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The first episode of Tough Enough is in the books and with it comes many changes to our last week’s power rankings. While we were dead on to rank Hank as the final male contestant (12th overall), we damn near lost our number one ranking (Joshua) the first week. Let’s get right into it with updated rankings of all of the contestants following week 1. Obviously, this week there are only 12 contestants, following Hank’s elimination.

1- Tanner Saraceno ( Last Wk- #7)

What else can be said about Tanner really? The guy completely dominated every one of the physical competitions including almost doubling all of the other contestant’s times during the in ring competition. The only thing to worry about with Tanner is that he has never disputed reports that he’s only in this for the money and that right after he does a year in WWE, he’ll be right back in MMA. He seems to really have the support of his trainers, who even seem to like his confident attitude but if he doesn’t dispute those claims, he may lose it. Tanner has also come across both friendly and humble on Periscope. It’ll be a good idea for Tanner to show this attitude during the shows because the more likable he is, the more likely people are going to vote for him.

2- Patrick Clark Jr.- (Last Week- #3)

Patrick remains steady this week, up a spot from last week. While Patrick remained a notch below Tanner throughout the first week of Tough Enough, he’s a notch above all of the other contestants. Patrick also continued to show his heart & motivation for how bad he wants to be a WWE Superstar. Patrick remains the most active on Periscope, even deeming it Patriscope, so he’s developing a good report with the fans.

3- ZZ Loupe (Last Week #8)

” I belong on this show because I was made for this, I love making people smile and that’s what WWE is all about, making people happy!” Any other contestant would have a hard time climbing five spots following a week where he finished in the bottom 3 but ZZ is up to the third overall spot this week. Like I said last week, now that it’s been determined that the voting is going to be determined by the fans, how is ZZ ever going to be voted out? He is obviously the fan favorite and the most likable contestant on the show. Having him in the bottom three last week probably only added sympathy and more support for ZZ as well. From the outfit he wore to the live show last week to him taking off his underwear in the hot tub with the ladies, he has undeniable charm and charisma. The physical attributes will develop.

4. Amanda Sacaranato (last week #2)-

We didn’t see too much on the live show from Amanda, to be honest, last week which is why she drops a couple of spots this week. That said, none of the female contestants did enough for me to overtake her for the top spot. “Mandy Sacs” seems to be a bit more level headed that some of the other females & hasn’t complained about missing her boyfriend yet either. Another thing about Amanda is that she remains close to ZZ (the two do some periscope shows together) which will only help her likability factor.

5) Sara Lee (Last Week #13)-

Making the biggest jump of the week this week is Sara Lee. Sara has really gained a bit of a following as someone that people can relate to. She has become the average Joe that Hank was trying to pass himself off as last week. Sara has also showed a good amount of personality in getting used to Periscope and Twitter. I think Sara is going to be in this competition for quite some time.

6) Mada Abdelhamid (Last Week #4)

Mada didn’t do too much to impress me this week until his appearance on Tough Talk. When Mada was asked about his child, he revealed how he has a six month child at home and the child is completely the reason why he’s doing this. While Dianna seems like she may drop out of the competition due to missing her loved ones, Mada seems ready to use his loved ones back home as motivation to win this competition. Mada also has a good look but really would fare better staying away from the “Quadruple Towers” and developing his own personality because that clique has a bad stigma around them.

7) Dianna Dahlgren (Last Week #9)

So Torn On Dianna because truth be told that despite her silly complaints about the twin size bed, she did do far better than any of the other female contestants during the competition, and this was with an injury, no less. Furthermore, if you look up Dianna’s personal twitter, she is already pretty well established with over 65,000 followers. This would lead one to assume that she has the backing to get votes if she were placed in the bottom three. That said, I wonder how much longer Dianna is going to stay in the competition just because she seems so preoccupied with her wedding. If she can’t last a week without her fiance, how is she going to last 10? If there’s one contestant who will remove themselves from the competition, it’s going to be her.

8) Daria Berenato (Last week #5)

Daria drops 3 spots this week because she really didn’t show too much last week. I think Daria has a good personality and she shows it on social media and periscope but for whatever reason seems a bit camera shy under the bright lights of live WWE television. Even when Daniel Bryan obviously threw her a softball by asking her the riskiest thing she’s ever done, (because he, like me, is a fan) Daria became timid and couldn’t really find a real risk she’s taken. This of course comes a week after she came out on national television.

9) Joshua Bredl (Last Week #1)

Yeah you read that right, last week Joshua was my top pick on the tough enough power rankings but this week he takes a big time tumble to number 9, the biggest drop of the week. Joshua was basically non existent during the first episode and was just 3% of the vote away from not even surviving week one. Joshua needs to show some personality and needs to also realize that he won’t get by just on his look. He may look a little like Roman Reigns but Reigns has about 100 times more charisma than Joshua showed week 1. To make matter worse, when Joshua was asked his opinion on ZZ on periscope following last week’s episode, he said ZZ was obviously only there because of the television aspect of the show. Putting down the favorite of most viewers isn’t going to do Joshua any favors.

10) Gabi Castrovici ( Last Week #10)

The only contestant to remain idle on the rankings this week is Gabi. Gabi continues to show off a good amount of her attitude that got her kicked off the show in the first place. She has to stop questioning Dianna’s injury and just find a way to improve. I also think the fact that Gabi continues to see her husband while she’s staying at the Barrocks won’t do her any favors as it will be hard for her to fully commit to the competition.

