Actually, Stacy did a much better job then she did sitting at the announcing table at Smackdown last week and playing a zombie from Resident Evil.
Ok, here's my official comments. The minute I heard what Stacy said as she opened the card, I knew that what spf predicted in the earlier thread came true. And I agree that this was an awesome move for the WWE and a huge uplift to the womens division which deserves this and which a growing number of fans *do* care about! First off, after watching Linda more closely last night, I have to admit that she flat out did deserve that contract. She worked so naturally in the ring and had the most natural talent and she was a shoe in. She could use a little more work on her promos and her look, but I think she will make a good heel, just because everyone finds her so damn annoying.
When it came down to Jackie, Jake, or Kenny, believe it or not but the most talented person who remained *was* Jackie! Sure, the huge fizzies didn't hurt her either, but Jake still seemed pretty green in the ring, and his promo ability SUCKED. Kenny looked better in the ring, but his promos sucked too, he didn't have that great of a look, and I agree that he did seem to lack some kind of intangible. So to me, Jackie was a natural choice, and an excellent one at that. You can tell that girl has a big heart and a lot of natural talent, especially in the acting department. (Sure she messed around on her boyfriend, but at least she felt really bad about it afterwards.) So I am now an official Jackie mark. It just waits to see if she will turn into a deer in the headlights when shes in the ring in front of a huge crowd, but I trust she won't.
One more thing: I absolutely no not agree that these women cannot be used in some meaningful way! Heres how I would do it: Put Linda on Smackdown. Make Ivory a face. Have Linda get into a "we repsect eachother so lets see what you have" match with Ivory, only to get vicious with Ivory during the match and become a hated heel. This would make a decent mini feud for awhile. You could do a lot more with Jackie, I think. Put her on RAW, have her get befriended by Trish and then have Jackie turn on Trish to join up with Molly or someone else who will help show her the ropes and help her take out Trish. OR have Jackie presented as another big baby face that TRISH gets jealous of and turns on, and we get a return of heel Trish vs. Jackie. Jackie gives her a run for her money but does not win the title.
In the end, this was a great move by the WWE and at least SHOWS us that they are perhaps trying to still be serious about the womens wrestling division. Whether or not they do follow through on this is another issue.
DMC
"Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality...BUT...there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit...A darkside!" -Tales from the Darkside TV show
Originally posted by Parts UnknownThen she asks if the winner is correct. I think she was trying to be her usual heelish secretary character when she asked, but I don't think the audience (me included) caught it immediately. I think she was trying to say, "Ugh...these chicks are gonna give me competition!" in character but it came off like "Are you sure? McMahon wants both of them and not Jake or Kenny?" She's an idiot.
I'm pretty sure all of that was scripted. They weren't trying to get over Stacy's character, they were trying to get over the drama of the situation-- how Jackie, the one who wanted it the most, (other than the Danimal, damn them!) was sure that she had lost, but--surprise!--we picked two women this time.
That's certainly the reason they announced the winners in the order they did... Unless the contestants were told the results ahead of time and were just acting, faking out Jackie like that for the sake of some cheap drama was an awfully mean thing to do. Oh, well, they're bound to run into worse once they're actually in the business; they may as well start developing thick skins.
As far as "Chisel" and Kenny go, they'd be fools to piss off Vince by jumping to some upstart promotion that probably won't go anywhere, anyway. There's no guarantee that a finalist won't reach the big show sooner than a winner. It seems likely we'll see Chris Harvard called up to the big time long before we'll ever see Nidia. They probably decided not to specifically state that one of the winners would be male and one female this time around because they would have preferred to have picked two of the guys last year.
sergei
"I tear my quadracep all the time! I tore it this morning, I'm fine!"-- Kurt Angle
Originally posted by asteroidboy(Nidia) was speaking with some sort of weird accent on the season finale... did she get a new nationality or something?
I was wondering about that too. That, and the fact that she said she did her first DIVA shoot, makes me wonder if they're getting ready bring her up...and put her in a program as Guerrerro's new girl.
Either that or make her some kind of jungle girl character who goes around biting people. She looks pretty trippy--how on earth did she win the first TE?
