Which 1st Season was Better?

[badnewzxl]

Can I also point out that this season of Tough Enough was NOT the first season, lol. Though it is VERY easy to forget Maven....

[cero2k]

AND building a character by having the contestants cut a promo on Big Bill.

you really can't compare cutting a promo on a guy that's not that amazing cutting promos against standing in the middle of the RAW ring and cutting a promo along with Jericho, Punk, Cole, etc.

[Rabid619]

Can I also point out that this season of Tough Enough was NOT the first season, lol. Though it is VERY easy to forget Maven....

Well its the restarted 1st season. Thats why i put (2011) in poll.

you really can't compare cutting a promo on a guy that's not that amazing cutting promos against standing in the middle of the RAW ring and cutting a promo along with Jericho, Punk, Cole, etc.

They also did the tour bus where they had to use what they had to keep the people entertained and stuff. Thats how they worked on public speaking and how to put a little something extra into it. Sure it's not cutting a promo with Punk, which no one in the 1st season of NXT did, but TE's challenges were a hell of a lot better than running up and down stairs then drinking soda. Plus when they did the promos it wasnt just the trainers grading them, they were being graded by THE GREAT ONE!!! Who better than the Rock to tell you if you sucked or if you were awesome on the mic. He did more hands on stuff than i ever saw an NXT pro do and he was on TE for 1 episode.

[cero2k]

They also did the tour bus where they had to use what they had to keep the people entertained and stuff. Thats how they worked on public speaking and how to put a little something extra into it. Sure it's not cutting a promo with Punk, which no one in the 1st season of NXT did, but TE's challenges were a hell of a lot better than running up and down stairs then drinking soda. Plus when they did the promos it wasnt just the trainers grading them, they were being graded by THE GREAT ONE!!! Who better than the Rock to tell you if you sucked or if you were awesome on the mic. He did more hands on stuff than i ever saw an NXT pro do and he was on TE for 1 episode.

Dark Cena promoed along with Punk, Barrett with Jericho, Dragon with Miz and Cole...to a live audience that are ready to see Cena and Orton, again, it's hard to compare that to the bus thing.

[Rabid619]

Dark Cena promoed along with Punk, Barrett with Jericho, Dragon with Miz and Cole...to a live audience that are ready to see Cena and Orton, again, it's hard to compare that to the bus thing.

This bus bit doesnt compare to a Live Audience, true....BUT think of how nervous you would be if you had to cut a promo and be graded by the Rock. One of if not THE best at cutting a promo.

[KILLdozer]

Dark Cena promoed along with Punk, Barrett with Jericho, Dragon with Miz and Cole...to a live audience that are ready to see Cena and Orton, again, it's hard to compare that to the bus thing.

This bus bit doesnt compare to a Live Audience, true....BUT think of how nervous you would be if you had to cut a promo and be graded by the Rock. One of if not THE best at cutting a promo.

i wouldnt be cause im confident in my ability :p

[Bob-O]

They stated in the beginning that the pros would take various factors into account, including win-loss record (which was why it was so kayfabe controversial when Dragon came out ranked on top, despite not winning), difficulty of opponents, performance in challenges, attitude, and other things like that.

Correct, but they NEVER EVER revealed HOW exactly these rankings came about. They kept track of Wins and Losses and gave semi-annual rankings that often times contradicted the ONLY FACTS we were presented with, obviously so the writers could rank these guys however the hell they wanted. They kept the most intriguing part of the show a virtual mystery. They had the right idea when they did the vignettes with the pros giving their opinions on random rookies - but on a show like this, they should have been doing this for every contestant EVERY WEEK. Every ranking they gave was wide open to interpretation and speculation, while over on TE it was no surprise who wound up in the Bottom Three, how they got there, and what they needed to do moving forward to avoid it again. When somebody went home on TE, it wasn't because "I don't know, I guess the trainers didn't like him or something...", Stone Cold spent 10 minutes telling them (and us) why.