11) Giorgia Priscina ( Last Week #6)

Another contestant that I fell out of love with after last week is Giorgia. While none of the female contestants seem to like Gabi, at least they have an opinion on her. I didn’t see much of anything from Giorgia last week and haven’t seen much of her on Periscope throughout the week. This comes off the heels on her courageously showing off her full face birthmark on one of the most worthwhile periscopes I’ve seen during the first week. Hope to see more from Giorgia this week or she could just be the person to go home next.

12) Alex Frekey (Last Week #11)

Last week Alex joined the “Quadruple Towers”, a clique that was called out by Paige, didn’t do well in any of the competitions and was called out by Daniel Bryan after saying that Tanner couldn’t “Pack A House”. Not exactly a strong week for “The Freak”. I’ll give Alex credit for appearing on periscope and trying to interact with the fans but he really needs to become more familiar with the business and the WWE product or he too could be the next to go.

That’s going to do it for me this week but be sure to check out Tough Enough tonight on the USA Network at 8 PM EST. As always, if you agree or disagree with my power rankings, I would love to hear yours!

This past Tuesday night the first episode of this season of WWE Tough Enough debuted on the USA Network. This season there are many different aspects to the show as in years past and I’m going to get into all of them down in the closing thoughts section but before then, let’s get into some highlights from the show…

Highlights

Hank Gets The Hammer- One of the things that we found out about this year’s Tough Enough is that the final say in who gets voted out will be the WWE Universe. This didn’t bode well for Hank who, as I said in my power rankings, really didn’t endear himself to the crowd & came off either timid or rude in the few times he was featured on screen. To make matters worse for Hank his comments about ZZ being the weakest contestant there, and that included the women, really rubbed Paige the wrong way as she felt the comment was a shot at women in general. It’s a bit of a shame as I do feel Hank should have played the “I’m an average Joe” card way before the final 30 seconds as that could have given him that extra four percent of the votes needed to beat Joshua. In the end, Hank is still young enough to give it a go in the wrestling business, it just won’t be on Tough Enough this season.

Tanner Scoffs At The Competition- Last night saw Tanner Sacareno blow away the rest of the competition en route to winning every one of the physical competitions. What made this all the more interesting is that Tanner isn’t as strong as some of the other contestants like Joshua, Mada, Alex & the departed Hank. Rather than taking the humble route, Tanner also then became the cocky villain of the season by telling everyone how much better he was than them and then backing it up! This was particularly surprising to see so much personality from Tanner because you didn’t see much from him at all prior to the first episode. The thing to watch with Tanner is his interactions and continued tension with Patrick. Patrick is the only trained wrestler on the show and, you can make the argument, wants it more than any of the other contestants. Patrick has also called Tanner to task (while the two almost came to blows) for only being in this competition for the money and after he gets the money he’s going to run right back to MMA. Patrick also vowed that at some point he will beat Tanner, which will be interesting to see if it happens.

The Ladies Bring The Heat– From a competition standpoint the most impressive candidate was Dianna. Unfortunately, this was the only part of Dianna that I was impressed with. This girl has gotten the opportunity of a lifetime to become a WWE Diva and win $250,000 and she’s already struggling to live without her fiancé and has openly complained about having to sleep on a twin size bed. I have no idea how she wasn’t in the bottom three and despite her being physically more dominant than the other female contests, I don’t see her having much longevity in this competition. The only other one of the female contestants to make an impression during week 1, for me, was Gabi. Gabi went from dancing on the stripper pole at the club to causing more drama on the show by questioning Dianna’s injury and then shrugging off claims that nobody likes her. The big knock on Gabi prior to the first episode, so much so that she was cut due to it, was her attitude. It was surprising to see Gabi continue to show that attitude off.

The Miz talks tough- Tough Enough wasn’t the only event to debut on Tuesday night for WWE. Immediately following the Tough Enough show, on the WWE Network, Tough Talk debuted and was hosted by the Miz. The 30 minute program really did a great job in showcasing each of the tough enough finalists as they each faced questions from the judges and the Miz. I was particularly impressed with the Miz who came off great and is such a natural in the role. I also found that the interplay between the judges and the Miz was a lot of fun and much more relaxed than even the Tough Enough show. Go out of your way to check this show out.

Closing Thoughts

In the end I really enjoyed the first episode of tough enough. It is a good amount different than the previous seasons of tough enough in that the material isn’t recorded ahead, but rather, takes place live. The show is set up in such a way that the live aspects of the show are intertwined with highlights that took place throughout the week which is cool because the viewers still get all of the drama and the major happenings from the throughout the week. From there, each one of the judges choose one contestant to go into the bottom three for the week. Each one of the judges also has one save that they can utilize at any point in the season. From there, the fans have roughly 5 minutes to vote for the contestant that they want to see stay in the competition, and they can do this on wwe.com, twitter or via text message. This means that the contestant who receives the smallest percentage of the vote is voted out of the competition. I like the inclusion of the fan voting, and I’m actually a little surprised by it. If it’s up the fans, I’d be really surprised if someone like ZZ were to ever get voted out by the fans based off his character and charming personality. The one change I would make is that I would give the fans a full week to vote out one of the contestants because having only five minutes really doesn’t give those fans not watching live the opportunity to vote.

Well that’s going to for me this week but be sure to check back tomorrow where I’ll be updating the power rankings for this week and I can guarantee you that there will be a lot of changes to the list this week. Until then what are your thoughts on the new season of Tough Enough?

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