DMC
"Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality...BUT...there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit...A darkside!" -Tales from the Darkside TV show
Originally posted by DMC(re: Nidia) --how on earth did she win the first TE?
DMC
and the follow-up question:
How on earth did Linda win THIS season?
Linda has an obnoxious personality, is broke-down ugly, and can't wrestle to point where she's a constant threat to hurt someone.
How the hell does that translate into first place?
Which proves that these days Tough Enough is played out for maximum dramatic effect ONLY and has nothing at all to do with wrestling. Maybe it did last year (and yes, the WWF did get lucky with Maven), but that was then and this is now.
Don't forget, MTV producers had a hand in both picking the cast and editing the show. That wasn't the case with the first season.
WWE.com: Why was Linda chosen? Snow: She has the personality, she has the drive, she’s obviously got the physicality to do it, and most importantly she has the passion.
WWE.com: What about Jackie? Snow: She has all of those great strengths, but I think her heart stands out the most. Without heart and without passion for this business, you can have all the talent, the skill, the charisma, the physical athletic ability, but it won’t mean (anything). If you don’t have heart, you don’t have the passion, the drive, the desire that you absolutely have to do this, don’t do it.
WWE.com: So how about two women winning? Most people didn’t expect that, did they? Snow: I don’t think a lot of people did. I don’t think that Jackie or Linda expected that two women were going to win. I know Jake and Kenny were definitely surprised. We go with what we see. In the future, Kenny and Jake can still pursue this. Just because it wasn’t their time tonight doesn’t mean it will never be their time. I encourage them to keep after it, pursue it, chase that dream and don’t give up on it just because tonight wasn’t their night.
YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME!?! - The immortal, chilling words of...The Shockmaster!
Originally posted by DMC(re: Nidia) --how on earth did she win the first TE?
DMC
and the follow-up question:
How on earth did Linda win THIS season?
Linda has an obnoxious personality, is broke-down ugly, and can't wrestle to point where she's a constant threat to hurt someone.
How the hell does that translate into first place?
Which proves that these days Tough Enough is played out for maximum dramatic effect ONLY and has nothing at all to do with wrestling. Maybe it did last year (and yes, the WWF did get lucky with Maven), but that was then and this is now.
Don't forget, MTV producers had a hand in both picking the cast and editing the show. That wasn't the case with the first season.
I couldn't disagree more. Linda is hot and she seemed as comfortable in the ring as any of the others. But her arms seemed noticably bigger during the live feed at The World. She needs to stay away from having a bodybuilder's physique.
What are they planning to do with Nidia?? Can she be considered a bust at this point?
Originally posted by Parts UnknownStacy Keibler is a dumbass. First, she says Pete and Jackie had sex, making everyone in the place uncomfortable. Then she asks if the winner is correct. I think she was trying to be her usual heelish secretary character when she asked, but I don't think the audience (me included) caught it immediately. I think she was trying to say, "Ugh...these chicks are gonna give me competition!" in character but it came off like "Are you sure? McMahon wants both of them and not Jake or Kenny?" She's an idiot.
Stacy Keibler is a piece of ass, not a Spokesmodel (remember that category on Star Search?). I thought it was fairly obvious that she was reading a teleprompter off to her right. I severely doubt the WWE would put her out and expect her to improvise. She didn't say anything they didn't want her to say.
Originally posted by asteroidboyWhat are they planning to do with Nidia?? Can she be considered a bust at this point?
MUST... RESIST... OBVIOUS... JOKE...
(edited by Slestak on 31.5.02 1421) Eatin' fruit and bein' cool
Originally posted by asteroidboy Linda is hot and she seemed as comfortable in the ring as any of the others.
Hot? Comfortable?
We must have been watching two different shows, dude, because the version of TE2 on my TV showed a girl who looked like Lavar Burton's brother and who NONE of the other contestants wanted to work with.
PS to Parts Unknown: I hope you weren't posting those Al Snow comments as any kind of insight into the truth of what went down in choosing the winners. His comments are a work to get the winners over, as in IT'S ALL BULLSH-- .....