It all goes back to format. TE had an established, firm, structure to how things were going to work, and they never really settled on a solid format for NXT. This was admitted a few times in different interviews throughout the season, and I think it showed. While I did enjoy NXT 1, I write pages on what I think they did wrong and what I'd do differently. I wouldn't have changed a thing about TE, for the purpose of the show I think they hit a home run.

If for anything else, TE might have sent home M-Dog a bit early, but NXT had Daniel Bryan lose to Chris Jericho then had Jericho job it up to Heath Slater 4 weeks later. Meaning Slater > Jericho > Dragon. Not down with that. :p

[Big Red Machine]

They stated in the beginning that the pros would take various factors into account, including win-loss record (which was why it was so kayfabe controversial when Dragon came out ranked on top, despite not winning), difficulty of opponents, performance in challenges, attitude, and other things like that.

Correct, but they NEVER EVER revealed HOW exactly these rankings came about. They kept track of Wins and Losses and gave semi-annual rankings that often times contradicted the ONLY FACTS we were presented with, obviously so the writers could rank these guys however the hell they wanted. They kept the most intriguing part of the show a virtual mystery. They had the right idea when they did the vignettes with the pros giving their opinions on random rookies - but on a show like this, they should have been doing this for every contestant EVERY WEEK. Every ranking they gave was wide open to interpretation and speculation, while over on TE it was no surprise who wound up in the Bottom Three, how they got there, and what they needed to do moving forward to avoid it again. When somebody went home on TE, it wasn't because "I don't know, I guess the trainers didn't like him or something...", Stone Cold spent 10 minutes telling them (and us) why.

I disagree about the every week thing. NXT is in real-time. It is live. Divide TV time up between eight rookies... how much of an improvement could a pro really see between each and every week (especially if you take up time in the show by having each pro evaluate every rookie). Having it be a big deal that happened every couple of weeks was much better.

As for the rankings being open to speculation: So what? I don't see why that is a problem. On Tough Enough, you knew the reason for everything because only one person's opinion mattered. What kind of way is that to determine who will go far and who won't. Hell... take Austin himself as an example of this!

On NXT it was obvious why someone was eliminated: They weren't doing well enough. There isn't much for the pros to say about it. All of the eliminations would be "you weren't winning enough matches and/or challenges"... which should have been obvious, or else that person would have been eliminated.

It all goes back to format. TE had an established, firm, structure to how things were going to work, and they never really settled on a solid format for NXT. This was admitted a few times in different interviews throughout the season, and I think it showed. While I did enjoy NXT 1, I write pages on what I think they did wrong and what I'd do differently. I wouldn't have changed a thing about TE, for the purpose of the show I think they hit a home run.

If for anything else, TE might have sent home M-Dog a bit early, but NXT had Daniel Bryan lose to Chris Jericho then had Jericho job it up to Heath Slater 4 weeks later. Meaning Slater > Jericho > Dragon. Not down with that. :p

Did NXT make mistakes? Yes. But that has nothing to do with why I (or Badnewz, or many others) thought NXT was much better than Tough Enough. Tough Enough was not a wrestling show. It was reality TV. Like Badnewz said, no one wants to watch a team practice, they want to watch a game. Tough Enough wasn't exciting.

[Rabid619]

As for the rankings being open to speculation: So what? I don't see why that is a problem. On Tough Enough, you knew the reason for everything because only one person's opinion mattered. What kind of way is that to determine who will go far and who won't. Hell... take Austin himself as an example of this!

Stone Cold talked over who would be eliminated with the trainers so thats usually 3 other people, sometimes two. It wasn't just his decision. He was the head guy, yes BUT it wasn't just him randomly deciding who would stay and who would go. They talked about it constantly, who did what they had to and who just plain sucked.

Like Badnewz said, no one wants to watch a team practice, they want to watch a game. Tough Enough wasn't exciting.

Thats a matter of opinion on both your parts. Some people actually do like that stuff, you may not have liked to see how they do things like teach how to take a bump or successfully perform a series of moves BUT others do. People, including myself found Tough Enough to be exciting. Seeing how they teach the stuff to these kids i found entertaining.

