WWF's Tough Enough - The First Season Box Set [VHS]

There are a couple of ways to look at Tough Enough, MTV and the WWF's collaborative effort to join the fantasy worlds of sports-entertainment wrestling and reality television. To cynics (and hard-core wrestling fans), this is a cheap attempt by both companies to try to capitalize on the reality-TV fad. On paper it reads like Big Brother meets Smackdown: 13 would-be wrestlers are trapped inside a house trying to pick each other off and win a guaranteed WWF contract. Meanwhile, to ensure wrestling fans will watch, a different WWF superstar (Triple H, Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Hardy Boyz) pops by each episode to offer encouragement or demean their efforts. Now, wrestling fans will complain (accurately) that in no way does this resemble the path wrestlers take to make it to the WWF. These folks have been afforded luxuries that many of the viewers at home lack (nice house, free food, a hot tub, etc.). In this respect, nothing about Tough Enough is real.

However, if you're a casual fan of wrestling and are interested in how wrestlers train or would like to peak behind the "fake" curtain and see how these performers work, the show is endlessly entertaining. After a couple of episodes, the first thing that is apparent is that though the world of wrestling is "fake" entertainment, it is by no means easy. Judges are supposed to vote contestants off after each episode, but in many cases, the poor kids quit due to injury or lack of desire. As a typical MTV-style reality soap opera, the show is less successful. The focus here is on wrestling, not love affairs and petty arguments (though there are a few here and there). But if you want a small glimpse of what it takes to be a WWF superstar, this is a good place to start. --Dave McCoy