Television Report

TRAXX OPENING

The show opened at Traxx training facilities with Al Snow telling the contestant's he hopes Darryl being cut motivates them not to be the next one cut, and obviously Darryl wasn't "Tough Enough".

They get right in to the work out and focus on Shadrick doing push-up's with Snow standing over him. We get Shadrick's opinion and he is afraid he is going to be cut next. Shadrick is taking his bumps and doing them wrong, Al stops him and gives him some pointers on why he is doing them wrong, and how he can improve.

Jackie makes it clear that she likes Shadrick because of his attitude and his personality and he is improving in her opinion.


THE HALF-CRAB

Tazz gets in to the ring and gives the contestant's a lesson on the proper way to apply the half-crab to teach them how to do it correctly. Al Snow suggests Josh is going to be at a disadvantage with this maneuver because he is so much shorter then everybody else.

Chris fell incorrectly taking the bump, and Al Snow stopped him and pointed out that after all the weeks of training to learn how to bump, he did it wrong and potentially could have broken his arms. Snow tells them to do all the bumps the same way. Tazz tells the contestant's that he doesn't care where he is at, if he was to take a bump and fall it would be the same way. Even if he was in a store and slipped on some milk, he would still take the proper bump. "I could be in a goddamn supermarket and slip on the milk in the frozen food section, and I swear to God I'll land the right way."


CALLING HOME

After a long hard work day, the contestant's are back at the house and making various phone calls to their loved one's.

Nidia, who is now our version of Taylor because we never see anything from her anymore, was on the phone talking about how her morale is down. We see various cast members on the phone discussing how things have gotten fairly difficult in the contest and how it has been really tough.


DINNER TIME: WOMEN'S UNDERGARMENTS ANYBODY? PERHAPS A LAP DANCE?

The crew went to a Chinese Transvestite Strip Club. Damn, We don't have any of those in East Hartford. Those bastards in Stamford are lucky! I sob over the fact that our favorite hero Darryl was cut before he had the chance to go up on stage and make an ass out of himself and take all his clothes off. But I guess that is the pitfall of being cut. Oh well.

Nidia was the focus of a lap dance which was donated to her graciously by one of the other cast members. Of course the ratings value of seeing a potential female (we really can't be sure it was a chick, it could have been a guy in drag you know) giving a lap dance to another female was incredible. And that is what we saw. Don't say this show hasn't given you something that other shows haven't! The lap dance was purchased by "Big" John, the big tough sentimental bastard (I love this guy!).

Greg commented that he had never seen anything that was so, "exotic". I guess he isn't familiar with the foul streets of Connecticut! Or maybe he has never been to a transvestite Chinese food club before. For that matter, I wonder if the menu included Moo Goo Gui Drag on it. Greg was cornered and asked to take all of his clothes off, or in more politically correct terms, "STRIP". His response on the show was "What am I going to say?". I think the proper answer to that question is, "Do you have any one dollar bills?". Of course Greg said "YES".

Greg stripped and showed off his muscle's. I have the feeling he would have done this for free, wait a second, he did do it for free. Next we see all of the boys taking their clothing off. Which I think is very unfair of the guys to take advantage of this situation and not allow any air time for the females to take their clothing off. It is just blatant discrimination! And I won't stand for it! Taylor should have been asked "Strip?". Of course the proper answer would have been, "Okay. Let me take all my clothes off right now!".


HERE SHE IS! MISS TOUGH ENOUGH! BETTER KNOWN AS MAVEN

I LOVE THIS GUY! Wait a second, on second though let me clarify. I guess the remark of me suggesting I am in love with a guy that dressed up as a woman is a potentially misleading comment. The fact that Maven dressed up in drag and still came across as being the contestant with the most value. I think this is the guy! This guy reminds me so much of Duane Johnson. He even made dressing up as a woman in drag come across as being something special and monumental. He did not have a problem with it, and he even showed great confidence wearing those goofy outfits and huge outrageous sun glasses. Maven is the man!

