unc40
Dennis Stamp
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Post by unc40 on Apr 20, 2022 15:38:29 GMT -5
Did Tough Enough do a good job in finding new talent and getting them over or was it overall a failure. I know some contestants did pretty well like Miz and John Morrison but others like Linda Miles and Daniel Purdy never made much of an impact. Do view Tough Enough as a success or failure?
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Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby
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Post by Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby on Apr 20, 2022 15:40:19 GMT -5
It was an abject failure as far as making the winner into any kind of star or launching anyone's career directly from it. Miz and Morrison only really took off by coming back long enough afterward that they were sufficiently dissociated from it.
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Post by eJm on Apr 20, 2022 15:44:45 GMT -5
My first instinct was to say it was a real coinflip but actually, yeah, Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby is right, if we're talking about actual winners and actual success stories from the show itself that didn't have a period of separation, it was an absolute failure.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2022 15:46:13 GMT -5
The stone cold version was a success....for Lucha Underground.
Marty the moth Iveliesse Matt Cross/Son Of Havoc Show runner Eric Van Wagnen
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Post by Final Countdown Jones on Apr 20, 2022 15:46:45 GMT -5
Tough Enough is a giant failure that launched very few careers and even fewer out of its winners, and the few people who got somewhere out of it needed enough time that the show was a distant memory by the time they meant something. It feels to me like a WWE fantasy, honestly; the idea you can just put on a reality show, find people, nad have them become successful wrestling stars is just not in touch with reality.
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Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
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Post by Mozenrath on Apr 20, 2022 15:47:07 GMT -5
It was one of those things where WWE seemed to just have a seething resentment for people who did win. Like, you wanted newbies, but then get pissed off when they're newbies? No sympathy.
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
Better have my money when I come-a collect!
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Post by chazraps on Apr 20, 2022 15:48:37 GMT -5
Ultimately, more than anything, it was meant to be a TV show and in that regard the three MTV seasons and two USA seasons were a success.
If terms of finding/nurturing talent, you did have a lot of successful names within the alumni, and I wouldn't blame the short-comings of the winners on the show itself as there's so many moving parts in WWE and, during the Tough Enough years, so many were counter-productive to the aims of the show.
The number of successful names from that show, both in WWE and in the industry at large, makes it not seem like a failure to me. A failure would be if literally nobody had any success and the show did poorly.
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Post by "Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik on Apr 20, 2022 15:50:24 GMT -5
It both failed to produce significant talent that they wouldn't have found through other means and it was a failure as a TV product as it kept getting cancelled.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2022 15:50:43 GMT -5
For those that would care to feel free to give this a listen it is Eric Van Wagnen (my fav jefe) giving total insight into the process of the show and getting stone cold on board etc on his season of tough enough.
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Post by Final Countdown Jones on Apr 20, 2022 15:54:53 GMT -5
Ultimately, more than anything, it was meant to be a TV show and in that regard the three MTV seasons and two USA seasons were a success. If terms of finding/nurturing talent, you did have a lot of successful names within the alumni, and I wouldn't blame the short-comings of the winners on the show itself as there's so many moving parts in WWE and, during the Tough Enough years, so many were counter-productive to the aims of the show. The number of successful names from that show, both in WWE and in the industry at large, makes it not seem like a failure to me. A failure would be if literally nobody had any success and the show did poorly. That's fair, but I think the counterbalance to that is how many ringers WWE put in. They would take people they were interested in and stick them into the show, so it wasn't always a fully pure process of trying to unearth talent, but a way for them to put people on their radar out there anyway. People would go on the show, lose, then get developmental contracts anyway because WWE had wanted them from the start but used them to pad their show out. I know that's how reality TV works, but it kind of undermines the idea of the show's real world success for me.
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Post by eJm on Apr 20, 2022 16:11:16 GMT -5
Ultimately, more than anything, it was meant to be a TV show and in that regard the three MTV seasons and two USA seasons were a success. If terms of finding/nurturing talent, you did have a lot of successful names within the alumni, and I wouldn't blame the short-comings of the winners on the show itself as there's so many moving parts in WWE and, during the Tough Enough years, so many were counter-productive to the aims of the show. The number of successful names from that show, both in WWE and in the industry at large, makes it not seem like a failure to me. A failure would be if literally nobody had any success and the show did poorly. That's fair, but I think the counterbalance to that is how many ringers WWE put in. They would take people they were interested in and stick them into the show, so it wasn't always a fully pure process of trying to unearth talent, but a way for them to put people on their radar out there anyway. People would go on the show, lose, then get developmental contracts anyway because WWE had wanted them from the start but used them to pad their show out. I know that's how reality TV works, but it kind of undermines the idea of the show's real world success for me. Yeah, and even as a reality TV show, it didn’t exactly have the lasting power as a “franchise” in the same way Total Divas did for E! which was basically the non-Kardashian thing carrying that network at one point. Like, you take Tough Enough from early 00s MTV, nothing substantial changes about that period.
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Nosnorb
El Dandy
Nachos and Fraggle Rock are TIMELESS.
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Post by Nosnorb on Apr 20, 2022 16:24:16 GMT -5
It did give us The Boogeyman, so that was one success of the show.
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Chiral
Salacious Crumb
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Post by Chiral on Apr 20, 2022 16:27:28 GMT -5
S I L E N T R A G E
![](https://www.wwe.com/f/wysiwyg/image/2011/06/Andy-24.jpg) It did give us The Boogeyman, so that was one success of the show. "THIRTY!!!!!"
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2022 16:35:56 GMT -5
I liked the Stone Cold version simply due to his reaction to Cameron: Melina vs Alicia Fox, lol.
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Apr 20, 2022 16:47:43 GMT -5
On one hand of the winners only Morrison really did anything... (his fellow winner Matt was also apparently really good but his career and life was tragically cut short due to a brain tumor)
But the sheer amount of people in wrestling that passed through Tough Enough otherwise is decently long.
Ryback, the Miz, Matt Morgan, Kenny King, Mandy, Sonya, Melina (sorta), Ivelisse, Boogeyman.
Granted some (like the Miz) would have gotten looks regardless but they all got boosts from the exposure from Tough Enough.
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Post by Hypnosis on Apr 20, 2022 17:11:20 GMT -5
S I L E N T R A G E
![](https://www.wwe.com/f/wysiwyg/image/2011/06/Andy-24.jpg) It did give us The Boogeyman, so that was one success of the show. "THIRTY!!!!!" I can't believe Ricky Steamboat managed to say that nickname with a straight face on TV.
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Post by Pooh Carlson on Apr 20, 2022 17:54:18 GMT -5
The last season brought us Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Chelsea Green, and Velveteen Dream.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2022 18:22:04 GMT -5
I'm surprised Linda Miles/Shaniqua isn't brought up more in wrestling history. People always make sure to bring up the Jackie Gayda match (which was mentioned in the Ruthless Aggression series) but it seems like Linda just skirts by when all accounts indicate her victory was absolutely baffling given a total lack of charisma and them just not even wanting her to even be in the ring.
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Post by Ryback on a Pole! on Apr 20, 2022 18:48:06 GMT -5
Whatever happened to Skidmarks?
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Nosnorb
El Dandy
Nachos and Fraggle Rock are TIMELESS.
Posts: 7,923
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Post by Nosnorb on Apr 20, 2022 18:57:45 GMT -5
Whatever happened to Skidmarks? I think he was a wash.
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