Tough Enough 2015 Episode 3 Recap & Reactions: Popularity Contest

Tough Enough returned again tonight with multiple people going home and an appearance from the WWE champion.  Let's take a look at what happened tonight.

The biggest surprise of this show tonight was that Dianna just up and went home.  If you don't remember, she was the contestant who was getting married in a few months, trying to plan her wedding all the meanwhile being on Tough Enough and being despised by everyone in the house.  It's not surprising in the sense she wasn't happy, but surprising in the fact that she was one of the top women competitors thus far.  But you have to want it.  Looks like Hulk Hogan was right last week when he put her in the Bottom 3 because he doubted her commitment.  Maybe Hogan does know best.

It felt out of place in this episode, but that's what happens when this series is legitimately filmed week to week.  Reality TV is story telling like any other television.  But to make this fan interactive, they can only tell a story weekly and not over the entire season, at least not at this early on.  So while the Dianna drama was featured on last week's episode, ending it on the beginning of this episode felt out of place for this week. Not there's nothing WWE could do and it was no hinderance. But WWE only shows you certain aspects of certain characters every week.  So if they do something in 4 weeks that stemmed from something small this week but didn't show it this week, the story aspect of the reality TV suffers slightly.

There was only one challenge this week and it was not based in any athletetism.  However, it did have basis in pro-wrestling, perhaps more than trials past.  The contestants drew a random gimmick, had a couple hours to put a costume together, and then do an entrance.  (So while last week's initial challenge felt akin to the Amazing Race, this week's was more to Project Runway.)

While they were planning out their bits, the Architect of the Shield, the Betrayer of Brothers, the WWE Champion Seth Rollins stopped by gave some advise (though Rollins ain't got nothing on Tim Gunn).  Unlike last week with Roman Reigns, he was on the screen for a bit longer and actually seemed to personally interact with contestants.  He still didn't impart any major wisdom and I'm still holding out hope for one really good guest appearance.

Watching the challenge play out was enjoyable because for the first time as a fan, I could sit back and think "Yeah, she's got it" or "No, he does not have the charisma."  And while we think of Tough Enough as training in ring, taking bumps, and running the ropes, this is an equal part of WWE and pro-wrestling.

Part of me wonders if they're delaying the real ring based challenges because they have to give many of these contestants basic in ring training first.  This week many of the contestants tweeted out plenty of pictures of training so you know it's happening.  But WWE has not opted to show much of that at all.

The finish came down to Sara Lee and ZZ, who both found themselves bottom three for the second time, and Daria.  And as soon as you saw who it was, you could predict who was going home:  Daria.  Not because she was worse than those two in any major way.  But because she's less popular.  It's clear that ZZ and Sara have become fan favorites and as long as that stands, they will stick around.

Which makes me wonder if there's anything in place to let someone less deserving coast to the finals.  Is the an Electoral College in place to keep the masses from making the wrong choices over and over again?  Daria was likely the most qualified up there to continue on, but the least popular of the three.  I fear we're going to see better candidates go home because they haven't amassed the best twitter following or haven't become fan favorites.  But that's what happens when fan voting matters.

Now some quick hits on the happenings and contestants from this week:

• Every week I wonder why Jericho asks prior to the fan vote if any judge is going to use a save.  Because if a judge says yes, isn't that going to change fan voting? Should they chime in with a save after the voting is complete?
• Roman last week.  Seth this week.  Please please please let this mean Dean Ambrose is going to impart some crazy wisdom on the group next week.
• Billy Gunn reminds me of my aunt on Christmas morning, who used to try to wake us up early in the most obnoxious ways possible.  The dude loves shocking the contestants out of bed.
• I cannot believe Patrick won the competition as the Evil Intellect.  I thought Mada blew him out of the water which is Egyptian King gimmick.
• Giorgia, who has quietly been picking up some wins, did deserve the win as the "Bitch Boss" gimmick.
• I know Patrick is a fan favorite, but man that dude grates on me.  The things he has just comes off as too know-it-all for my tastes.  Though kudos for him on being the only person in that house up at 5:30 am to watch Beast in the East. He may be the only real WWE fan in that house.
• Paige has it in for Sara Lee.  It feels like overall she's trying to be too hard to be the mean judge.  The biggest problem with that is I think of that when I'm supposed to be cheering her on as the babyface in this big Divas angle.
• This week, Patrick said, "I'm reading to do some plowing" regarding Gabi's scantily clad farm girl entrance.  Last week he told two girls to kiss and make up.  If something like this happens again next week, I'm starting the Pervy Patrick Phrase of the week section here.

Coach Chew out of the Week: Billy Gunn gave ZZ a dressing down after ZZ's ridiculous American Hero entrant for not taking the challenge seriously.  To ZZ's credit, he was upset at the house later because he does take things seriously.

My Favorite Moment of the Week: Tanner and Patrick seem to be forming some tension and I am hoping they will eventually actually come to blows.  It's a good feud, the wrestler and the MMA fighter and the two guys who are the current male front runners.  Tonight, they teased coming to blows when after some bickering, Patrick told Tanner "I'm challenging you to a fight."  Sure they didn't actually fight and just stepped up to each other before being pulled apart, but I'm hopeful it goes down.

That's it for me.  What did you all think of Tough Enough tonight?