10 Problems With Tough Enough WWE Doesn't Want To Admit
10. Tough Enough Is Not Actively Looking For Wrestlers
WWE is now a company where people now routinely actually grapple and oftentimes perform death-defying in-ring stunts as maneuvers. Thus, why is there any reason to believe that a show that features grown men dressing like children's superheroes and women doing B-rate acting will actually bear any worth on either the main roster or in NXT? The idea that this season of Tough Enough is more an addendum tacked on the end of the latest contract between NBC/Universal and WWE is entirely possible. Oftentimes in contracts there are "other considerations," the "player to be named later" that exists in trade agreements in sports. Tough Enough being the "branded WWE content" that was not named is entirely possible. Seeing that they needed something, WWE may have simply poorly chosen an anything to add. Yes, as we're all quite well aware, professional wrestling is a blend of theatrics and athleticism. However, in a company where that balance has shifted between these polar opposite skills, parading these oftentimes hapless wannabes on television and having them endure being forced to embody a WWE product that does not necessarily even exist anymore just makes Tough Enough feel like the most tired program ever.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.