Okay, so the ramifications of me suggesting that a guy that dressed up in drag and wears outrageous outfits and outrageous sun glasses making him "THE MAN" may not make any sense, but deal with it, because that is what I am saying.


BACK AT TRAXX

Shadrick is doing his hip toss bumps with Tori and keeps pushing down on her shoulder to take his bump. Tori stops him and tells him to stop doing what he is doing because it is tearing her up. Shadrick tries again and makes the same mistake.

Snow and Tazz take Shadrick aside to give him a good thrashing (as William Regal would say). Tazz actually gives Shadrick a pep talk and to prove that he wants it. Snow reinforces what Tazz said and told Shadrick he has to get it right or he will not be doing it at all. Snow can't risk anybody getting injured.


BACK AT THE HOUSE, THE DRAG QUEEN SPEAKS

Okay, I might be ribbing Maven too much by continually calling him the Drag Queen, nah! In all seriousness, it isn't as bad as what his mother called him on the phone! His mother was happy with his overall progress and wasn't even upset at the "drag queen" bit. But she was jokingly trying to call him a "FAGGOT" and instead called him a "DYKE". Maven points out the correct term is "FAGGOT" since he is a guy, and not "DYKE" since he isn't a female.

Got to love these personal and yet emotional moments between children and their parents! What a Kodak moment! Luckily the censors decided to "BLEEP" the words, otherwise the Gay Rights people would be calling WWFE right now and demanding an apology. I think they probably did anyway. I'd put them on the phone with Pat Patterson.


BIG JOHN BRINGS THE WWFE VIDEO LIBRARY WITH HIM

"Big" John showed up with video tapes of previous Raw and SmackDown! shows and the group was to watch them. Of course Chris is quick to point out the reason for watching these tapes isn't to be entertained as much as to look for the technical aspects of the actual overall product. "Big" John tells us the biggest fan of the show is Josh, but he isn't even present to view the actual tapes.

The group quickly defends Josh and tells "Big" John that Josh doesn't like watching the shows with people, which "Big" John thinks is odd. Josh comes in and defends himself to "Big" John and tells us at home that the reason he doesn't like watching the shows with people is because he is sick of them making comments about how certain athletes didn't take bumps the right way or did certain things wrong. Josh states they have been doing this for how long, and the actual wrestlers have been doing it for how long? And he suggests that it really pissed him off when people critique was the actual professional are doing, when they have no right to critique it from the stand point of being 'experts' on the finished product presented.


MORE WITH MAVEN

Maven is still talking to his mother and we find out that she has cancer, it would be a nice time to wish William Moody and his wife the best of luck. If you didn't hear she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, and all of our wishes and energy is focused in her direction. Maven discusses his mother's health with her for the next few minutes and then we get to know a little more about Maven, outside of that he likes to wear women's clothes!, and find out he really cares a lot about his mother. In fact his mother means everything to him. I get the idea that if fate is going to be a total bastard to Maven, he might have to make a decision later down in the show to stay or leave to take care of his mother. I am hoping that this isn't the case, and Maven's mother stays healthy for a long time to come. But I have to point it out, because she has cancer and at any time it could go fatal.


BACK AT TRAXX

This is your 24 hour notice! There will be a cut. The contestant's are told to make sure they do everything right to impress the trainers.

We see the contestant's all taking bumps with music being played, and Shadrick does it wrong again. Snow makes him sit down which would stress to us at home this wasn't the "first" time that Shadrick messed the move up. Because before we were educated to know Snow and Tazz and Tori take people aside and tell them to fix their errors or they will be told to sit down and watch. Obviously this means that Shadrick was constantly screwing up and did not correct his screw up's before he was asked to sit down and watch. The perils and drawbacks of making this show only 30 minutes. If it was an hour, they could be more in depth and show a hell of a lot more. What idiots are the MTV people? I hope in the future they increase it to an hour long format.

