BLAH

There is just SO MUCH hard hitting news that we shouldn't waste any time. Say, are you a fan of the Tough Enough? Me too.

• About 3 weeks into the taping of TE3, one of the contestants (Lisa) had what her doctors later called a "psychotic breakdown". She was left alone at the house while the rest of the cast went out to party, and she literally began bouncing off the walls and even got her way into the MTV control room.
  
  Then she made it up onto the roof of the house and threatened to jump. MTV called Big and said he needed to come back, and he and others were able to talk her down. She got put in the hospital for a few days and was straight-jacketed during part of her stay in order to protect her from herself.
  
  When she was released her parents had to fly in to pick her up, but she attacked her parents at the airport and claimed she didn't know who they were. She ended up running through the airport, breaking the window of a rental car, and causing an entire wing of LAX to be shut down until she was found. She was put back in the hospital, but she checked herself out after doctors said she wasn't a danger to anyone.
  
  Then she called Tough Enough to say she was "okay now" and ready to come back, but shockingly she had been removed from the show. She didn't seem to understand why she wouldn't be taken back.
  
  MTV and WWE decided that they weren't going to cover the situation. They didn't want to scare the rest of the cast by telling them what had happened, and they wanted to make sure Lisa's privacy was protected since she's clearly insane in the membrane. Since the rest of the cast was away from the house when she went crazy, they were just told that she'd decided the show "wasn't for her" and had left.
  
  But wanting to protect her privacy became impossible. Since leaving the show she's made many attempts... most of them successful... at passing herself off as a TE contestant or an assistant to Al or Big. A few weeks ago she went to OVW's training center and talked her way into working out with other students, saying said she'd been sent there by Al and Big for more training.
  
  Then after WWE's recent shows in California they had to start telling wrestlers and security about the situation and warn them not to associate with this girl. She'd been seen hanging out with some wrestlers, having convinced them that she was part of Tough Enough. She got backstage at the show in San Jose and helped the guys doing pyro for ring entrances. One source says a story is going around that she even had a conversation with Vince, who didn't think anything about it because she presents herself so well. Her picture has now been passed out to security.
  
  Lisa apparently had no history of mental illness. The TE3 contestants went through a much more thorough evaluation process than the first two seasons, perhaps due to Hawk breaking down last time. Doctors told MTV and WWE that it's not uncommon for a girl in her 20's under great stress to suffer such a breakdown. She didn't show any warning signs of being at risk for this behavior. Some of the other contestants thought she was "odd", but nothing that caused any concern. She had been doing okay in the training sessions up to that point.
  
  MTV has no plans to air the footage or draw any attention to what happened. She probably won't be heavily featured in the footage of the early training.
  
  
• Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Tommy Dreamer, Chris Benoit, Lance Storm, and Rey Mysterio are among the wrestlers who visit the cast this season.
  
  
• One contestant bluffed her way onto the show, saying she'd dreamed of being a WWF superstar all her life, but later admitted that wasn't the case and that seemingly she'd just lied to get on TV. This led to Big really losing his temper for the first time, upset that the girl ended up costing someone else a chance at their actual dream.
  
  
• The house they lived in is in the mountains overlooking Kelsey Grammar's house. You might recall how he booted them out of "his" neighborhood early in the filming. People say the house is by far the nicest house in the history of MTV reality shows.
  
  
• About 200 indy wrestlers sent in tapes. No word on if any made the final 13, but at least one made the final 25. About 6000 total tapes were received.
  
  
• There is apparently "a jaw-dropping shocker" at the end of the season.
  
  
• The winners haven't been picked yet, as always. This year viewers will get to vote on-line who they think should win, although the trainers will still make the decision. But the votes could help them see who the fans are behind.
  
  
• JR seemed to be right on the money when he described that the male contestants were better than the females this year. People say the finalists this season include some potential stars. Aside from the training and regular workouts in the mountains, this season the cast also took drama classes to help with interviews and character development.
  
  
• Hugh Morrus is getting rave reviews as a trainer. He's even harder than Tazz or Bob Holly, but he's also apparently a really good teacher. Ivory was also back again.
  
  
• The contestants are said to be interesting people, but without the baggage that previous "interesting" people have had. Except for Lisa, I guess.
  
  
• Al Snow chipped a tooth during their trip to Iceland. Al asked for several weeks off from WWE after the tapings ended so he could relax a bit and tend to some business at home.

• Bob Holly will have to take time off. The injury he got when Brock dropped him on his head has gotten worse. Bob was briefly knocked out after the botched powerbomb, but he signaled to the ref that he could continue. Since then he's shown signs of post-concussion syndrome, as well as other head and neck pain, and possible neurological problems. One colleague said "He just hasn't looked like himself lately. But Bob is the type to ignore pain and work through an injury as long as he can."
  
