Tanner: “The Truth Behind Tough Enough”
Summer of 2015 marked the return of WWE’s reality competition show, “Tough Enough”. The show’s history dates back to the early 2000’s, but has never had a consistent run (this was the 6th season in 14 years), and as we have pointed out several times, the show usually tends to create stars who flounder in the midcard before, eventually, being released, with notable exceptions being The Miz (former WWE Champion… but didn’t win it), Cameron (claimed her favourite match was Melina vs. Alicia Fox from an episode of RAW) and Lucha Underground’s Johnny Mundo (a former WWE Intercontinental Champion, and the most successful Tough Enough Winner).
And let us not forget the Hulk Hogan controversy right in the middle of the show’s run…
The show didn’t exactly set the WWE Universe alight. Fans, and even USA Channel Executives, were confused by the nature of the show. Is it a live game show, a real world-esque reality show? Nobody seemed to really know. One thing that WWE was determined to let people know, though, was that the voting was real. The power was in the fans hands, and that everything we see was 100% true.
Whilst reports indicate that, yes, the voting was real, what we actually saw on camera was far from it.
On the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer’s latest guest was former contestant Tanner, who dished a bit of dirt on the realities of working on the show:
-All the interviews were completely scripted. He had to do multiple takes on one occasion because they wanted him to use a specific word.
-It was clear from the start Josh was supposed to win. They would always air everything he did well. Good stuff other people did often weren’t shown.
-They tried the same with Amanda but couldn’t get the people to like her because Sara Lee was too popular.
-He is the only one from that season they didn’t hire. Told him his promos weren’t good enough. And he should make a name for himself in MMA first.
We at The Suplah, however, would like to remind you to take this with a grain of salt. Tanner could just be a little bitter over not winning and saying things to save face. After all, as previously stated, he claims that he was the only person from the show to not get offered a contract, but that just isn’t true, for example, Gabi was signed by TNA and goes by the ring name “Raquel”.
What do you think? Are these truthful whispers, or ego-protecting statements? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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