On the most recent edition of Tough Enough, which appears at this point to be little more than a haphazardly put together attempt at a ratings grabber for USA Network, contestant Patrick Clark was voted off the show. Intriguingly enough, of the 13 competitors on the program, the one showing the most moldable pro wrestling aptitude was Clark, which made his being voted off seem incredibly bizarre. When you're the chairman and CEO of a publicly traded company and have so little control over your corporate branding that your partners seem to be exerting control over who gets employed by your company, that's troubling. If WWE were still a "pro wrestling" company, Patrick Clark would be hired. But with WWE now being little more than a corporate ally that does "sports entertainment," let's expect ZZ to win, and that his NXT stay will be brief.
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.
