Wrestling is fake, reality TV is faker.

The comment “wrestling is fake, why do you watch it?” is one that most wrestling fans have thrown at them on a regular basis. Like most TV, it has been long established that sports entertainment is written by a team of writers before being acted out in the ring. So why is that any different to your average soap or film?

Lets be honest here, it’s probably safe to say that outside of perhaps people under the age of 12, anyone reading this knows the truth about how real or fake professional wrestling is. So why am I bringing this long discussed and worn out topic up? Well that’s because I just watched the first episode of the new series of Tough Enough, the vehicle in which USA hopes they will be able to find the next WWE superstar, something that might surprise those watching NXT for that exact purpose.

Now there has already been some interesting things said on the internet about this when it was first being filmed. Many people have commented on the fact the USA network chose the contestants and not the WWE. Let’s be honest here though, the WWE has made some pretty poor choices when it comes to new talent in the recent past (Michael Tarver, Titus O'Neill, Johnny Curtis? As The Miz would say, really?) so maybe this could be a good thing.

In the interest of fairness, I have to say that I’m not a reality TV fan. I have watched maybe 10 episodes across every series of Big Brother, Wife Swap and I’m A Celebrity… combined. But even I with my lack of reality TV experience and great intellect could tell on first meeting the “character” - because that’s what they are - who was the trouble maker, who was the drama queen, who was the feel good story and who was plain just going to piss me off. To quote Ken Anderson, “Pro wrestling is real, people are fake.”

These 14 people were given a gift most wrestling fans could only ever dream of, they got to stand in the same room as Trish Stratus, Booker T and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Not to mention a chance to be trained by one of the most underrated superstars and one of the toughest trainers in the business, Bill DeMott.

Here though is where I start having issues with the show. The trainers throughout their introductions and the first episode talk about heart and passion for the business, and how important that is. Which depending on whether you believe the truth or the “truth as their characters tell it” some of these people have it and some of them don’t. I also found it very interesting that of the 14 people on the show, several were hardly shown in the first episode. Neither the man or woman who are former Indy circuit wrestlers featured much, which either means they are not very interesting or will be on the show for a while so we will learn more about them in the weeks to come.

Now I would be a hypocrite if I complained because some of these people are acting a part, that is what TV and sports entertainment is all about. Hell just ask current WWE champion and former Tough Enough and The Real World contestant The Miz but at least The Miz was honest about playing up for the cameras. I’m also sure when pushed to name a match as the reason he is in the business he could come up with more than one. Hell, Stone Cold was asking the question, if you can’t pick five from his resume then you really are in the wrong place.

It’s going to be an interesting series to watch but I am under no pretence that more than a couple of them were ever meant to get to the final. And I can tell you now that Miss USA will stay on as long as the network and producers can possibly get away with it. The biggest highlight of the show came with Booker T quoting the late, great Eddie Guerrero in reference to Miss USA’s use of padding in the ‘running the ropes’ challenge. “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying hard enough”. A moral I’m sure you will agree we can all live our lives by. Or at the very least, those of us living our lives in front of a camera.