WWF Tough Enough, Episode 5: Tears and Drag Queens
by John 'Freakboy' Brodigan
-- 07/10/2002
Maven gets all gussied up in a drag queen bar, and Shadrick is having problems with his training. One more contestant gets the boot.
I was working on something for Wrestling Bytes and missed the very beginning of the show, but for some reason the crew all went to a drag queen bar. Equally inexplicable was when the male trainees were told to hop up on stage and strip, and Maven was chosen to dress up like a women. Go figure.
There were a number of interesting things that happened in this episode. The first was an explanation of what they're doing. You may have noticed that all you see the trainees doing are either falling down or being pushed down. Tazz explained that the most important thing a wrestler needs to know how to do is to be trained to fall properly. Not so much so that you're prepared to fall, but so that your body instinctively knows how to fall anytime you're falling. Whether it's from off your feet or off of a ladder, you won't have time to consciously make sure you land on your back with your hands down. You're body has to be able to do it on it's own.
We also learned a little more about Maven, who is an odds-on favorite to win the contest. Apparently Maven's mom was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer earlier in the year, and is on his mind for most of every day. Speaking as someone whose mother is a cancer survivor, I can easily see Maven using this as motivation to win. I know that if I was in the contest and had dedicated it to my mom it wouldn't be giving it anything less than 200%. Maven and Greg are still picks for the finals.
Then came Shadrick. Shadrick just wasn't getting it. He was falling wrong, which in wrestling puts both yourself and your partner/opponent in danger. The pressure got to him so much that he broke down and started crying. Then when it came down to the trainers deciding who to cut, Jackie started crying when his name came up. Maybe she was more attached to him than the others, but who knows. I guess now would be a good time for a "There's no crying in wrestling" joke, but I'd like to think I'm above that.
In the end, Shadrick was cut, making him the fifth victim of the show. They hugged, they cried, he left.
Next week they all go to the Bahamas.
John Brodigan is the Editor-in-Chief for Wrestling Bytes. For more great articles on wrestling, make sure you check it out!
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