Originally posted by asteroidboyI don't know why everyone is pissed at Stacey. All of her lines were obviously scripted to reinforce her bratty heel character.
I'm not "pissed" at Stacy Keibler. I was just pointing out that, thought she might not be able to act, she didn't write her own lines or improvise her bit. I think Trish would have been a better choice, since she's a little better on the mic, but, oh well.
I don't really like the live format they've used to announce the winners. I think it would be a lot more polished if they taped it. I understand why they do it. They don't want Smarky McSmartfan to read it in the dirtsheets, but I think that if they just taped it 2-3 hours earlier, did a quickie edit job and broadcast the final show at it's regular time in a nice, cleaned-up format, it would look a lot nicer.
Originally posted by asteroidboy Linda is hot and she seemed as comfortable in the ring as any of the others.
Hot? Comfortable?
We must have been watching two different shows, dude, because the version of TE2 on my TV showed a girl who looked like Lavar Burton's brother and who NONE of the other contestants wanted to work with.
Ha ha!! Lavar Burton's brother!! I don't agree, but that is gold.
Originally posted by asteroidboyHa ha!! Lavar Burton's brother!! I don't agree, but that is gold.
feel free to use it .... my gift to you
By the way, do you find it odd that the show is called TOUGH Enough, yet the brats are pretty much spoiled rotten for 3 months?
They get to live in these huge houses, get to drive nice cars, take free trips to resorts ... free food, the best medical attention .... give me a friggin' break ....
Which brings up the point that Jackie is probably going to need to be babied a little through the whole experience in order to get the maximum effect out of her. (GASP! special treatment!) She seems more genuinely into it than Linda does, but it still seems like she has a little bit of apprehension that she may not like doing this wrestling thing in the end. So I think she would need more extra encouragement. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if one of the girls drops out of the biz after just a few months.
Which brings me to Nidia--did anyone else get the feeling after watching her interview that she absolutely has NO desire to be in the wrestling business, and was basically some MTV viewer they grabbed off the street and told to pretend like she's a developing WWE talent? It helps make me wonder if any of these girls are ever going to make it.
DMC
"Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality...BUT...there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit...A darkside!" -Tales from the Darkside TV show
My feelings... Jake didn't get the TE duke because the trainers thought he'd be good enough to make it into the WWF on his own without the TE rub. And if that's the case, then they're right.
Just because the ladies won the contest officially doesn't mean the guys are through. I think all four of them are gonna get signed up.
I do agree with whoever said that Jackie's headed to Smackdown to be Vince's latest trophy, though...
CRZ NOTABLE QUOTABLE OF THE MONTH: KANE: Triple H...tonight, I will burn the flesh from your body! MICHAEL COLE: OH MY GOD. KANE THREATENING TRIPLE H, SAYING HE'S GONNA BURN THE FLESH FROM HIS BODY! CRZ: Umm, I heard it the FIRST time! -- WWF Smackdown, 9/9/99
NWA may not last long, but right now the TE guys are as 'hot' as they're going to be, and would.. I imagine... not cost much money at all to sign. Throw them in tag matches with vets to hide their weaknesses but get their faces on the show, seems like a no-brainer. I mean, who else is out there for Jarret to sign?
A couple people started dissing women's wrestling... Must.. respect..opinions...contain...fury!
Like somebody said, Kudoh was the shit. So is Akira Hokuto. American women's wrestling is a joke, but it doesn't have to be. McMahon has the fans trained to see the women as breast support systems, and it will take awhile and some really good performances by the talent to 'deprogram' the fans, but it seems to slowly be working.
As far as the WW..E... signing Jake and Kenny.. Doesn't that make the Tough Enough competition a complete farce? I mean, all 4 finalists get contracts. All the drama of the final show would be for nothing.
PS Chris Harvard got some delicious heel heat last night, huh?
Despite my dissapointment, I can see why the WWE chose both women. As many people have pointed out, the Women's Division is lacking. The WWE is hoping to build up the Women's Division and make it more respectable.
Another timely recap! And if you like this, you'll love next week, when I pretty much guarantee there won't be a recap. After that, though, my schedule looks a lot more regular, so hopefully these'll start getting closer to on-time.