Jackie, who is taken with Shadrick, tries to console him. Jackie isn't really being "TOUGH" on Shadrick from where I stand. But it shows these trainers also have grown attached to the contestant's and actually care if they make it or do not make it. Which is a good indication the WWFE has something invested in them succeeding. At this point, after five weeks of training. These guys all could continue their training even if they are cut and have a good chance at becoming pro-wrestlers, in my opinion.

Al Snow gave Shadrick a pep talk, an awesome pep talk. Snow suggested that Shadrick could do everything correctly if he put his energy in to it, because he knew the material. All he had to do is want it enough. Shadrick got back in to the action and corrected his mistakes, so it seemed.

Chris has also been having some problems during flip over bumps in the hip toss routine. He has been taking a two step mini leap before the bump, which Al Snow refers to as the "bunny hop". Shadrick and Chris are paired off to work together.

After they both complete the maneuver Snow stops them and says, "Good. I am glad you did that. Now you know what you have been doing to everybody else. Please keep doing that to each other."


WHO WILL BE NEXT?

Both Josh and Taylor are curious as to who will be next? And they are not Bill Goldberg fans. Shadrick tells us he has always dreamed of being a pro wrestler.


BEFORE THE CUT, MY THOUGHTS

All of the contestant's are doing very well, outside of the problem area's which as of last week's show we would have figured Paulina would be in trouble. She is actually fairing very well now, and she hasn't made any mistakes. Right now the only two problem area's are Chris and Shadrick. So it seems likely one of the two are going to be cut. Which of the two would I have cut? I would have cut Chris, because I just think he doesn't have what it takes. I thought that the Shadrick kid actually had more promise, but then again, I am not watching these guys train 24 hours a day. So who am I to say who should be cut and who should not be cut?


THE OVERWHELMING CONSENSUS BY THE JUDGES

"Big" John has the photo's and they are going over them one by one. For time reasons they skip over everybody's photo who was not in trouble and just go to the problem areas.

Josh is first and Jackie said he was solid, but tended to be lazy. Tori said he needed maturity. Next up was Chris. Snow said he was frazzled and Tori said Chris has talent but his head goes everywhere (they showed him taking bumps and landing wrong exposing his head). And lastly was Shadrick. Snow said Shadrick is afraid of falling and Jackie told us how Shadrick was so frustrated and for some reason it got to her and she cried.


BACK AT THE HOUSE BEFORE CUT DAY

We see them getting ready to meet their fate, eating breakfast, and getting ready to head to TRAXX.


TRAXX AGAIN

They arrive at Traxx and of course take their seats. They are informed to go back to the locker's and check for the red tag. We see some of them going back and finding no tag, and finally we come to Shadrick and WHAM, HE'S GONE!

Shadrick was a very well liked and respected character, unlike Darryl. It's sad that Shadrick had to go. We see him saying goodbye's to people, and unlike Darryl's cut, we see a bit of emotion out of the other contestant's. I guess mostly from the females. Paulina hugged Shadrick for a long time and was almost in tears when he left. It seems Shadrick was a well liked guy on the show.

Al Snow pointed out to the contestant's before they went back to find the red tag that he wanted to emphasize if any of these people "wanted it that bad" they shouldn't take the cut to mean they are not good enough and should train elsewhere to continue to follow their dreams (good message).

Shadrick said goodbye to the trainers who all gave him hugs and all of them were visibly shaking up over this cut. Tori was almost in tears when she gave him a hug goodbye, and Jackie broke down and cried when she was giving him a hug goodbye. Al Snow would not let Shadrick go without telling him that if he wanted it bad enough he should pursue his dream, and just because he was cut from training here, it doesn't mean he should give up his dream.

Who knows, maybe we will be hearing something from Shadrick down the road if he wants it that bad.


THE CONTESTANT'S

Female: Bobby Jo, Nidia, Paulina, Taylor and Victoria.

Males: Chris Ni., Chris No., Darryl, Greg, Jason, Josh, Maven, and Shadrick.