  The Brock/Bob match has been the subject of heavy locker room talk, since it didn't seem that Bob being dropped on his head was an accident. Brock seemed to "give up" on lifting Bob, or Bob seemed to be "sandbagging" Brock during the move to make it harder for Brock to lift him. Either way, it ended up bad for Bob. Holly is known as a "go-to" guy for management to initiate a new wrestler off the record... check his threshold for pain, see how he'll react to working stiff, that sort of thing. Bob will lay the chops in stiff, but he knows not to cross the line and he never tries to cause injury.
  
  Bob has denied that he was trying to make Brock look bad, but other wrestlers watching it thought Bob was trying to teach Brock the lesson that without his opponents helping Brock wouldn't look nearly as good. There doesn't seem to be a feeling that Brock hurt Bob intentionally, but that he likely dropped Bob out of confusion and not knowing how to react when he couldn't lift him.
  
  
• Some mid and lower card guys think HHH and Taker have too much "stroke", as they say. Some have a running joke of counting how many TV segments each guy has. They don't like the rumors of Hunter having people's pushes killed if they get too hot, and there's still heat on both guys for the pep talk business a while back.
  
  Taker's status as "locker room leader" has taken a big hit over the past year, with the final straw for many being how Taker reacted to the Unforgiven finish. Sources say when presented with the initial finish of taking a cheap pin from Brock, Taker simply said "I'm not feeling it" and that's about all it took for it to get changed.
  
  Vince trusts Taker and feels loyalty to him for never jumping to WCW. What Vince may not know, however, is that sources say Undertaker did contact WCW shortly after Hall and Nash gave notice to see what kind of offer they'd make him. Negotiations never got serious because Bischoff didn't know what to do with Mark Calloway without the Undertaker gimmick. Nevertheless, Taker continues getting his way.
  
  
• For a while WWE.com had a picture of Jackie with her booby popped out, from when she was dancing while Union Underground played.
  
  
• OVW observers say nobody there is really good enough to make a major impact on WWE. Doug Basham is considered the best of the bunch, but his look and his size won't turn him into anything special. Rene Dupre looks like the most likely prime time playa of the future, but he's only 18 and thus a long-term project.
  
  
• Jeff Hardy was six hours late to Unforgiven.
  
  
• Rosey and Jamal have quickly gotten a reputation for not protecting opponents, going back to the stiff kick Loony Lane took. In the development circles Jamal earned himself a rep for being immature and not having much passion for the business, but Rosey has gotten good reviews.

• There was some feeling that the Taker/Brock finish was received so poorly because the guys weren't going at it aggressively when the bell rang. They were supposed to but both guys were tired and the ref just called for the bell.
  
  
• Several companies in Japan are interested in Mike Awesome now that he's been released. Johnny Ace is trying to find Shawn Stasiak work there, as well.
  
  
• Johnny Ace went to bat to get Terry Taylor his tryout as an agent. No decision has been reached as to what will happen with him. Vince yelled at Terry for his part in working with the Chavo/Rikishi match where the camera was used, as Vince wants the wrestlers to go back to using holds and working over a body part.
  
  
• After Unforgiven but before Smackdown there was a meeting about the No Mercy main event and Paul Heyman suggested that Benoit challenge Lesnar, even though Undertaker's issue wasn't finished. Terry Taylor suggested the Hell in a Cell.
  
  
• Vince has been stressing to agents and writers that he wants new ideas and doesn't want them rehashing old storylines.
  
  
• Little Guido of ECW fame got dark match tryouts at the TV tapings.

• Correction: Two weeks ago the Torch erroneously reported that TNA would have to wait another 3 months to get out of their deal with In Demand. Actually, they have a window at the end of every month to end the deal. But allowing their 3 month window at the end of September to pass means that InDemand has them scheduled through December, and if they opt out before the next 3 month roll-over... meaning while they're still scheduled for shows... then they'll take much higher financial penalties.
  
  
• Phase Three, who designed the logos for Jarrett Sports Entertainment and TNA, sued JSE and InDemand and DirecTV. The suit says they were never paid for their services. Sources say the Jarretts are claiming that Jay Hassman set up the deal with Phase Three without authorization. Phase Three used to do similar work for WCW.
  
  
• The Jarretts declined to protest the motion to move the Hassman suit into federal court, so that's where it's heading.
  
  
• Cable industry sources estimate the buyrates are still between 20,000 and 25,000.
  
  
• TNA sources "whisper" that Road Dogg's story about getting in a car accident was just a way to get out of working indy shows without getting himself a "no show" reputation. He's apparently used the same excuse in the past.

BLAH