WWF Tough Enough – Season 1, Episode 3: “The Rules of The Game”

Previously on WWF Tough Enough: The recruits learn to take a bump! The recruits wrestle in pig shit! Tazz has feelings about Bill Goldberg! Stephanie McMahon is kind to the recruits!

Season 1, Episode 3: The Rules of The Game

Our fearless rookies work out in the WWF Headquarters gym. They call people at home and say how worn out and broken they are. We watch Jason work the arms and drink out of a blender. Maven says that Jason is all business and you have to respect his physique.

Trax Training Facility. The recruits drop their bags as Josh tells us how nervous he is. Nidia explains to us that John “Big” Gaburick – WWF Talent Manager is telling them to sit down and look straight ahead and not in other directions as we indeed see that happen. Jason wonders if it is a mental test or perhaps a test to see who would turn their head first. To fast music, we watch clips of the recruits very interestingly staring straight ahead as focus changes to a red door. The door opens and out walks WWF Superstar Triple H. Josh’s mouth drops wide open while others smile. Greg says that he saw a figure coming in from behind and thought, “Holy shit” when he saw it was Triple H.

This leads us into the Generic Rock-themed montage of Triple H, mostly from one match with Test and his entrance. The recruits continue to stare ahead as we cut to “exclusive footage” of Triple H asking them what they’ve been up to today. One says mud wrestling. HHH: “I haven’t done that, is it fun?” Inside jokes! Love those! He asks what they’ve done until now and they mention various bumps. He asks if they’re sore and Josh is the first to raise his hand. H asks “big man in the back” Darryl if he’s sore and if the bumps hurt and Shadrick says yes. Triple H: “Big fucking deal.” He says the pain doesn’t matter and asks if anyone is hurt and can’t go today. Nobody volunteers and he says good, bumps are every day and invites them into the ring.

He asks Maven to take a bump. Josh. Darryl, flatback requested. He tells Darryl that one of his nuts is hanging out of his shorts. Hunter does his bump and says there’s a big difference, asking what the difference is. Someone says, “Intensity” and he says that they tell stories with their bodies as we watch footage of him wrestling (redacted Royal Rumble winner – no, the one that was redacted first). H points at Jason and the Chris that isn’t Norwinski, telling Chris to give Jason a punch and try to not knock his teeth out. He does. Hunter says it was a good snap and tells Chris to give him one. He gives several, as Hunter mentions how fast he is snapping back. They trade places and Triple H tells Chris to react as he punches him and he does pretty well, Chris acknowledging that HHH isn’t hitting him but doing a good job.

HHH calls Jason forward and gives him several punches. “If you sold like that in the ring, I’d tag you for real.” Hunter asks why they want to be a wrestler and Bobbie Jo says it is something different and a challenge. He asks if she is a fan and she says no, not really. “You just saw it on TV and thought I’d like to get my ass kicked for a living?” Next is Maven, who says he loves the business from the athleticism to the pain. Triple H interjects with “fame and glory, want to get laid – figure there’s a lot of chicks, right, that follow wrestling?” Triple H says they’re on the road 200+ days a year, often with your wife at home and kids growing up without you. You get home and you have to be a super husband / wife / dad / mom.

We switch to “exclusive footage” as he asks who their idols are, who made them want to do this. “You can tell a lot about a guy in this business by who he looked up to in this business. Then somebody told me that one of these guys had a Goldberg poster on the wall that had to be torn off. To me, no big deal, you know, Goldberg is in our business, hell of an athlete. The question I ask is, if your biggest idol in this business is a guy that’s been in the business about a year, had everything handed to him, can’t have a match longer than four minutes, has not wrestled for more than three months straight because every three month he’s got a hangnail, a toothache, a tummy ache and needs to take time off – I wonder where does that mentally put that person, what does that person think about the business?” Well. He says Goldberg abuses being given a bunch of guys to mow over and has no heart for what they do. “If you get injured, you keep going.” He talks about being helped up the stairs to wrestle against Vince McMahon after he fell 35 feet on his leg. He says he isn’t bragging, but he respects “our business” and puts his life on the line for the business and will do it until he can do it no longer. “Not for the fame, not for the glory of it, not so I can get laid, for no other reason but love of the business.” In Triple H’s case, he ended up getting all of the above.

He says he isn’t saying you can’t get hurt and going to the doctor is bad, but he questions having a poster of a guy who isn’t tough enough to go because he doesn’t like where the storyline is going. He questions if he thinks it’s because he is jacked up as he stares a hole in Jason. Hunter tells them they’re all on the easy track and you have to pay your dues and earn respect. He mentions they’re a mile ahead of where they should be paying their dues, and they have the greatest opportunity. “Do not fuck it up.” He says that if you do, you’re pissing on every single person that has come before them. He mentions Darren Drozdov who sits in a wheelchair and can’t feel a thing from the shoulders down. “If you don’t want it, don’t waste our fucking time.”

Commercial break!

Trax Training Facility. Greg says it is the greatest day of his life, because not only did he meet his idol but he took a punch from him and was told he took it well. Greg says he wanted to shake his hand. He says it taught him respect for the business as we watch Darryl horse around immediately after he leaves. Darryl says he was just trying to loosen up the group. Victoria says he is dumb and overgrown.

