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Would John Hennigan be the greatest Tough Enough alum? Are there any other contestants from the shows who are still active as in-ring competitors? Seeing as how most of the TE winners didn't last in the business, do you think there's a feeling in WWE management the show was a waste of time?
While John Morrison certainly has had a great run coming out of WWF Tough Enough series, there were and are a number of talents who came through that series who later worked for WWE or had runs elsewhere, including Miz, Matt Morgan, Kenny King, Nidia and Maven Huffman. I've never ever heard that WWE believed the original concept was a mistake, especially since the most recent version brought them Mandy Rose, The Velveteen Dream and Sonya Deville, among others. Nothing is a mistake when it helped WWE find talents they wanted to hire. The goal was to create talent, not a WWE Champion. There are a lot of talents who should be proud of their run in the company. If you get cast in a supporting role, your job is to be a supporting character. Not everyone gets to be the star of the movie.
How and when did the original format Tough Enough format morph into the NXT of today?
Tough Enough was never NXT, nor did one turn into the other. You are likely thinking of the original incarnation of NXT, which replaced ECW on SyFy as a hybrid reality TV and competition series, which introduced audiences to Daniel Bryan, Wade Barrett, AJ Lee, Kaitlyn, Heath Slater, Curtis Axel, Titus O'Neil, Bray Wyatt (as Husky Harris), Naomi, Fandango, EC3, etc. among others. It allowed some to become main roster characters and allowed others to figure out what worked and what didn't so they could retool themselves. NXT, in its current form, was launched by Triple H as a way to bring all things WWE developmental under one roof and in one location - Orlando, with the series airing initially on Hulu before migrating to the WWE Network.
Is 205 Live out the door? First they cut the show in half and now it's all best of crap!
205 Live returns to "live action" with tonight's broadcast on the WWE Network but it's apparent that the show is below even WWE Main Event on the list of importance. I know that the show brings in some revenue to the company via streaming deals but it's obvious that any plans to launch it as a separate touring entity were abandoned a long time ago. Oddly, once the show was shifted under the purview of the NXT team, it seemed to become even less of a priority, and I don't understand how THAT can be.
What are NXT stars doing if they can't work out in the Performance Center?
They are in the same position as all of us, trying to find ways to keep from going stir crazy and waiting for some semblance of normalcy to return.
Whatever happened to Abyss? I don't remember him announcing he was done as a wrestler.
He works as a Producer on the Raw brand and quietly retired, unofficially, when he was hired. I'd love to see WWE give him a cameo on a Royal Rumble or a Wrestlemania Battle Royal down the line so he can have at least one official WWE appearance before calling it a day.
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