WWE Tough Enough June 18 Update: Action in the WWE & OVW, Plus News on the Future of TE4

Linda Miles made her WWE return as "Shanequa," leather-clad and whip-bearing valet/manager to the new Smackdown tag team, The Basham Brothers. What was somewhat strange to me was they introduced her as Shanequa, and then commentators Taz and Michael Cole told the audience that she was Linda Miles. She supposedly helped the Basham brothers defeat Rhyno and Chris Benoit, but it seemed to me that Rhyno's right hand upside Benoit's head was the cause of the loss.

Either way, Linda will be acting as their manager for the time being.

Linda's fellow TE2 winner, Jackie Gayda, made her return on the June 16th Raw, but not as a valet to Kanyon as originally reported. Instead, she was placed with Rico, who is doing an "Exotic Adrian Street" gimmick. For those who have never heard of Street, his gimmick was of a brutal rulebreaker who acted fey, wearing makeup, blowing kisses to his opponents and skipping around the ring. Street had a female valet named Miss Linda, whose role Jackie will be taking with Rico. Rico won his first televised match in the new gimmick, beating Spike Dudley in part thanks to the distraction of Miss Jackie.

These two debuts were quite surprising, as I have heard many rumors that neither of the two have done much to impress the higher-ups at WWE. I've also heard that both Linda's and Jackie's contracts will be up at the end of the summer, so it leads me to wonder if this isn't their "last chance" to make a positive impact. We shall see, of course, as the months go on.

In other Jackie news, she conducted an interview with WWE.com. In it, Jackie discusses her time in OVW as well as her upcoming program with Rico.

There is one point in the interview I'd like to comment on: she says that OVW does not have many women's matches on television, which is very true. However, they have non-televised women's matches at the TV tapings nearly every week, and she is never in them. I wonder why that is?

Two more OVW Six Flags Summer Sizzler Series Events have taken place since my last update, and both of them featured a TE3 winner in a high-profile match. While Matt and John were supposed to make an appearance at a May 31st house show in Hodgenville, KY, I have been unable to find any information about the match or if, in fact, they even wrestled. So for now, I'm treating these as their de facto OVW debuts.

The May 30th Sizzler show featured the debut of John Hennigan, wrestling as "MTV John" alongside Revolution members "Self Made" Johnny Spade and newcomer Orlando Jordan against Nova, Mark Henry, and Chris Cage. According to Dale Sherman, who was in attendance, John had grown his hair out to "about Steven Richards length," and wasn't immediately recognizable, even as his name was announced. The match ended when John was caught attempting a splash off the top rope, and was slammed and pinned by Mark Henry. John played an "all-out heel" character, as would be expected from a new member of the Revolution stable, and did a very good job for just starting out. The only negative was a bit of overselling on John's part, but that sort of thing is easily toned down with time.

The June 13th Summer Sizzler show was absolutely chock-full of TE talent, and Dale Sherman again braved the potential rainstorms in Louisville to bring you, the RNO readers, the report!

Matt Cappotelli (John's co-winner of TE3 and, dare I add, fan of this column) made HIS big debut in a squash match against Mark Henry. While you really don't get a chance to show your stuff in a squash (especially if you're the one getting squashed), Dale happily reports that Matt got a tremendous reception from the crowd. Hopefully, this is the start of great things from Matt for years to come.

Nidia's sister worked a match at the show as well, teaming with Passion against the team of Jillian Hall and Linda Miles. Dale wasn't sure if they announced Linda as herself or as "Shanequa," but nonetheless won the match. Dale was not impressed with Linda's performance, commenting that Passion and Hall, two new people who have been in OVW for just a couple of months, out-performed her.

By the way, Nidia's sister worked in her gimmick as "Nurse Lulu," and yes, did wrestle the match in her nurse outfit. Dale has pictures of the match, which he is willing to sell to the highest bidder.

TE2's Matt Morgan also wrestled Friday night, defeating WWE Superstar Randy Orton with the chokeslam in a "by-the-books" match. As far as we know, neither one wrestled in a nurse's outfit, which is probably the best news in this entire report.

Just as with the Spring Break-Out show, OVW is offering the May 30th Summer Sizzler Series show (featuring John's debut match) for sale through it's official website, www.ovwrestling.com. Click "Shop OVW" and then "Videos" to order, and make sure you tell them you heard about it on RealityNewsOnline! This also means that Friday's show (Matt's debut) will hopefully be available as well, and you can be sure I'll be here to let you know when it does.

In a final bit of OVW news, the next Summer Sizzler Show on June 27th will feature special guests Team Angle and Booker T, as well as doubtless some of the aforementioned talent. You can go to the OVW web site for more details, and of course check back here for results!

In other news, TE3's Jonah Adelman won the World Wrestling Alliance (not to be confused with the World Wrestling AllStars, which features Sting as its champion) World Title recently in his hometown of Natick, MA, with Nick Distelbrink serving as the special referee. JonahAdelman.com is a terrific site for Jonah fans, as it features pictures of Jonah's title win, an interview with Jonah, as well as listing a number of Jonah's upcoming indy wrestling dates. Thanks to CharlieFTW for the info.

Also, don't forget that Jonah, Justin, and Scott will all be taking part in HCW's "The Incredible 8" show on June 21st in Davie, FL. You can find ticket information and directions at http://www.angelfire.com/fl/panther122/hcw/event.htm

Finally, we have a bit of news on a potential Tough Enough 4. In her quarterly conference call to investors, WWE CEO Linda McMahon commented that they are definitely looking to continue Tough Enough, since it is their one show that consistently does well with women in the ratings.

Would this make it inappropriate to put the show on the first network for men, "Not-Spike-TV-yet-because-Spike-Lee-is-a-publicity-mongering-twit"?

Seriously, this makes the first time anyone in WWE has publicly announced that they would like to air another Tough Enough series, news which was brought to you first, right here at RealityNewsOnline!

E-mail Mike at: mikmaria@earthlink.net.

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