Tough Enough Episode 5 Recap and Review: Patrick's Demise

Before I get into tonight's Tough Enough, this is going to be a bit more abbreviated recap to this week's episode since my night was spent watching the Mets defeat the Nationals in Nationals Park and I want to get to bed eventually.  So let's get right to tonight's Tough Enough.

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The more and more I watch the show, the more I see what is not working on this show that is contributing to its poor ratings and poor critical reviews.  This week, I noticed how poor the flow of the show is.  We start in a studio where three judges and two hosts talk about watching a television show we are all about to watch.  Then we go and we watch clips of said television show.  However before going to commercial we come back and those two judges and three hosts discuss what we just watched.  Then we do it again.  And again before coming back for the final votes.  If they're going to focus on the pre-taped stuff, just do that after the introduction.  Then afterwards, tell me what Hogan thinks.  WWE assigned too many roles to this and they're trying to find time for all of them.

This week we added a random appearance by Big Show who was just there to literally chest slap the guys.  That's all.  No words of wisdom to the big guys to how to work as a big guy.  No discussing the business.  Big Show was just an attraction.  He was just one of the many things Tough Enough has to dress up the show to disguise the fact it's not a wrestling show at all.  It's like a restaurant putting a ton of parsley on your plate to hide the fact the steak is two inches long and tough as nails.

Sure, they try to pretend it has to do with wrestling.  They bring in guest stars like Big Show or Natalya who are in the world of WWE.  They make up reasons that random challenges that have nothing to do with wrestling are related to wrestling.  This week, they said the theme was teaching humility but it was just an excuse to run a random non-wrestling related obstacle course that I bet not all the WWE stars could run.

Being a "humility themed" episode, there was no doubt the guys with the least humility, Patrick, would be the focus.

The first challenge was an obstacle course.  Patrick did not do well on it as he had earlier claimed, which started his "lesson in humility."  Though all I could think during this segment is if they are going to run an obstacle course, I'd prefer it to be Steve Austin's Broken Skull Challenge.  (I'm a huge fan of that show)

The second challenge was the same in ring competition as last week, doing in-ring shoulder bumps and slams.  This week, though, they had to start putting personality behind it.  Once again, Patrick was bested, this time by Mada.  The stipulation to this challenge was that the loser had to do squats saying whatever the winner wanted.  So more reality dumbness disguised as teaching a lesson.

And then, the show ended when Patrick got eliminated.  Not ZZ, who still hasn't gotten himself in shape.  Patrick.  I've made it known that Patrick has not been my cup of tea.  But no way in hell did he deserve to go home.  He's still the most experienced and of that three, ZZ was the clear man who should be shown the door.  I bet if the judges had a vote, ZZ would have been.

Even as a pure reality show that has nothing to do with wrestling, which this clearly is, Patrick going home was terrible.  The main story of this show, besides the Sara Lee redemption story, has been Patrick's on going feud with Tanner.  Patrick is the guy who loves wrestling.  Tanner is the MMA guy who is athletically gifted but doesn't have the passion for wrestling.  These guys have been going at it since week one.  If I'm not getting wrestling on Tough Enough, at least tell me a good story.  Unfortunately, the best "drama storylines" was cut short because of the poor voting system.

Now the quick hits:

• Man, I soured some on Giorgia this week.  She came off as phony and two-faced this episode.  First she throws Sara Lee under the bus and then she fake cries about Chelsea's injury.
• That being said, she's still the best and deserves to win.  However, it's not wise to play this game with clear Twitter fan favorite Sara Lee.  That may hurt if she ever finds herself bottom three.
• Would Patrick have gone home if he didn't ream out ZZ in the barracks?  He was at him.  ZZ is still a fan favorite and that could have really hurt Patrick when people went to vote on Twitter.
• I am glad Josh wasn't voted out.  I was really worried that he would be because I didn't think he had the Twitter following that Patrick or ZZ did.
• I've been enjoy Hulk Hogan as a judge, but he was all over the place today.  Jericho couldn't even tell who he nominated for Bottom Three.  But in his defense, he was probably buying time because he too wanted to nominate ZZ.
• I'm glad Chelsea's ankle healed up quickly and she became cleared to compete - mainly because it would be even more unfair to bring another girl in this late in the show.
• No coach chew outs this week.  Everyone was pretty docile.

Favorite Moment of the Week:

After Tanner smoked everyone in the obstacle course competition, he made sure to call out Patrick as he rung the bell.  The feud between those two was extremely enjoyable and it is a damn shame that it's over already.

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That's my take on another episode of Tough Enough. What'd you all think?