Tough Enough 4, Episode 3: The Angle on Mat Wrestling

Last week I wrote about what was happening with the Tough Enough winners from seasons one through three. Of course, I mentioned Nidia Guenard and how she was currently on RAW. Well, to show how you never know what is going to come around the corner in wrestling, it was announced officially on WWE's website that Nidia had been let go by WWE on November 3, 2004. Nidia was not alone in this cut from the company - nine other wrestlers, including such longtime favorites as Billy Gunn and two seasoned women wrestlers, Jazz and Gail Kim, had been let go in what will probably be looked at as the Black Week of November by people on the WWE Roster. I'm especially at odds with the thinking that cutting such an excellent wrestler like Rico Constantino was a good idea. The man was a goldmine and always managed to turn what could have been crummy ideas in others' hands into skits and matches that always - and I mean ALWAYS - won fans over.

Nidia has become the first Tough Enough winner to be canned by WWE and it's a shame that she is being let go. I still remember seeing her when she was first brought into OVW, picking up folding chairs after a show - as ALL people in training at OVW do - and then later being introduced on OVW's television show in an angle against Synn. She was always a babyface in OVW, but she came into WWE fulltime (she had some minor appearances on WWE's programming before being sent to OVW) as a heel valet for Jamie Noble. It was a straight "country hick" part, and I was unsure if I would enjoy her on the program, to be honest.

Then one night they had Nidia in a "dance competition" with some of the other WWE Divas. I don't even remember who else was in it, but I do remember Nidia. While the other women did stripteases and similar provocative dances, Nidia did this godawful "Funky Chicken" like dance that led to her accidentally spitting out her gum, stopping, picking up the gum from the dirty mat, and then popping it back into her mouth before continuing with the dance.

From that point on, I knew that Nidia "got it." And I was a fan of hers ever since.

The days with Jamie Noble started out well, but as eventually happens, their storyline fell apart over time and Nidia eventually turned face and moved on to doing real matches instead of just dance competitions over on RAW these past few months.

And now she's gone. A real shame there and I'm sure that everyone here at RNO wishes her the best of luck at whatever she does next. She deserves it.

Meanwhile, Josh Matthews had a chance to step into the ring on the November 4th edition of Smackdown, quite a step away from his regular duties as commentator/interviewer for WWE. Will he end up like Coach over on RAW (another commentator who now has occasional matches on WWE)? Well, his match was a tag-team bout with Booker T against WWE Champion JBL and Orlando Jones, and it featured Matthews strictly on the defensive and very little of that. Still, only time will tell.

And speaking of time, it's time we moved on to what happened in week three of Tough Enough 4.

Smackdown begins with a look at the seven finalists during the two hours before filming began of Smackdown. The two hours is filled with doing relays, squats, more relays, puking, marathon binges of pasta, even more relays, even more puking, and some other exercises as well.

Then at 7:58 the group is shown going out to the ring with Al Snow. The closed captioning states that people are applauding the seven, but if they are they must all be on the side not facing the camera, as there seems to be a certain lack of interest on the part of the audience as the show begins.

Al Snow reminds the seven about their experiences with Big Show in the ring the previous week (which you can read about here). Al then introduces "the only WWE Superstar to win an Olympic Gold Medal." This, of course, signals the arrival of the truly talented Kurt Angle to the ring.

Now, Angle is a bad guy in a way. He also has a lot of comedic ability that makes watching him both fun and intentionally funny most of the time. Here there is none of that from him. The look on his face is more determined and serious than usual as he approaches the ring.