WWE Tough Enough Recap (6/23): First Elimination, Major Heat For Contestant, Daniel Bryan Offended

Welcome to Wrestling Inc's coverage of WWE Tough Enough. This is the first official episode of Tough Enough, following last week's casting special. Starting next week we'll be here every Tuesday for Live Viewing Parties as well.

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Chris Jericho and Renee Young are your hosts. They introduce the judges, Daniel Bryan, Paige and Hulk Hogan. We're told that each week a contestant is eliminated, with the judges nominating their bottom three. This goes to a global vote where fans vote to keep their favorite. Judges also get one "save" per season.

We see coaches Booker T, Billy Gunn and Lita are on a football field to give the contestants the first challenge. They have to do parachute sprints, then carry or drag a bag with their own body weight across the field, and then run stairs.

We get a little background on the competitors as we see them struggle to get done. Tanner finishes first overall, with Amanda finishing first among the women. ZZ was in dead last as his opponents, namely Tanner, encourage him to finish.

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We cut to the Tough Enough barracks, which are pretty bare bones outside of the jacuzzi. They decide they're going to go out and celebrate. Tanner gets a lot of attention from the female cast members because of his hair, which draws the ire of his larger male competitors. Back at the barracks, ZZ and Patrick are hanging out in the hot tub. They cut to later when a couple of the girls get in, but everyone leaves when ZZ gets naked.

Billy Gunn comes in and wakes them all up at 6 am, making them do workouts. Later, Tanner is bragging about finishing first in the challenge. Some of the bigger guys take exception and decide to utilize some really, really poor trash talk. Despite his bragging, Tanner came out of this looking much better in comparison.

The coaches have the competitors hit the ropes, do up-downs, then slam a bag. They take bets on how many each can do, which Tanner says "twice as many as any one else," which doesn't do him any favors. Hank says he's like an ant, and he can squash him. Even Patrick thinks Tanner is talking too much. Patrick thinks Tanner just wants to get famous so he can go do MMA.

Giorgia puts over how hard the challenge is, and Hank confirms it. Tanner ends up doing 15, while Hank does 8. Giogria does 8, Dianna 17, Josh 8, among others. Even though Tanner wins, his detractors are acting like they aren't impressed. Sara Lee admits his cardio is setting him apart.

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Dianna is off with her fiancee, as her other female contestants question if she really wants to be here. She's been saying all day she wants to go home. Dianna seems significantly more concerned about planning her wedding than doing the competition. Gabi doesn't think Dianna belongs, which leads to her and Dianna arguing about it.

We see more trouble between Tanner and Alex. Tanner is saying he's the best on the show, and Alex keeps questioning, even though none of them have had much training to speak of. Patrick takes a different, more competitive approach, saying he'll show him by being better in the ring.

We go to the judges where we're live. Daniel Bryan questions whether Dianna can handle wrestling emotionally. Paige singles out Hank for some comments that she construed as being sexist, when he said ZZ was more out of shape than everyone, including the women. He elaborated and said that it was edited poorly and said that ZZ has huge heart, but not great conditioning.

The bottom three are selected, and Hogan picks ZZ, Daniel Bryan picks Hank, and says he doesn't take kindly to Hank calling Tanner too small, since Tanner is bigger than him. Paige picks Josh. None of the three judges use their save. When we come back, ZZ leads the vote, with Josh in second, and Hank in third. Hank is eliminated. He bids adieu to his friends and leaves.

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