Tough Enough is back tonight live from Orlando with more drama, more challenges, and a new judge. I still will only be reviewing Tough Enough, even though Josh Gagnon tapped out last week after Patrick was eliminated so he will no longer be covering Tough Talk. I considered the same this week after the elimination, but decided to keep doing this for all of you. Let's jump to it.
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Let's not bury the lede: It was revealed in the opening that the Miz would be Hulk Hogan's replacement. They did not acknowledge the change at all. That's to be expected. That's part of scrubbing someone's memory as much as you can Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind style. Jericho introduced the judges normally, though he did make it known that now the Miz was joining the team.
The Miz deserves the spot the most. His work on Tough Talk has been the highlight of this entire season. He obviously cares as seen on Tough Talk last week when he went at the judges for even nominating Patrick for the bottom three. He's got a better chemistry with Paige and Bryan and he's a reality TV entertainer. It's in his blood. Hogan wasn't a bad judge, but the three have a good rapport and Miz knows how to make a reality show entertaining.
Miz made some waves immediately this week. Unfortunately those moves upset me a bit since it ended up with my guy Mada getting eliminated.
Not that Mada had a great showing this week. He was last in the first challenge. In said challenge, the contestants had to climb an obstacle course that strung up between the trees. However there was a catch (isn't there always?) On each tree that the would pass, there was a number. At the end, if they could remember the series of numbers while focusing on climbing through and obstacles and through Billy Gunn shouting random stuff at them, the contestant would enter those numbers in a safe for a prize. (The prize was Jericho's book.) Mada came dead last in this challenge, even behind ZZ.
Then the second challenge, working a theme of concentration, had two contestants lock up in the ring taking instruction from Billy Gunn. However there was piped in crowd noise to try to distract them from hitting the instructed sequence of moves. Mada and ZZ did the worst. Mada claimed it was because ZZ wasn't on his game so he could do what he was supposed and that's entirely possible. But there was not enough footage to really tell.
So when the time for the judges to choose Final Three came around, the Miz picked Mada. This is a significant change from Hogan, who was a huge supporter of Mada. Hogan was the classic big guy 80s wrestler and that's Mada's look and character. Miz is not that. He's a current wrestler with a size closer to a normal human being. So unlike Hogan, Mada isn't Miz's cup of tea.
Joining Mada in the bottom three was ZZ (of course) and Amanda. Normally, this would mean Amanda would go home. It was a no doubter because she's not nearly as popular as ZZ and Mada. Until the Miz stepped in. He used his save for Amanda because "she's hot" and look is a big part of being a diva. Predictably, Amanda got barely any votes. Mada was up there, but couldn't beat ZZ. So as Hogan disappears from the show, so does his favorite guy Mada.
That leads me to my possibly Paige-esque rant. Why the hell are people still voting for ZZ? I get it early on. He was young and charismatic. He wasn't a prototypical athlete and people like that. But why now? The dude clearly doesn't put in the effort. Sure, they showed some clips that totaled maybe two minutes of him doing some floor exercises. But they also revealed at the end that he sleeps in as everyone goes to the gym. He doesn't seem to have at the passion. Any time someone gets in his face about something, he backs off instead of standing up and claiming how much he wants this. So where's his appeal? He he doesn't seem to care, why are people still voting him? If you are still voting for ZZ over any of these other athletes, please, enlighten me in the comments.
Now some Quick Hits from the episode:
- The overall winner of the tree climbing memory challenge was Tanner. Giorgia came in first for the girls though Chelsea had a better time. But Chelsea didn't remember the numbers.
- Josh won the in ring challenge (by a small margin according to Billy Gun) and Chelsea won for the girls.
- Tanner is still a terrible promo. While in the HOT TUB with Chelsea, she challenged him to cut a promo on her bikini and it was terrible. I can see him not making it in the end due to his promo work.
- Billy Gunn has become the star of the judges. Honestly, I forget Booker and Lita are there at times.
- I enjoy seeing Sasha Banks any chance I get. (Is she only allowed her NXT title in Full Sail?) However adding these in studio wrestler segments are the biggest wastes of time. This week, they must have spent at least 5 minutes of time with an awkwardly paced segment of Tamina slamming and then splashing the girls. Aren't there more clips of the contestants training you can be showing us?
- What was up with that creepy shrine that ZZ had to Patrick? That's out of some horror movie.
- While GiGi's attitude has rubbed me the wrong way the last couple weeks, I really enjoyed the scene with her and her father on video chat. When her father started crying because he told her he knew she wasn't coming back home to Australian, it was a touching moment. It felt real.
- Why does Jericho Periscope during the show? Does he want people watching the show and not watching him via Periscope? I guess that's all the "Second Screen Experience" thing I've never understood.
Favorite Moment of the Week:
- Frickin' Cesaro zip-lining in a frickin' suit looking fly as can be.
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That's it from me on yet another week of Tough Enough. Only 4 to go (I think.) If you've made it with me this far, I'm guessing you're in it for the long haul. Sound off below with your take on WWE's hard hitting reality show.