WWF Tough Enough 2: Introducing the Female Trainers

Tough Enough 2 is starting shortly, premiering the same night as some other show over on CBS. Of course, TE2 is the show we’re all looking forward to, so let’s get an update on returning trainers Al Snow and Jacqueline, and meet our three new trainers, Chavo Guerrero Jr., “Hardcore” Bob Holly, and Ivory.

I wasn’t really looking forward to Tough Enough 2. I think Temptation Island 2 drained me of the will to watch Reality Television. Never fear, though, as MTV showed a marathon of Tough Enough 1 episodes this weekend, and that combined with the fabulous Olympic-themed TE2 commercials (showing Al Snow interrupting a medals ceremony with a well-placed trash can shot to the Gold Medalist’s skull, for example) have gotten me back in the saddle and ready to recap!

We’ll begin our look at the Tough Enough 2 trainers today with the women – Jackie and Ivory. Then, each day through Thursday we’ll discuss one of the men. So let’s get to it.

Jacqueline, or Jackie, Moore began her career in the early 90’s in her home state of Texas for the World Class Championship Wrestling promotion wrestling as “Sweet Georgia Brown.” A black-belt in Tae Kwon Do, she had to train with men because there were no other women wrestlers she could train with. She also wrestled for the Memphis-based USWA promotion as “Miss Texas” before she got her break in 1996 and broke into World Championship Wrestling as Ms. Jacqueline. She had an unremarkable WCW career as ‘girlfriend’ to wrestler Kevin Sullivan and later as ‘manager’ of Tag Team Wrestlers Harlem Heat. She left for the WWF toward the middle of 1998.

Just like Tori before her, Jacqueline’s first feud was with Sable, this time Jacqueline played the role of Marc Mero’s (Sable’s real-life husband) “girlfriend” following the storyline break-up of the Meros. Perhaps the most notable highlight of their feud was a bikini contest won by Sable who came to the ring topless except for two painted-on black handprints over her breasts. Jacqueline was the first woman to hold the WWF Women’s Title when it was revived in September 1998. She held the title for two months before losing it to Sable.

After “breaking up” with Marc Mero in December 1998, she joined Terri Runnels (who had been “dumped” by her husband Goldust, Dustin Runnels) to form the group known as PMS. The Pretty Mean Sisters added another member – wrestler Ken Shamrock’s “sister” Ryan – and introduced Shawn Stasiak as “Meat,” their private boy toy. Predictably, this went nowhere.

Jackie held the belt a few times over the next two years, as the WWF seemingly forgets it has a Women’s title every few months and brings it back, only to forget about it a few months later. Something like how Americans view women’s figure-skating: they forget about it until the Olympics come along, then proceed to make a huge deal about it for two weeks before forgetting all about it again soon after. Don’t believe me? Ask someone in March who won the Women’s Gold medal last week. I guarantee they won’t remember.

Jackie has wrestled on and off in various women’s matches and mixed tag matches. She joined up with the APA (Acolyte Protection Agency) tag team in 2001, and just as with the women’s title, shows up whenever the writers remember that she’s still around.

Jackie was a guest referee for the Women’s Title match at the Royal Rumble 2002 and has managed to remain on WWF programming by deciding to become a referee full-time. As a referee, Jackie makes a pretty good wrestler.

I don’t hate Jacqueline nearly as much as I did at the beginning of the last series, as she did a remarkably good job as trainer. I’m still far from her biggest fan, of course, and I look forward to seeing what she does with the new cast of contestants.

Unlike many professional wrestlers, Ivory never dreamed of becoming a wrestler. Lisa Moretti (whether or not she is daughter of “Moondog Moretti” is still a matter of debate, but I could not find good evidence either way so I tend to doubt it) was a cheerleader for the USFL’s Los Angeles Express and later a stuntwoman for Universal Studios Hollywood, when she accompanied friends to a wrestling audition.

David McLain was holding auditions for his new wrestling promotion, GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling). She herself had no intention of becoming a wrestler that day, but she became Tina Ferrari, babyface hero of GLOW. She was trained by fellow Tough Enough 2 trainer Chavo Guerrero, Jr.’s Uncle Mando, interestingly enough.

Moretti was undoubtedly the most popular of the GLOW wrestlers, surely a huge honor in a promotion with female wrestlers like Becky, the Farmer’s Daughter. Once GLOW shut down in 1990, she wrestled a bit in other ladies’ promotions and went back to work as a model, stunt woman, and teacher of beauticians.