Back at the house, Maven is on the phone and tells someone that Triple H was there. Maven says he was eye to eye with him and he’s all muscle. Nidia makes angelic noises and says, “he was so beautiful.” Jason mentions that Triple H really got through to him and the talk about never being able to see people you love and it really got to him. Greg mentions he feels sorry for Jason because he’s just the muscle guy in the corner as we watch Jason leave the hot tub after twenty minutes, the girls saying he isn’t tough enough. Nidia says he is very distant, especially from the girls, because he just started dating his girlfriend. Nidia says Chris Not Nowinski (his name is ALSO Chris N, which isn’t helping me) is her favorite because they hung out so much in New York as they kinda flirt and touch hands while playing with a portable CD player. Chris says they clicked, then we cut to him telling Nidia, “I’m kinda horny, watch out” as she laughs.

We cut to Nidia putting on makeup, saying they offer to take them out so they have to suck it up and look pretty. We watch the other girls get ready. We advance to Big John meeting with the cast downstairs, minus Bobbie Jo who is still upstairs in a towel drying her hair and complaining about a blister. We cut to the club, where she’s dancing and notes that she likes having big breasts. Greg thinks she is just using the show to get into Playboy and as somebody who originally was cut from the show, he’s offended. We see Greg telling Taylor at the dinner table that he is going to prove he belongs as we cut back to Bobbie Jo, dancing. Taylor notes that Bobbie Jo is an airhead.

We’re back at the hot tub with Nidia and Chris N 2. She says she started dancing just to make it to wrestling school. Chris mentions that there’s all these people on earth to have discussions with, but when you go to a club you have to pay for it. Oh no baby, don’t be that guy. Nidia says he has an asshole image but it’s just a huge front because of his past girlfriends hurting him. He tells her he’s trying to stay out of relationships now, she replies by saying he seems like a really nice guy.

Jason is on the phone with his mom, asking about his knee and his mind. He doesn’t know how his mind is, then tells us he never saw it from the other side of the camera and it’s been a battle. He tells his mom he started packing his bags this morning, but then stopped. “What the hell am I going to do?” Commercial.

Nidia and Chris are in the hot tub, Nidia edging a rubber duckie to his face with her foot while massaging his foot. They have a thumb war and then start play-wrestling in the hot tub, as happens. Nidia tells him she doesn’t want her head pushed underwater, then tells us via confessional footage that she knew he wasn’t going to stop so she does it on her own. He grabs her head and holds it underwater, laughing as he comes back up. She walks off angrily, telling us that he didn’t respect what she was telling him. Chris: “If you get too close to me if you’re a girl, you need to back up a little bit.” Oh no. Chris, no. I hope he’s grown up at some point because he’s all the red flags. Nidia tells us she is distancing herself from him because she does not like those games.

It’s the next day as the recruits are sleepy. Jason is making eggs, saying he wants to go to the camp but keeps thinking about what Triple H says. He says he can get married in six months and be happy forever.

Chris Nowinski, appearing for the first time this episode besides being a background player, is cuddled on the couch with Nidia talking. Other Chris is watching them from the computer across the room, telling us that there is tension whenever he and Nidia are near. I WONDER WHY. She says she isn’t going to call him an asshole because he’s trying to be a person he isn’t.

Big John walks in, asking how the crew are doing. Jason asks to speak to him alone and they go upstairs. John says it is exactly as Triple H said, and Jason says he doesn’t want to live that life. They shake hands as acoustic guitar plays and Jason packs up. Norwinski appreciates that he wants to get married soon, but that’s just not how he looks at life. He says it’s a shame for his career opportunities. Darryl says he’s happy because it increases his odds of winning. Darryl, it doesn’t my friend. Maven thinks that Jason is a great guy. Jason says he chased his dream but realized it wasn’t his dream.

Nowinski says the others had a gut check with this – “I didn’t, I already made up my mind” as we pull back up at Trax. WWF Superstar Al Snow drags away Jason’s chair, thinking that this might become a weekly thing. Paulina wonders if she deserves to be here as we watch training footage with the coaches. Bobbie Jo questions if she really wants this.

On-Screen Text: “During the May 21st episode of WWF Raw, Triple H suffered a career-threatening leg injury. Surgery revealed a severely ruptured left quadricep. He will be out of action for six months. Despite the injury, Triple H finished the match.” End episode.

Now this was a good episode of wrestling-based reality television! The Triple H stuff was really great, and his speech hit well. The Goldberg stuff was a little much, but it was clearly an all-on assault of Goldberg on Tough Enough season one as he was the biggest character threat to WWF’s popularity at the time. The Nidia/Chris interaction was good reality TV, it reminded me of why I latched onto Nidia when I originally watched and Chris quickly because the douche of all douches.

And now, we say goodbye to Jason Dayberry. It looks like he did indeed leave wrestling when he left the show, as I can’t find any record of matches. According to a 2017 article, he became an elementary school teacher and a professional bodybuilder. He has a profile on a site called USAMuscle which has plenty of competition pictures, including coming in tenth in a 2006 National Championship.

Next time on Tough Enough: The episode is titled “The Billionaire Princess” and the episode preview on Peacock spoils departures.