Welcome Back Tough Enough, R.I.P. NXTurd (One Hopes)

I was talking with El Chupacabra, a wrestler on the independent circuit, about a week ago who informed me that he had applied to be on the next season of Tough Enough.  I looked at his tweet for a minute and then asked back if he meant Tough Enough or NXT.  He told me that Tough Enough was coming back, that he had seen a posting on a reality TV casting site and had filled out an application to be considered.

So I have to say I was jacked over the initial news.  After all if Tough Enough is coming back and it's going to be broadcast then there's no need for WWE to continue its production of that piece of crap known as NXT.  It was only a day later that the information El Chupacabra was giving me was confirmed, as it was announced during WWE Monday Night Raw that WWE Tough Enough was indeed coming back and it would be broadcast on the USA Network.

Since then there has been a spate of rumors as to who will be part of the new Tough Enough.  Al Snow, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock's names have all come in in connection to the revived series, many people speculating what their roles will be if any of them indeed actually appear on the show.

Rejoice, rejoice.  WWE NXT is dead!  Long live Tough Enough!

Right?

Well so far WWE has been tight lipped as to the fate of what was first hailed as "The Next Evolution In Sports Entertainment", and it somehow is still being called "An Internet Sensation", NXT.  I would think that the death of NXT and the rebirth of Tough Enough would go hand in hand.  In fact what I would love to see would be the first round of hopefuls for the new Tough Enough decimate the final contestants on NXT on its last broadcast.

So if NXT is going to be cancelled why now announcement from the company?

I see Tough Enough as a slightly more legitimate competition to award a WWE contract.  I say slightly because all you have to do is look back at the original Tough Enough to realize its track record for producing stars from non-winning talent is only slightly better than NXT's.  My first observation when I began watching NXT Season One was that guys like David Otunga, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater would end up with contracts whether they won or not due to the fact that the company would be crazy to pass them up, and because so many Tough Enough failures had ended up with WWE contracts in the past: Christopher Nowinski, Josh Matthews, Matt Morgan, Nicholas Mitchell and Michael "The Miz" Mizanin (the reigning WWE Champion).

Of course there will be plenty of time for announcements.  The revived series is scheduled to start the night after Wrestlemania XXVII, so NXT has until April at the least.  Who will end up as trainers?  I doubt it will be a huge and big name star like the Rock or Austin or Shawn Michaels, but I would suspect that they or people on their level might put in an appearence as a special guest pretty much the same way superstars would appear on the original Tough Enough.

Until I know for sure I wait with somewhat baited breath to see if that Nexus recruiting ground WWE NXT will be tough enough.

Master Vyle