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I am not tough enough.

Chairshots

9/28/01

Smackdown Thoughts
Based on the color of his skin during promos, I'm afraid that DDP's new gimmick is going to involve golden showers. Other than that, I liked Smackdown this week. Plenty of good wrestling with The Dudleys, Rob Van Dam, Chris Jericho and a ton of funny moments with Hurricane, Rock and Angle. That's all I ever really want in a show. A little action and a little humor. Poor WCW . They will never win a match clean. Poor ECW wrestlers: many of them are just Stephanie's stooges. I've recently decided to change my opinion on the abuse of Booker T in the WWF. After thinking about it, the WWF has never taken a WCW champion in to the WWF and put them in to a top feud (except Ric Flair). They have always had to earn their spot on the roster. Technically Booker T has main-evented two pay-per-views in a row in the WWF with the top babyface in the industry. Sure, he lost and is now muddled in tag team wrestling, but it's not really all that bad in Bookerland, historically speaking. The WWF did a 4.7 overnight broadcast rating for Smackdown which is impressive since it was the season premiere of Friends.

Tough Enough
Smackdown came to an end last night and I'm happy to say that the ending

"Welcome to the WWF. Show me your tits."

came as no surprise. That's a good thing since anyone other than Maven and Nidia winning would have been a mistake. Al Snow talked about what's next for them: "The winners will be going to a developmental territory. I know they will be on WWF TV in the very near future with their first match on SmackDown! on UPN. With the TV exposure and the character development on Tough Enough, they've got a leg up on the wrestling world. They've already got established audiences. Who's to say if they go on SmackDown! and really click, they may not go to OVW or Heartland." Getting the WWF fans to believe a "wrestling personality" will be difficult for the newbies since we've already seen their home life, laundry habits, etc… Should be interesting to see how well this next phase of the experiment works.

More Tough Enough
"Tough Enough" producer John "Big" Gaburick was the guest this week on "The Wrestling Guys" radio show in Ohio. Here are the highlights of what he had to say:

Was he surprised about who the finalists turned out to be? "I think that a lot of people looking at the surface thought Jason, who was chiseled like granite and really wanted and looked like the kind of person that could be a WWF Superstar, would probably be the favorite. It didn't turn out that way and a lot of things surprised me on who we were left with."

What happens to the three people that didn't win contracts? "Originally there was only going to be one male and one female and they would be the only ones that got contracts and that's the way we stand right now. Although I honestly believe, and in talking with our talent people they believe also, that all five of these people have a future in this business. "

Tough Enough 2: "Tough Enough 2 auditions are now until October 5 and we are accepting tapes. The auditions themselves will be held in Las Vegas. We're still working out the logistics of the location but we are committed to have it in Las Vegas. It will be three days towards the end of October. It'll be somewhat the same type of thing we did with the first one with the format and the physical challenges and things of that nature. The show itself will begin shooting the first week of November at a yet-to-be-determined site. Tough Enough 2 will be on the air most likely in the first week of March." John will be the producer of the Tough Enough 2 as well.

Have the winners earned their spots on the WWF roster? "Maven said it best in that he knows they have some dues to pay. Do I think they have earned it? Absolutely. These five went through the toughest Tazz could give them. The toughest that Al Snow could give them. The toughest that Jackie could give them. I honestly believe they earned it. No they didn't put in the years. They did not put in the time that a lot of guys on the independent circuit have put in. But they've been tested by Tazz and Al and I can guaran-damn-tee you that (those trainers) are not going to let those five walk out of there with (the trainers) reputations on the line if they have demonstrated that they are not tough enough. In the beginning, a lot of wrestlers questioned Al and Tazz and Jackie and said 'Hold our reputation out there and make sure these guys earn it.' As the producer of the show I hope that we captured some of that."

Were you worried when contestants started dropping out? "The MTV people were ready to jump off a bridge a couple of times. I dealt with them every hour of every day and they were very, very concerned that we were not going to have a show. A quote from the Executive Producer of MTV was 'I'm really afraid the show is not going to happen the way things are going.' I did not have that same fear because I knew we had a solid group of people that were not going to give up. I didn't know it was going to be these five, but I knew we would have some people stick it out. The original plan stayed from beginning to end and it was the program that Al, Tazz, Jackie and myself designed and whoever made it through it would be in the finals. I was prepared for a lot of things that happen but it is a reality based show and (Victoria & Bobbi Jo) caught me off guard. But I think that's the great thing about this show. It shows a little bit about how difficult this business is and some people think it's fake and it's a joke and that anybody can do it or that it's a trampoline they are jumping on and I hope again as the producer we were able to demonstrate that these guys go out there and give their bodies, hearts and souls to this business and it's not a walk in the park."

When can we buy Tough Enough? "A box set coming out you'll hear more about on the season finale and there's a behind the scenes /bloopers reel type thing. All the Darryl fans out there will get a real kick out of it!" The DVD went on sale today at WWF.com.

Catch you all on Monday.

Michael Goodson

 

 

 

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