[Big Red Machine]

As for the rankings being open to speculation: So what? I don't see why that is a problem. On Tough Enough, you knew the reason for everything because only one person's opinion mattered. What kind of way is that to determine who will go far and who won't. Hell... take Austin himself as an example of this!

Stone Cold talked over who would be eliminated with the trainers so thats usually 3 other people, sometimes two. It wasn't just his decision. He was the head guy, yes BUT it wasn't just him randomly deciding who would stay and who would go. They talked about it constantly, who did what they had to and who just plain sucked.

And the pros kayfabe did the same thing, too, in their huddles. NXT wasn't about WHY people were eliminated. It was pretty obvious why. NXT was about the storylines.

Like Badnewz said, no one wants to watch a team practice, they want to watch a game. Tough Enough wasn't exciting.

Thats a matter of opinion on both your parts. Some people actually do like that stuff, you may not have liked to see how they do things like teach how to take a bump or successfully perform a series of moves BUT others do. People, including myself found Tough Enough to be exciting. Seeing how they teach the stuff to these kids i found entertaining.

Fair enough

[Verdun]

I liked NXT more because it made me care about the people in it.

I cared about the skill of Gabriel.
I cared about the character Wade Barrett.
I was rooting for underdog Daniel Bryan.
I felt marginally sympathetic for Skip Sheffield.
I legitimately wanted to see Darren Young and David Otunga get their faces smashed.

[Bob-O]

how much of an improvement could a pro really see between each and every week (especially if you take up time in the show by having each pro evaluate every rookie). Having it be a big deal that happened every couple of weeks was much better.

They had PLENTY of time to air the opinions of the Pros, but they chose to fill that time with the same Raw Recap that we were going to see on Superstars and Smackdown and pointless matches of Pro vs Pro. While I agree that reassessing the rankings EVERY week might be a bit much, it would have been nice to have an idea of HOW each pro voted. We don't even know if the Pros RANKED the rookies or just voted for one. The show was determined by a "Pro's Poll" that was left a mystery. I hold a bitterness towards NXT due to all the wasted potential.

As for Reality vs Wrestling, it's all a matter of taste. I like to know that Big Andy has a daughter at home. I'll remember this years from now and I'll support him as a character more-so because of this. I wanted Luke to lose SO MUCH MORE because he legit is one of those guys that I don't see eye to eye with in real life. Jeremiah is a respectable dude that I will mark the eff out for if he ever shows up on my TV again.

Season 1 of NXT, however, did turn me back on to WWE's developmental system. I caught OVW's shows every chance I got, and found that FCW's shows are way better than NXT will ever be, often time more entertaining than Raw! Good storylines featuring guys that are the future of the company, you know, everything NXT is supposed to be.

[Big Red Machine]

how much of an improvement could a pro really see between each and every week (especially if you take up time in the show by having each pro evaluate every rookie). Having it be a big deal that happened every couple of weeks was much better.

As for Reality vs Wrestling, it's all a matter of taste. I like to know that Big Andy has a daughter at home. I'll remember this years from now and I'll support him as a character more-so because of this. I wanted Luke to lose SO MUCH MORE because he legit is one of those guys that I don't see eye to eye with in real life. Jeremiah is a respectable dude that I will mark the eff out for if he ever shows up on my TV again.

Most of this could have been done on NXT (or any worked show), too. The things that turn me off about it are things like watching people learn how to take bumps, etc.

Season 1 of NXT, however, did turn me back on to WWE's developmental system. I caught OVW's shows every chance I got, and found that FCW's shows are way better than NXT will ever be, often time more entertaining than Raw! Good storylines featuring guys that are the future of the company, you know, everything NXT is supposed to be.

I agree that FCW is better than NXT, but NXT trued to do something much different than FCW. FCW can be a regular wrestling show, no different from Raw, SD, or Impact. NXT, because of its premise, cannot.