Former Tough Enough champion, Jackie Haas blogs on the new series of Tough Enough. Read her insight and opinion on the series every week exclusively here at Diva Dirt.
Time to get ‘Tough’…
When it comes down to being a WWE Superstar, Trish hit the nail right on the head with the last contestant cut, Matt. The spotlight was on and he was in the dark. In my opinion, contrary to those of many others, I could not agree more with the decision to cut him. Matt has tremendous skill level and has great athletic ability but when you do nothing but complete the moves? That’s not what this competition is for. I believe it’s for the exact opposite.
For someone who has been in the ring for nearly a decade, he was told point blank it was time to shine and fell flat; in fact, he was overshadowed. You can teach someone the moves but you have to have an inner charisma that is able to shine and overtake within the WWE. Matt has been on the indy circuit for too long not be able to take Luke by the “balls” and showboat. When it’s your time to shine and you don’t deliver, there is not enough time in this competition to “play it safe” and “wait for your time.” Your time will come when you least expect it; personally, if I were to do it over again, there were so many things that I would have done so differently to make sure I captured every moment but hindsight is 20/20 (that and I chalk it up to being so young and having no real concept of what I had gotten myself into!). He had ample chance to show himself, even up to the last few moments of the show with Stone Cold in his face waiting for him to “man up.” Cricket, cricket, cricket… so cliché in this business.
A cricket does not equal WWE Superstar.
Being told personally to “pack up and leave the competition” because of my knee injury, I may not have fully understood the capacity of my answer, saying no, and demanding I stay at that time. However, at that point and time I did know that I had the courage to push through and I was damned if I was going to take someone’s “advice” – if they wanted me out of there, they had better damn well throw me out.
WWE takes courage outside of the ring even more so than inside at times and I am very glad that they will have what seems to be a “weekly theme” and that courage was one of the first lessons. Matt seemed to me a robot of moves and did not have the courage to break through and shine. There are thousands and thousands of “Matts” out there. Next…
As for the rest of the cast: Rima I am pulling for, as of now. However, she needs to be calloused more to the grueling physical aspect of the business and I hope that her body can withstand it; she’s got the courageous attitude and spunk. Luke and Jeremiah are the front runners in my opinion and I can’t wait to see what more they bring to the table. Ivelisse and Christina need to be shown more to really have an opinion on these girls and that goes for the rest of the guys in the crew as well.
And Ryan… well, his sad ass should have been cut right along with Matt in my opinion. Almost everyone has significant others while in the business – but this has to be solely about you, not the ones at home. That goes for Michelle too, knowing that she is a mom and pursuing her dream, awesome… totally rooting for her for that aspect – I love the desire. However, this is not a business where you can be a mom and live out your dream, at least when you are breaking into such a main stage. Sorry, it’s just way too demanding, especially with being the winner of Tough Enough and then going right into storyline with WWE, which I would bet is going to happen once the winner is named. Now don’t get me wrong, I am all for the “working mom” (hell, I am one myself) but I am just afraid for her child being so young and her meeting the weekly demands of being constantly away. It will hit all of these contestants like a ton of bricks when they begin to live the WWE lifestyle day in and day out – I just may be a bit biased here in saying that it’s not the career path to begin when you have to give your all 24/7 to wrestling, you need to be there for your kids as much as ever when they are young. I just don’t see all the puzzle pieces falling into place for Michelle here and this being “her time.” If there’s one thing that I am ever so passionate about, it’s being a mother to your kids; the next WWE Superstar needs to be able to be fully focused on their career and be ready to give more than they ever though capable of themselves; and that’s just to start.
For more on Jackie visit www.justjackiehaas.com and www.hmb.org. You can also follow Jackie on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thejackiehaas.
Jackie and Charlie Haas will be guests on Afterbuzz TV’s Tough Enough AfterShow hosted by Torrie Wilson, Lilian Garcia and Candice Michelle next Monday (April 18th). Tune in at 11.15pm right after Raw on Ustream.tv.
