’s little sister, also in FCW. So WWE did you really go out of your way to find these ‘unknown’ wrestlers? No of course they didn’t. WWE knew that Andy and Christina had potential and exploited it by putting them on Tough Enough. That way they could get some, if not most, of the Rarely Any Wrestling fans to tune in and see them in action. That way they could judge just how good, or bad the crowd would receive them. Obviously we know the answer to that.

Now at this moment I need to deleiver on what I said earlier, I shall be comparing ‘Tough Enough’ to that of UFC’s reality show ‘The Ultimate Fighter’. Now for me I LOVE watching the Ultimate Fighter. Why? Because it is SO different to anything else out there. You get to see such a different mix of weights every season. The USA vs. UK season? Brilliant! Loved the idea of the two big countries so to speak, going head to head. Then we had the Heavyweights. Wow, oh wow was that fun yet scary to watch. Almost any of those guys I wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley, or a bright one for that matter. Those guys could literally rip my head off without really trying. Now that is kind of scary to think!

Moving on, what I also think is better than ‘Tough Enough’ is that is isn’t just the winner who gets a contract. Look at Steve Bonner against Forrest Griffin in season 1, both are now well respected UFC fighters. One of my favourite guys from Ultimate Fighter has to be Nam Phan. What I think Ultimate Fighter does better is give the ‘contestants’ more of a chance after the show is over. All of the guys will be able to show just how good in the octagon they are and that will help them in the future. I can honestly say I highly doubt most of the Tough Enough contestants will be anywhere in 5 years time, apart from Luke, Andy and mabe Christina.

Finally, one thing I think Tough Enough could have done better is try to make it rival teams, so to speak. I know NXT somewhat does that, but come on, it’s NXT! Look at Ultimate Fighter you had St.Pierre vs. Koshcheck, you have Bisping vs. Miller in the current series. Do you get that in Tough Enough? No. Now I understand that it’s Booker T and Stone Cold but couldn’t you get older guys like, for all that is holy forbid, Cena or Orton? Yes cliché as it may be but I think that could help to improve, although it doesn’t really need it , Tough Enough.

So, let’s conclude. Without a doubt both Tough Enough and Ultimate Fighter are good shows for a simple reason. There is very little else out there. So they have no competition so people are almost forced to watch it. However both are good and bad in there own separate ways. Ultimate Fighter can tend to focus on the coaches a little bit to much whereas Tough Enough uses people from FCW, so it’s hardly no-body’s in the WWE. On a whole I’d say I don’t prefer either one over the other! Yes it may seem surprising but both have there flaws, yet both are still pretty darn good shows.

So that concludes another Highland View, I thank you very much for joining me today. Have any other similar style shows I could watch? Comment below. Anything you want to tell/ask me? Feel free to comment below, I always appreciate your feedback :)

Comments

1. Comment #1

   Echko> Interesting you say this as I checked Andy LEavine on the interent (namely wikipedia), turns out in "early 2010" he signed a developmental deal meaning he was part of the FCW roster. When did Tough Enough start? April 4th 2011, Andy got released from FCW (Which he obviously got put into after, like you said) in February 2011 to get ready for TOugh Enough. For arguement's sake he was in FCW for AT LEAST 10 months before he entered Tough Enough
   
   Going to CHristina Crawford she joined FCW in JUNE 2010, oh yeah tha's definately AFTER Tough Enough finished :)

   Posted by Highlander_G on Monday, November 28, 2011

2. Comment #2

   Your stupid. Go ahead and look again: Andy was put into FCW after he won. As well as Alicia's sister but only after she got eliminated. Finish the study before you write a report on something you don't even know.

   Posted by Echko on Wednesday, November 23, 2011

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