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Sarah
wants to remind you that she is nowhere NEAR Tough Enough.
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Tough Enough 3
original
airdate: 10-17-02
Just when I was starting to feel bad about my lazy, TV-watching, Twinkie-frying life, along comes a new season of Tough Enough to remind me that hey! I like my digital cable and Hostess snack cakes.
Because there ain't none of that in the life of a Tough Enough contender, oh no sir. There is, however, a lot of yelling, screaming, puking, calisthenics, head and neck damage, and sweating. No, thank you. I'll watch from the couch, if it's all the same to you.
For the third (and possible final) season of Tough Enough, MTV and the WWE chose to do things a bit differently. From the 4,000 tapes they received, they offered only 75 applicants the chance for a personal interview. From there, 25 semifinalists were invited to California for an exhaustive three-day audition.
It's a wise move in many ways, but there are the drawbacks. Not much time could be devoted to the laughable tape submissions, and less to the interviews. By the first commercial break, we were in California, with the running and the puking and the all-important weeding out of the wannabes.
The past two seasons of Tough Enough saw several
contestants cut early on after they couldn't hack extensive
physical exertion on a regular basis. Either they weren't
smart enough to work so hard without hurting themselves somehow,
or immediately aggravated a minor injury, or just plain gave
out, but that aspect proved problematic for the show as a
whole. It prevented the trainers from being able to make cuts
at their pace, and shorted potentially more worthy competitors
from getting their chance.
Two of the 25 were cut before the final day, one being a fabulously hyperbolic, overconfident and probably very talented drama queen named Wendell. He arouses Al Snow's ire pretty quickly by pretending to pass out after the first workout, all the while insisting that he's got heart, he wants this, and on and on.
Look, kid, that stuff may fly when you're Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair and you're trying to get some heat from an audience in the midst of a long championship match, but at this point, you just have to work. Period. Al cuts him loudly and angrily, saying later that he was especially pissed because he saw in Wendell the potential to win the whole thing, but that his obvious lack of drive was an insurmountable obstacle.
The other cut was a nice, nondescript girl named Sarah, who just couldn't get over her fear of taking front bumps after watching Voula, another contender, land on her head. (They're all wearing shirts with their names on them! Brilliant! So easy to recap!) Al is understanding, saying that everyone makes mistakes and it sucks that these mistakes hurt, but Voula gets back up and conquers her fear, and Sarah does not.
After the final physical challenge, riding a bike up a mountain and running back down, the trainers (Ivory and Bill DeMott join Al this time around), judges and producers make their final selection. As follows, they are:
Matt - a floppy blonde haired surfer dude, possibly a long-lost Hardy Boy
Rebekah - an articulate girl, who commented "it's not natural at all to take a bump"
Justin
Jill - who had her wisdom teeth removed a few days prior and still made it through
Jonah - a hulking meathead, who once had a thing with Jill, despite having a girlfriend
Eric
Chad - the tall guy, at 6'9"
Lisa
Nick - who took an enormous amount of punishment not being able to get off the mat right, and still made it through
Jamie
Scott
John - a TE2 reject who made it through this time
Kelly - a redhead with allergies and asthma who had some problems outside, but still made it through
Obviously, some of the contestants weren't exactly memorable, but they've made it this far, and in the coming weeks will have the opportunity to make their impressions.
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