One fateful night in early 1999, Moretti was brought in to the WWF. She was originally supposed to accompany “The Godfather” as one of his “hos,” (don’t ask!) but the WWF heard about her wrestling experience and she was quickly signed to a wrestling contract.

Ivory debuted that very night, D’Lo Brown introduced Mark Henry to Ivory (in storylines) so that Mark would be distracted away from Jeff Jarrett’s (storyline) girlfriend, Debra. Tough Enough fans remember Debra from her visit to the house, along with her real-life husband Steve Austin. Ivory (and her damned purple scarf) accompanied Mark and D’Lo to the ring in between fights with Debra for the women’s championship.

After her feud with Debra ended with Ivory as the dominant female wrestler in the WWF, Ivory began challenging women in the crowd. She claimed that the “Barbie dolls” in the WWF couldn’t hold a candle to her. Tough Enough 1 trainer Tori answered her challenge, which began the most heated women’s wrestling rivalry in the WWF since The Fabulous Moolah’s series of matches with Wendi Richter in the mid-80’s. Ivory, of course, emerged from the feud as the winner and continued to hold the title.

Ivory’s next big feud came at the hands of the aforementioned 80-year old Fabulous Moolah. The matches were about as good as you would expect, which is to say not at all. Ivory lost and quickly regained the title and no one ever spoke of this again.

Ivory was never fond of her role in the WWF, both behind the scenes and in storylines. Her usual heel gimmick was that of the beautiful woman who refused to participate in the more risque angles. This, of course, gets huge boos in the WWF. The last straw came as she lost her title in an “Evening Gown Pool Match,” a farce of a competition in which the winner was the last to be stripped down to her bra and panties. Miss Kitty, Stacey Carter, who was at the time the wife of commentator Jerry Lawler, won the title in the match that featured the first ever incident of intentional female nudity on American WWF Pay-Per-View, as Kitty stripped off her bra in celebration.

For the record, to those who may be wondering, I have absolutely no problem with this type of gratuitous lechery in the WWF; my problem comes when the WWF tries to pass off a burlesque side show as female wrestling. Either be gratuitous or wrestle, don’t try to be both as it accomplishes neither.

Ivory was tired of the sideshow, so instead of leaving the WWF as she threatened, she started to train as a broadcaster and co-hosted the Wrestlemania 2000 All-Day Long preshow, and was supposed to become the co-host of Sunday Night Heat when another idea came along.

Ivory joined up with the “Right to Censor,” the WWF’s parody of the Parent’s Television Council. The RTC tried to “clean up” the WWF by eliminating all the sex, nudity, and violence that made the WWF so popular. Ivory changed her look and began wearing conservative attire and slicked-back hair, causing many on the internet to refer to her as the “School Marm From Hell.”

As always, threatening to eliminate potential nudity made her into an even bigger heel than she was before. She won the Women’s Title once again, and held it for most of late 2000 before losing it to Chyna in what many consider to be the only bad match of Wrestlemania 17 (mainly due to Chyna’s lack of any effort whatsoever).

After the RTC died with a whimper, Ivory was off TV for a few months. She returned as part of the Invasion storyline in the Summer of 2001, teaming with the WCW/ECW invaders against her former employers, the WWF. She managed the Hurricane for a brief time before being replaced by Molly Holly, then allied herself with Canadian wrestler Lance Storm. It was a perfect fit, as Ivory’s long-held views went hand-in-hand with Storm’s stance against “offbeat shenanigans.”

Ivory has been concentrating on Tough Enough 2 for the past few months, and has not appeared on WWF programming since late 2001.

Ivory should be a good fit with Tough Enough. Even pushing 40, she remains among the best, if not the best female wrestler in the WWF. There have been rumors in the past that Ivory and Al Snow do not like each other much, so it will be interesting to see how they interact this season.

Check back tomorrow to find out all about Al Snow!

E-mail Mike at mikmaria@swbell.net.

Be sure to sign up for our e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on the site! And take a look around our WWF Tough Enough 2 Page for everything from episode recaps to bios of the trainers.

Remember to take a peek at the rest of the site. You can find our most recent articles at the Home page and take a look at our sections on the first Tough Enough and Combat Missions. You can even buy reality show stuff at our Reality TV Store!

For even more news about reality TV, be sure to check out RealityTVFans.com and SirLinksALot!