WWE Tough Enough episode 3 (July 7) results & recap

By Kenneth Nida, WrestlingObserver.com

Last week’s episode saw the competitors swim with alligators, take bumps off the top rope, and argue for entirely too much time. ZZ continued his trend of being the most entertaining thing on the show, but actually avoided the bottom three. Alex was eliminated after arrogantly declaring “Knowledge means nothing.”

This week’s guest WWE Superstar is Seth Rollins. Hopefully he contributes more than Roman Reigns’ 45 seconds of speaking from last week’s episode. The show opens up with an introduction for the judges, each judge speaking briefly about the show so far. We then cut to the reactions of the contestants after last week’s elimination. Dianna then decides to leave the show and is picked up by her fiancé at 2:00 a.m.

Billy Gunn wakes the contestants up at dawn for some exercise. He’s very upset with the fact that Dianna quit, asking if anyone else wants to go home. Seth Rollins makes his appearance for the first challenge, which will involve character building. Each contestants pick a card with a character theme such as “American Hero” and “Farmer’s Daughter”. Each contestant gathers props, which Seth Rollins offers advice on before he leaves. His appearance lasted longer than Roman Reigns, but it was equally pointless.

We go back to the live show, where the judges offer their thoughts on Dianna quitting the show. Paige is quite upset that their time was wasted on a quitter. Back at the barracks, Sara Lee is the first contestant to show off her character through a ring entrance. She takes the stage as Jayde the “Queen of Mean” (with a surprising lack of latex or a whip). The judges don’t really understand her character, saying her music is doing more for them than her performance. Patrick as the “Evil Intellectual”, carrying Lita’s dog as his minion impresses the judges. ZZ upsets the judges with an overly comedic entrance. Billy Gunn even says it’s insulting – I’m curious about what he thought of Santino.

Patrick wins the challenge on the men’s side, while Giorgia wins among the women. Lita notes this is the second week in a row both have won. They announce that there will still be an elimination even though Dianna went home. ZZ is frustrated because he feels misunderstood. Gabi recruits Sara Lee to be her ally. The two trash talk the other women. Patrick and Tanner get into an argument which escalates into a fight which is quickly broken up.

We go back to the live show for the elimination. The judges grill the contestants. Somehow Daniel Bryan’s question to Sara Lee about not appearing to be mean, turns to Paige and Hulk Hogan asking about ZZ’s bulge that he showed off in his entrance. This week the bottom three are, Daria as chosen by Daniel Bryan, Sara Lee as chosen by Paige, and ZZ as chosen by Hulk Hogan. It’s announced the contestants will get a second chance to do their ring entrance before the vote. Sara Lee comes across as a bit meaner, ZZ plays to the crowd, and Daria improves drastically in the eyes of the judges.

Each contestant then gets 30 seconds to plead their case. This time, they actually started the voting after the contestants plead their case, as opposed to before like in week’s past. They also take time to ask the other contestants who they think should go home before the votes come in. The judges decline to use their one save. ZZ got 52% of the vote, Sara Lee got 34% of the vote, and with 14% of the vote Daria is eliminated. Daria speaks briefly on the outpour of support she got from the LGBT community after she came out on the show.