Originally posted by Da Thrilla
I wish Jill stayed.

Originally posted by WhattheFFF
who does everyone think wll win? I'm leaning towards Matt & Jonah

Originally posted by GuessWho
Matt and John... but Jonah will wind up in WWE eventually (a la Chris Nowinski)

Originally posted by Seantn
I dont' remember Chris Nowinski..... Anyone have a pic of him?

Tough Enough?

December 10,2002

It has come to my attention that I am not, in fact, Tough Enough. I haven’t really been watching this season of Tough Enough, on MTV, but I have been keeping a vague eye on it. I don’t have much time to watch TV so I’ve just been watching the clips during RAW to see where they are in the season. My keeping tabs on the show was due to my having done a guest spot this year, and not wanting to miss my guest appearance.

Back during the taping of the show I had been asked to travel to L.A., on one of my days off, to be a quest on the program. I had mentioned to Bill Demott (Hugh Morris) that I would love to do an episode, when I heard he was going to be one of the trainers. As some of you may recall I help instruct a couple of the “Hart Brother Pro-Wrestling Camps” in Calgary many years ago, and enjoyed it very much. Bill had suggested to the producers that I would make a good guest and low and behold, I ended up in L.A. as part of the show.

While at Tough Enough I spoke to the contestants, trying to show some of the more pleasant sides of the business. Al had mentioned that most guests spoke about the hardships of constant pain and life on the road away from loved ones, and asked me to lighten the mood, so to speak. I spoke about the friendships you develop on the road. Putting your body, and in some cases your life, in someone else’s hands develops an unparalleled bond. I also told the story of the infamous Undertaker Spinarooni rib. From there the students got in the ring and I offered what advice I could and instructed them on how to properly work an opponents leg. We went through several leg hold and ways in which to sell it properly. I had a lot of fun with the group and would have stay several more hours working out in the ring had time allowed.

Over the last couple weeks I had noticed that Tommy Dreamer’s as well as DDP’s episodes had aired so I knew mine should be coming up pretty soon. My wife had been taping the show, which airs right before RAW on TSN in Canada Monday nights, for me, and this week and I scanned through the tape to see if it was my week. To my surprise I watched as Scott was cut from the show. This surprised me, not because I thought he shouldn’t be cut, but because he was still on the show when I did my guest spot.

There you have it. I got cut from the show! My appearance lies on the cutting room floor of MTV. Apparently I wasn’t Tough Enough for Tough Enough. My hellish day of travel, my lost time from home was all for not. Well maybe not completely for not as I did share some of my knowledge with a few aspiring wrestlers, but from a TV standpoint it never happened. I guess those are the breaks, as they say. Perhaps they will at some point release a DVD, of season three, and my nonexistent episode will see the light of day. Ironically enough during my talk with the contestant, someone asked me if this show was around when I broke in would I have wanted to try it as an avenue to my success. My reply was that in hind sight no, that I felt I learn invaluable knowledge taking the road that I did, and that in all honesty I didn’t think I would thrive in the Tough Enough environment.

I guess I was right; I wasn’t even good enough to thrive as a quest on the program.

I’ve got a Post Script for you this week as something has been eating at me since I finished typing this commentary. In addition to me being cut out of Tough Enough, there was one other part of the show that caught my attention. The “rib” the kid who had the head injury played on his fellow contestants. For those of you who missed the show, the kid got hurt taking a bump (an arm drag, I believe) his head and neck were really sore and he was dizzy. They sent him to a doctor for an MRI. The doctor told him it was nothing serious but he decided to play a “rib” and tell everyone he was seriously hurt.

Now I don’t know if this was his idea (as portrayed in the show) or someone from MTV’s but it was one of the most inappropriate and appalling things I’ve ever seen. If there is one thing you do not “rib” about, or make light of in this business it is getting hurt, and being injured. We put our bodies and in turn our health and even or lives in other people’s hands every day, and that is not to be taken lightly or used for the butt of a joke.

I can’t believe that Bill, Al, and Ivory even went along with it and played it up as being a great “rib”. This kid came back to the show in a neck collar with his head taped up and told everyone he was seriously injured and would have to leave the show. His fellow contestants were in tears for the guy and I can only imagine how the guy who was in the ring with him when he took the bad bump must have felt. There is nothing more taboo or unacceptable in this business than faking an injury like this guy did. Far too many of us have really suffered injuries like this guy was pretending to have and making light of it is disgusting.

How do you think a guy like Darren Drozdov would feel watching this show seeing a guy making a joke out of a supposed neck injury? Droz is in a wheel chair today from a neck injury he suffered in the ring and I can guarantee you he finds no humour in that. Everyone I’ve talked to in the locker room found this part of the show extremely offensive and I thought it appropriate to let you know the truth, that behavior like this is unacceptable in our business, despite what MTV and the producers of Tough Enough think makes for good television.

Perhaps these kids could better spend their time actually learning how to work and respect this business instead of trying to play “ribs” and disrespect it.

That’s my tirade for this week,
Lance